Articles

Despite Raises, Atlanta Police Pay Still Lags

Tasgola Karla Bruner, AJC Staff
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
August 4, 2003

Wearing white gloves, fresh blue uniforms and eager expressions, the latest graduating class from the Atlanta Police Academy listened to Police Chief Richard Pennington.

His 6-foot-4 frame gave him an imposing air, but his words were gentle:

"We want you to know you're family now," Pennington said from a City Council podium during the July 24 graduation. "We're going to take care of you."

With a starting annual salary of $32,783, new members of the Atlanta police family are a little poorer than their cousins across the country.

In a survey of salaries as of Aug. 1 by PolicePay.net Inc., a financial consulting firm for police unions, Atlanta's starting salary was ranked 170th among the country's 200 largest cities.

The three highest-ranked starting salaries for police agencies, adjusted for local cost of living: North Las Vegas, Nev., with $44,947; Henderson, Nev., with $44,903; and Pittsburgh, with $35,082. The other Georgia cities that made the list are Columbus, 159th with $25,023; Augusta, 186th with $25,103; and Savannah, 190th with $27,052.

Salary wasn't a priority for rookie police Officer Justin Andresen, 23, who graduated from the Atlanta Police Academy in that July 24 ceremony. He knew that there were other police departments with better salaries, but he knew he would get the best experience at the Atlanta Police Department.

"There's better-paying jobs, but if you don't get the satisfaction, it's not going to do much for you," he said. "I'd rather go to work happy knowing I'm doing something I love, rather than going just to make money."

Pennington, who said he would tackle salary problems when he became chief a year ago, has vowed to fight for more money for his force as he prepares to submit his department's 2004 budget request this month.

But even as his officers begin to receive their first salary increase in two years, they're finding little hope for improvement.

The 3.8 percent average increase began appearing in paychecks two weeks ago. It is being given to officers with at least one year with the department and who received a favorable evaluation. Officers hadn't received an increase since 2001 due to the city's financial woes.

While any increase is viewed by officers as better than no increase at all, police say it will have little effect on morale.

Dennis Hammock, regional director of the Atlanta office of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, says police aren't going to hang around "for a few pennies here and there."

Hammock said the new pay increase will be swallowed up by higher insurance premiums. City officials say insurance premiums have increased an average of about 20 percent this year.

City officials say the average police salary is about $40,000 a year. With an average 3.8 percent increase for officers, that would mean an average of about $1,520 more money this year.

Mark Zukowski, 36, a police officer in Zone 3, which patrols southeast Atlanta, expects to get the increase in October, the anniversary of his hiring date.

For him, the increase is not as important as the principle behind it.

"It's not going to make a huge difference in my lifestyle," he said. "It's more that I was told when I got hired that I would get this increase." The department, with about 1,500 sworn officers, is authorized by the city to have a little more than 1,600 officers, but new hires haven't kept pace with openings created by officers who left the department.

Police are marketable
Police spokesman Sgt. John Quigley said Chief Pennington is considering having a lateral transfer program. Under that change, law enforcement officers from other jurisdictions would be allowed to bring their experience and reduce the 26 weeks of training required by 50 percent or more, Quigley said.

Rick Anderson, Atlanta's chief financial officer, concedes that while the slowed economy may be keeping some city employees from taking a risk to search for new jobs, police are very marketable and may have more job options.

But at least Atlanta police haven't lost jobs, he said, pointing out that more than 700 city employees have been laid off since January 2002.

"You could certainly make the argument that police, while they haven't had increases, they are only one of two or three departments [in city government] that haven't had actual layoffs," Anderson said.

That's not good enough for 22-year veteran Harry Oquendo, an officer at the Hartsfield International Airport zone. He won't see more money starting this month because he "topped out" 11 years ago, meaning he reached the top of his pay grade for his job title. A total of 22.7 percent of police have topped out, say city officials.

Oquendo wants an across-the-board salary increase for officers. The last time he remembers receiving one was about four or five years ago. He said Atlanta police have "no morale" and will leave if pay doesn't improve.

"Experienced officers will retire and take their pensions. Younger officers will use the Atlanta Police Department as a steppingstone," he said.

Meetings with mayor
Police say they feel frustrated. They say that when they join the department, they are told to expect a salary increase every year for at least 10 years if they meet standards. When an increment is frozen, as it was after 2001, it is not regained later. That means police have to spend longer than 10 years to "top out" or reach the top of their pay grade, union officials say.

Chief Pennington recognizes that salary affects morale and that more competitive salaries in metro Atlanta are a threat to his department. He has vowed to work for improvement.

"We don't want to lose good men and women to surrounding jurisdictions," he said. "I'm going to fight extremely hard to see about my officers getting a pay increase."

Pennington has until mid-August to submit his departmental budget requests to the city.

He wouldn't discuss details of his plans, but said he has been meeting with Mayor Shirley Franklin about a "potential pay increase," and he intends to meet with City Council members.

Chief well compensated
PolicePay.net Inc. ranks Pennington's $157,000 salary as the fourth-highest among chiefs in the largest 150 U.S. cities.

When asked to compare Pennington's ranking to his officers' 170th ranking, Anderson said:

"That sounds real bad, but that needs to be put in the perspective that Chief Pennington has just come in and the salary has been significantly upgraded. Obviously, upgrading the chief's salary is not as expensive as upgrading the rank-and-file salaries."

Anderson continued: "I think part of the mayor's approach and strategy is to get leadership in place first and have that leadership do the analysis and evaluation of what factors need to be changed in order to have the kind of police force that he wants." This would include salary issues, he added. .

Pennington's leadership can make a difference in getting more money for his officers, Anderson said, but there are limitations.

"The first consideration is how much money we have in the first place," he said.

Reprinted with permission from The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution. Further reproduction, retransmission or distribution of these materials without the prior written consent of The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution, and any copyright holder identified in the material's copyright notice, is prohibited.