Stephenville Police Association says low pay keeps city from recruiting, retaining qualified officers.

By SARA VANDEN BERGE

Police pay has been an ongoing struggle between the Stephenville Police Department and city for many years.

Now, the Stephenville Police Association is stepping up its efforts to bring attention to the issue and pressure members of the city council to address it.

Officer Hayden Bridges is the vice president of the SPA.

Last week, the association made a post on its Facebook page that seemed to call out members of the city council for prioritizing street repairs over police pay.

The post, made Feb. 13, states, “While the Issuance of Obligation is up to each citizen to decide what they believe, the salary for Stephenville Police Department’s Officers is in no way competitive with other agencies.

“Our officers are compensated below Dublin, Erath County, Granbury, Hood County, Clifton, Bosque County and the list goes on. This low compensation is the direct cause of low staffing and poor retention of Stephenville Police officers.

“The citizens of Stephenville and the officers of the Stephenville Police Department deserve better.”

Officer Bridges told Beneath the Surface News on Monday that he and other members of the association understand that funding for street maintenance and officer pay come from separate sources.

“What prompted us to make that post is that we have tried to blow the whistle about pay and we feel left off the list,” Bridges said.

“We take issue with the fact that the city said they gave us raises to make our pay competitive because that’s not the case; we are not competitive with other agencies.”

Bridges said the starting pay for a Stephenville police officer is $52,102, which is 21% lower than the $65,615 average salary for officers at surrounding agencies.

The starting pay for officers in Benbrook is $71,000, Burleson is $75,000, Granbury is $70,484, Weatherford is $64,743, Azle is $65,175, Clifton is $55,361, Cleburne is $72,042 and Brownwood is $53,028.

“It’s odd to see cities with a lower population that don’t have a Tarleton State University in their communities paying their officers a significantly more amount of money,” he said.

“With our starting pay being as low as it is, experienced officers rarely apply to Stephenville.”

In fact, Bridges said the only viable way to recruit new officers is through the city’s cadet program, which pays for a cadet’s education and training at the Police Academy in exchange for a three-year commitment to work in Stephenville.

But what that means, he said, is that the majority of patrol officers in Stephenville are inexperienced and leave for higher-paying positions after three short years.

“We have some great officers, but it’s a 100% fact that they have very little experience. The overall saying in police work is that you are a rookie for the first five years.

“Right now, we only have two street patrol officers with more than five years of experience, and that’s not ideal.”

Mayor Doug Svien said he agrees that police pay is not where it should be, but that issuing raises is not as simple as it seems.

“We moved money in the current budget to resolve some wage issues and the majority of that went to public safety, but it wasn’t enough,” Svien said.

“Public safety is a major issue in every Texas city right now.”

Svien said that new business and construction is the best way for the city to generate funding for increased officer pay.

“The more development that occurs, the more ad valorem and sales tax are collected - those two revenue sources are the best way to handle pay increases,” Svien said.

“The other option is to cut or freeze city positions.”

Meanwhile, Bridges says that members of the Stephenville Police Association want to develop a better relationship with the city council.

“I would like to have a better relationship with the city council than we do,” Bridges said. “It’s cordial, but we don’t get to break bread as much as we would like to.

“We hear them say they know we need better pay, but nothing ever gets done.”

In January, Stephenville police officers made 50 arrests, 847 traffic stops, wrote 31 offense reports and responded to 31 accidents.