Cherokee County’s law enforcement agencies are in a continuous struggle to fill and keep qualified officers in their ranks.
Law enforcement is a highly specialized career with difficult work hours under all conditions and often in dangerous situations. In short, it’s not for everybody.
With agencies finding difficulty finding trained officers, it has led to a revolving door between agencies at all ranks and for a wide range of reasons.
Sheriff Dustin Smith had been assistant chief of police in Murphy before he was elected sheriff, at which time he hired his former boss, former Murphy police chief Justin Jacobs, to be chief deputy.
A sheriff’s sergeant left the sheriff’s office to become a patrolman with the Murphy Police Department, after which a Murphy police officer left to become a state trooper.
There are more examples of police leaving one job for another nearby agency with better hours, better pay or just better working conditions.
Leaders of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, Murphy Police Department and Andrews Police Department are all scrambling to improve conditions to make hiring easier and to keep the people they have on board.
Smith sought permission from the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners to start paying on-call pay for investigators in his department. Investigators are among the most highly trained and most experienced deputies he has, making them the hardest to replace.
The problem is that with limited staff, he is forced to have one investigator be on call for cases that occur after hours. On-call investigators are extremely limited in what they can do during these periods, even though they are technically off duty unless called in.
In August, Smith received permission to pay on-call investigators $40 per day Monday through Friday and $70 per day on weekends and holidays.
Also in August, the Andrews Board of Aldermen increased pay for its police officers across the board – except for the chief – with $2-per-hour pay raises for three officers, $1.50 for two others – including the assistant police chief – but no raises for part-time officers.
The Andrews Police Department dropped one vacant officer position to fund the raises.
“The Board of Aldermen unanimously voted for an across the board raise for all police officers in order to stay competitive with other agencies,” the town said in a statement in answer to inquiries from the Cherokee Scout.
“Due to a shortage of officers, no budget amendments were necessary. The Town of Andrews wants to keep an active police force to prevent, deter, investigate and prosecute crimes within our city limits.”
The death of former Andrews police chief Rocky Burrell only complicates the town’s staffing situation.
The Murphy Police Department is not immune to the problem.
“Hiring and keeping quality personnel is a huge challenge right now, and the problem is nationwide,” Murphy Town Manager Chad Simons said. “This topic was one of the most hotly discussed issues at the N.C. League of Municipalities City Vision Conference this year. There are no easy answers.
“We are offering a variety of training incentives, step increases and loyalty pay (longevity stipend) to keep good, experienced officers from going elsewhere. We’ve also tweaked some in-house policies to reduce burnout among sworn staff. Unfortunately, there isn’t a quick fix to the situation.”
One recently approved in-house policy is to allow officers to take their patrol cars home with them. Not only did this amount to a benefit, it improved readiness in the department because officers can respond directly to an incident without having to stop by the police station to retrieve their car and equipment.
All three local agencies are competing with the better-funded Cherokee Tribal Police and state agencies, including the N.C. Highway Patrol. Cherokee Tribal Police pay experienced patrol and community response officers up to $26.11 per hour and detention officers up to $41,574 per year.
Even after across-the-board raises, the Andrews Police Department pays its assistant police chief $24 per hour.
At the entry level, police agencies can sponsor students going through basic law enforcement training offered at Tri-County Community College in Peachtree. You can only attend the program if you are sponsored by a police agency.
The 714-hour-long program provides certification that enables a graduate to work as a law enforcement officer anywhere in the state. The Murphy Police Department is sponsoring one person in the program, which recently completes training that started May 18.