| Councilwoman O’Brien Announces Plan to Make Phoenix Police Officers Highest Paid Arizona Law Enforcement Agency | https://www.phoenix.gov/newsroom/district-1/2378 | | City Council District 1 | 6/9/2022 3:30:00 PM | https://www.phoenix.gov/newssite/Lists/NewsArticle/Attachments/2378/Newsroom_Council_Statement_01.jpg | | Councilwoman O’Brien Announces Plan to Make Phoenix Police Officers Highest Paid Arizona Law Enforcement Agency | <div class="ExternalClassE8966A4C65C64AC88B6A793E1170EDA1"><html>
"For decades the City of Phoenix Police Department was the go-to for a career in law enforcement. Academy classes would fill every seat in the classroom. Venues the size of small theaters would be rented for family and friends to join cadets in their graduation ceremonies. But, when the financial crisis of 2008 hit and Phoenix needed to find creative solutions to lessen the impact, the Council at the time put a freeze on hiring new officers. In doing so, we also froze our ability to stay competitive.<br><br>
Phoenix is the fifth-largest city in the country and ensuring the safety of our residents and visitors is of the utmost importance. In an increasingly competitive job market where Phoenix is competing with our fellow municipalities, the county and the state, we needed to find a solution to retain our officers and provide an enticing incentive in the recruitment of more officers.<br><br>
When I came into office last year, I made police staffing levels one of my top priorities. I quickly called a strategy group together of various stakeholders comprised of Police Union leaders, Assistant City Manager Lori Bays, Human Resources Director David Mathews, Executive Assistant Chief Mike Kurtenbach, and Chief Jeri Williams to begin discussions on increasing compensation levels for our new recruits and existing officers.<br><br>
After performing a compensation study and researching other jurisdiction's pay rates, we realized our officers were sitting at the bottom of the scale compared to our sister municipalities. We then pulled in City Manager Jeff Barton and Budget Director Amber Williamson to crunch the numbers. As a result, we were able to come up with a plan to restructure the salary scale to ensure every officer will receive greater earning potential and no one will see a decrease in pay.<br><br>
This plan, if approved by my fellow councilmembers, will ensure Phoenix once again has the most competitive and attractive police department in Arizona by ensuring our officers and recruits will be the highest paid department throughout the state of Arizona by 10 percent!<br><br>
I am beyond thankful to staff for seeing a problem and being so willing to tackle it head on with me. We still have so much work to do in order to bring the number of sworn officers back to where we were prior to the 2008 financial crisis, but this salary restructuring will certainly help!<br><br>
<p style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);text-align:justify;">Read more about my plan by <a target="_blank" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.phoenix.gov/newsroom/police/2377" href="/newsroom/police/2377">clicking here</a>."<br></p>
</html></div> | https://www.phoenix.gov/district1 | News | | district-1 | D1 | District 1 | Ann | O’Brien | | | | Stephanie Barnes | 602-316-0958 | | | | stephanie.barnes@phoenix.gov | https://www.phoenix.gov/newssite/Lists/MediaContact/Attachments/42/Stephanie_Barnes.jpg | | | | | | | | PHXDistrict1 | |
