With two major impediments out of the way, Police Chief Lee Vance hopes he’ll have an easier time filling the ranks of the Jackson Police Department (JPD).
Recently, the city council repealed residency requirements for police and firefighters.
As part of the city’s 2018 budget, the council also set aside funding for police recruit classes, meaning the department can again train new officers at the Jackson Police Training Academy.
The department had not received funding for new classes since 2014.
Instead of training new officers, JPD officials turned much of their attention to bringing on experienced officers from other agencies.
However, the department had a tough time bringing in those officers because of low pay and residency requirements.
Residency rules were relaxed in October, after Vance urged the council to reconsider the rules during budget hearings.
“Certainly, I am very sympathetic to the intentions of having people who work for the city live inside the city. Conceptually, it’s a good thing,” Vance said. “But as it stands right now, I think being able to get quality officers trumps where those officers reside.”
He said the department’s strategy for recruiting officers won’t change, but having the requirements removed certainly helps.
JPD still must compete with other out-of-state law enforcement agencies, like Dallas, Houston and Memphis, all of which recruit locally. But with the residency rules relaxed, he believes it will be easier to fill vacancies.
“The profession of law enforcement, especially in the southern part of the United States, is a very competitive field. Everybody has seen where the Dallas Police Department comes here to recruit. Houston comes here and Memphis comes here,” he said. “Everybody is looking for the same thing – quality individuals who can pass the stringent background requirements.
“For me, reducing the impediments toward that end is invaluable.”
Vance said Dallas, Houston and Memphis still offer higher pay, but argues the cost of living in those cities is also higher.
Starting salary for new recruits in Jackson is $25,900 a year during and right out of the academy. After six months, pay is increased to $26,375 and after a year, it is bumped up again to $31,000, he said.
Compared, Dallas pays $49,207 to new recruits with a high school diploma and $52,807 to those with a four-year college degree, the Dallas Police Department’s Web site states.
At the same time, rents for a 900-square-foot apartment range from $1,316 to $1,533 a month, according to Expatistan, an online cost-of-livings and salary calculator.
Compared, rents for a 900-square-foot dwelling in Jackson ranges from $961 to $1,375, the Web site states.
Even with higher salaries, only a fifth of Dallas’ police officers live in the city, according to a 2014 article in the Dallas Observer.
Dallas does not have a residency requirement, and only encourages municipal workers to live in the city limits.
Jackson’s residency ordinance was put in place in 2014, and remains in place for municipal employees outside of police and fire.
Under provisions of the original ordinance, all new hires had to reside in the capital city. If a sufficient number of applicants could not be found, a department could request permission from the administration to hire outside the city. However, any hire brought on from outside of Jackson has to move into the city within 12 months.
Those rules, coupled with no monies for training classes, caused the department’s ranks to shrink.
Last week, the department had 368 officers, down from 383 In July. The department ended fiscal year 2016 with 440 officers.
Vance discussed the shortages during the department’s budget hearing. At the meeting, the chief also urged the council to approve a 2.5-percent across-the-board pay raise for officers.
“We had a DUI unit. We no longer have a DUI unit. We had a quality of life unit. We had to shut that down and put those officers on the street,” Vance told the council previously. “We had a unit of bailiffs. We had eight in that unit, now we have four because (we) had to send those officers back to patrol.”
Part of the problem stemmed from Jackson being unable to find qualified applicants in the city limits.
Candidates must pass background checks, physicals, psychological exams and other requirements before being admitted to the training academy. Once they’re in the academy, recruits must complete up to 14 weeks of boot camp-style training before becoming officers.
One year, of the 1,100 applicants, only 38 qualified to enter the academy, Vance said.
Employees working for the city at the time the ordinance was passed were grandfathered in, meaning they could continue to live outside the corporate limits.
The ordinance was amended on a 4-2 vote, and only impacted JPD and Jackson Fire.
The amendment included lifting requirements for officers and firefighters with a salary of less than $40,000 a year, who reside no more than 20 miles outside the city limits.
Ward Four Councilman De’Keither Stamps opposed the measure, citing JPD’s conditions when the residency restrictions were originally passed.
“People have forgotten where we were and where we still are. We had officers living in Hattiesburg, Greenville and Port Gibson who were driving their police vehicles home each day.”
Stamps didn’t know if those officers were still with the JPD, but pointed to the fact that 70 percent of the department’s current officers still reside outside the city limits.
