The Logan City Police
Department is facing a new challenge — and it isn’t an increase in crime.
Police officials say
under-paid officers are leaving Logan for higher paying jobs.
On Friday, Mayor H. Craig
Petersen met with the department to address the issue.
The department has lost two
seasoned officers since the beginning of February to higher paying positions
along the Wasatch Front, according to Lt. Jeff Simmons.
“It is my first priority to
implement a 3 to 4 percent increase in pay to our police officers here in
Logan,” Petersen said.
Starting pay for officers
along the Wasatch Front is $20 per hour and experienced officers can earn even
more. Logan didn’t have the budget to start officers at more than $16 per hour
— though the department is the highest paid in Cache Valley.
“It used to be that the
location here in Logan was enough to keep officers happy,” Simmons said. “But
that is no longer the case.”
In the meeting, Simmons and
Petersen looked at ways to cut losses and prevent turnover.
“It takes about $20,000 to
$30,000 to train a new officer,” Petersen said. “So that is an incentive to
reduce turnover. It may be cheaper to pay more so as to reduce turnover.”
Logan provides diversity and
specialized training for its officers, according to Officer Andrew Soelberg.
“I never know what I’m going
to get in to each day,” Soelberg said.
Although Logan is a smaller
community, there is still a need for the specialized training that police
departments of major cities have.
“We still have drugs, we
still have gangs,” Soelberg said. “They’re not as organized as much as a big
city but we have a gang unit that deals with the problems.”
The department put 16
applicants through both physical and written tests on Feb. 8.
“The majority of folks [who
passed] will get interviews with our command staff,” Simmons said. “The chief
will make the final decision.”
Melissa Allison, Kelsey Richardson, Taylor Murray,
Mike Cannon, Erin Cox and Whitney Fletcher contributed to this report.
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