RED SPRINGS — Town leaders are working to address the shortage of Red Springs Police Department officers that has strained its budget and left one sergeant and one officer covering each work shift.
Police Chief Ronnie Patterson requested help during a Jan. 7 Board of Commissioners meeting, telling the commissioners the department is understaffed and has been paying officers overtime pay for extra shift work, while salaried employees work 12-hour shifts with no overtime pay.
The department has paid $42,000 in overtime pay in six months, Finance Director Sharon McFarland said.
Town Manager David Ashburn met with McFarland and Human Resources Officer Annette Bryant to review the police department’s financial status and determine its ability to hire more officers. They found that the department had $50,000 in its budget for the current fiscal year that can be used to hire two officers.
“By all means, if we get more officers, we eliminate overtime and it’s not putting more strain on upper management,” Patterson said.
The department currently has 12 officers, which is five short of fully staffed. Two of those officers are school resource officers, leaving the department with 10 for patrol duty during the school year. The department’s three auxiliary officers can only work for 12 hours a week before the department has to pay them.
Two officers will join the force at the start of February after necessary paperwork and certifications are complete, Patterson said. One of those officers comes with 20 years of law enforcement experience.
“That’s our hope,” Maj. Kimothy Monroe. “They’re in the process of being hired.”
Where the town would normally pay someone $15 an hour, it is paying a detective or long-time officer $25 an hour plus time-and-a-half to cover extra shifts.
Patterson is hiring experienced officers who start above the budgeted base pay rate for police officers, which also contributes to financial strain, Ashburn said. The department’s fiscal year 2019-20 budget has money for 17 officers, each with a base pay of $15 an hour.
There are a number of reasons why he has had issues finding and keeping officers, the police chief said. Some applicants do not meet set requirements or fit the needs of the department.
“The young generation, they don’t look at longevity,” he said. “A lot of them are leaving because of more money.”
Patterson said the department has struggled with staffing issues for about three years. But, he said, the staffing issue is not only a problem in Red Springs.
“Every chief that I’ve talked to, they’re having the same issues across the state,” he said.
The public’s perception of law enforcement has changed, and younger officers are not filling the positions left vacant by retired law enforcement, he said.
“A lot of people don’t respect officers,” Patterson said.
The Red Springs Police Department offers a number of incentives to its officers, he said. Those include a 5% increase in pay after six months, the chance for advancement and driving police cars to and from work. The department also takes trips to sporting events, and hosts cookouts and family events for its officers.
Patterson is working on providing longevity pay to officers, which would allow them to earn a higher wage the longer they stay.
In 2019, the department was under a hiring freeze from January to May because of the town’s financial problems.
The town received more than $1 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in June to pay for repairs of damage caused by Hurricane Matthew in October 2016. That money shifted the town’s cash flow in a positive direction, Ashburn said.
The town had to use reserve funds to continue its operations.
