The Houston Police Department (HPD) has struggling with understaffing for some time now. As the city has grown exponentially, the department has seen many cuts and been embroiled in a salary dispute with former Mayor Sylvester Turner. All of it has culminated now into HPD having far too few officers to handle a city of Houston's size and put them in a precarious spot.
The officers have been vastly underpaid, overworked, and it has created not just a retention problem, but a recruitment problem as well. The city recently enacted new bonuses for those cadets fresh out of the Houston Police Academy, but even that has not helped bring numbers where they should be.
President of the Houston Police Officers Union Doug Griffith says the city has fallen behind in pay compared to not just big cities, but even in our own suburbs.
"Why would you go somewhere and make $55,000, when you can go right up the street, and make almost $75,000 starting out," he says.
Another issue Griffith mentions is the call volume. Every day there is some crazy story in Houston, from shootings to armored truck robberies. That, understandably, can stress out new recruits and make them want to go somewhere with a softer crime rate, like The Woodlands or Sugar Land.
The crime though, combined with the underpayment, has created an untenable situation, and made coming to HPD a tough sell.
"We have to find a way to get people in here...in a city this size, we should have 7,500 officers...we have 5,100," he says. "Crime has not slowed down, and we still have long wait times...when you are stretched as thin as we are, that is what is going to happen."
Houston cadets start with a $52,000 salary, with officers making about $62,000 a year. By comparison with other forces in the Houston area, the Bellaire Police Department, which is not even a suburb, start salaries at $72,000 a year. In Memorial Villages, it is about $83,000.
Even the other big cities in Texas are putting Houston to shame. In Dallas, officers start at $75,000 a year. In Austin, it is about $70,000.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire has said making HPD some of the highest paid officers in the state is a key priority for him. He has been fighting with city council to get a deal done for a raise. But even with a bump, HPD will still be well behind.
"Austin just got a 28 percent over five years raise, and they are 11 to 15 percent ahead of us already," he says. "When you add 28 percent to that, that is a lot of money."
Another major problem, according to Griffith, has been the staffing cuts. Not just with officers, but their civilian staff. That leads to more officers taken off the streets, having to do paperwork.
He adds they will present city council with options for raises, but action may need to be taken in the Legislature to move things along.
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