Articles

Pay, Pensions Have Police Up In Arms

Steve Visser, AJC Staff
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
February 5, 2004

A police union is putting up billboards around Atlanta: "Welcome to Atlanta: Protected by some of the lowest-paid police officers in the country."

"We want to make sure the public is aware of what is going on at City Hall," said Scott Kreher, president of the local International Brotherhood of Police Officers, which will erect 13 of the signs by Monday.

Cops griping about pay is nothing new. But Atlanta officers are on the warpath, saying low pay and less-than-desirable pensions are making it hard to recruit new officers and retain the experienced ones.

On Thursday, union officers met with Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and Chief Richard Pennington, but Kreher said he didn't make much headway. The union plans to lobby City Council members to get either more money or improved pensions. The council is expected to approve its budget for 2004 on Feb. 16.

Two police unions -- the International Brotherhood of Police Officers and the Police Benevolent Association -- say Atlanta loses 100 officers a year through attrition, with many younger officers hopping to better-paying metro area departments or heading on to other cities. Assistant Police Chief Alan Dreher puts the attrition number closer to 75. But everyone agrees it's a problem.

"I don't like meeting so many new police officers [on the street]," said retired Deputy Chief Lou Archangeli. "I like meeting guys who have a few years of experience because they know our community."

Lt. Dan Rasmussen, who oversees the evening watch in the precinct that includes Midtown and downtown as well as interstate accidents, says he has eight to 10 patrol officers on any given night, each handling 12 to 20 calls. "Accidents are very time-consuming, and I need more people on my shift, there is no doubt about it. I'm really hurting," Rasmussen said.

He said the city is not hiring as people leave. "The attrition rate is terrible and we're not keeping up," he said. "You have a big investment in these people and you want to keep them. It takes a year before you know what you're doing and we have people leaving after two or three years."

The Reynoldstown and Cabbagetown areas have lost experienced beat patrol officers because of pay issues, said Craig Diehl, secretary of the Reynoldstown City Improvement League. "And we had some high-quality officers," he said. "We have always supported them getting more pay."

Kreher blasted the mayor for not carrying through on a promise to get starting salaries up to $38,000. "This is her third budget year and she has done nothing to raise salaries," he said. The starting salary is $32,783.

Franklin says she is committed to a $38,000 starting salary, but she said police have to understand they're not the only city employees who have seen their salaries frozen. She said she got a 3 percent to 4 percent raise last year for officers who were in line for a salary upgrade. That was the first raise since 1998, she said.

The budget being considered by the council includes a 2 percent across-the-board cost-of-living increase for cops.

"We need to get the salaries up, there is no question, but I do not believe that we can do it overnight," Franklin said. "Police officers are people we're concerned about, but they're not the only employees we're concerned about."

According to PolicePay.net, a Web site dedicated to police pay and benefits, Atlanta ranks about 5 percent below average in police salaries and benefits among the nation's 200 largest cities. Atlanta ranks 122 in pay when a cost-of-living difference is calculated. The city ranks 156 out of 200 in salary and benefits if not adjusted for cost-of-living.

The city has about 1,479 sworn officers. City officials want to add 253 to fill all 1,732 current positions. They are looking to an accelerated program aimed at recruiting certified officers from other police departments and considering increasing the size of police academy training classes. That would still leave the department short of its previously sought strength of more than 1,800.

Pennington says the department needs 2,000 officers to answer the calls the city receives, and he has lobbied for better pay and equipment.

Pennington wants to add 11 beats for a total of 67, which would require about 48 more officers, said department spokesman Sgt. John Quigley.

The Police Department is reviewing 40 applications from officers who were laid off in Cleveland, where patrol officers' salaries start at about $42,000 and top out at about $49,000 annually. Officers accepted would be in line for the department's first abbreviated training program for already-certified officers. The program starts in March.

The department last week graduated 24 rookies. Police officials want to nearly double the size of training classes to get cops on the street more quickly, Quigley said.

Police union leaders say Atlanta is unlikely to have a steady police force of 1,700 when the department is especially vulnerable to losing patrol officers to metro departments with better pay. Even if Atlanta matches or exceeds a nearby department's starting pay -- which it does in some cases for college-educated rookies -- the suburban departments still have higher top-out pay for patrol officers and, in some cases, better pensions, said Richard Straut, president of the Atlanta chapter of the Police Benevolent Association.

DeKalb County has a top annual pay of $57,000 for a patrol officer while Atlanta tops out at $44,000, Straut said. "They're [$13,000] ahead of us," said Straut.

Atlanta Councilman H. Lamar Willis said police have to be realistic when residents have seen taxes leap and sewer rates jump to resolve Atlanta's budgetary mess.

"No one would argue that they should be paid comparable to those in the region," said Willis. "There has to be reasonableness. The thing some of the officers have to realize is, it didn't take us two years to get in this mess and it's not going to take us two years to get out of it."

Said Willis, "We've already raised taxes about as much as we can on the citizens of Atlanta."

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