SPARTANBURG HERALD-JOURNAL (on-line version)
http://www.GoUpstate.com/
Spartanburg, South Carolina

February 26, 1989

Rural Police Departments Depleted by High Turnover

Small town police departments in the Upstate are fighting more than crime. They're battling a steady loss of trained officers to bigger agencies that generally offer bigger paychecks, forcing small-town chiefs to continually dip into their resume files. High turnover rates are plaguing South Carolina law enforcement agencies of all sizes, with some of the state's nearly 7,500 sworn officers often deciding to shed their guns and badges for higher paying jobs in private business, or just to exchange them for the opportunity to work for a larger, better-equipped department.
Blacksburg Police Chief Wayne Elder said his six-man department lost three officers in December after they decided to take jobs in the larger, better-paying Gaffney City Police Department. "The smaller departments have a problem," Elder said. "You don't have as much revenue to pay salaries. Your bigger departments can afford to shop around and find someone who's already got academy training. "I hope one day they'll set a standard salary, whether you work in Blacksburg or Greenville," he said. "I think that's the only way they'll solve the problem."
The Blacksburg City Council in April is scheduled to consider an upgraded pay scale for town police officers that would provide a 75 cents-per-hour increase in the top pay given to officers now. The new hourly total would rise to $7.85, putting the small town in line with the top pay given to patrol officers by the city of Gaffney, Elder said. The adjustment would bring the trained Blacksburg officers' paychecks up from $284 a week to $314. "So you see, a man would not have any incentive to go to Gaffney because of pay," Elder said.
Salaries that don't compete with those of private sector jobs or larger law enforcement departments, along with poor working hours and benefit packages, make enforcing the law in a small town unappealing for some. Yet there may not be much that can be done to upgrade salaries and benefits, said Rick Johnson, executive director of the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy. "Law enforcement is a local responsibility," Johnson said. "For the state government to legislate or mandate minimum salaries ... well, they can't do that. Local law enforcement is only going to be as good as local people are willing to pay."
However, recent state efforts, such as a measure passed last year allowing officers to retire after 25 years in law enforcement, may remedy the problem somewhat, he added. The law passed by the Legislature in 1988 allows officers to receive pensions based on their highest three-year salary average, Johnson said. However, he said more needs to be done.
Officials at the University of South Carolina are completing The South Carolina Police Census, a study that will identify why police officers leave their departments and where they go. Jim Fraser, professor and director of the Office of Agency Research and Service in the school's criminal justice department, said the study should be completed by mid-April. The ongoing study, which is being funded by the state Legislature, could serve as a state data base in future years to help officials determine problem areas in state law enforcement. However, Fraser said the sovereignty of local governments probably would prohibit the Legislature from using the study as a springboard for setting a statewide pay standard in the profession.
Beginning officers may be hired in small police or sheriff's departments and then sent to the state Criminal Justice Academy for eight weeks of training at the department's expense. Once they receive their training and a little bit of experience, some officers are ready to move to larger departments.
In an attempt to stem the number of officers leaving shortly after receiving paid academy training, Greer and Lyman officials recently initiated police trainee contracts. The agreements require that all non-academy trained officers agree to pay back a pro-rated amount of the cost to send them to the academy if they leave before a certain cut-off date. The decision was made in an attempt to keep towns from losing money when officers move to other law enforcement agencies after receiving training. However, neither Lyman Mayor Bill Groce nor Greer Police Chief Dean Venable said the agreements scare potential officers from wanting to sign with the departments.
Officers who do quit smaller police departments after receiving training leave their superiors to sift through resume files with a tiresome regularity. "We're blessed with resumes," said Wellford Mayor Hubert Odom last week. The small town has been looking for two police officers to complete its four-man force since an officer was fired several weeks ago. The department already had been down one man after Chuck Shelton left in September to become chief of the Duncan Police Department. Another officer left after two years to join the state Highway Patrol. Wellford Police Chief Marty Knighton said he is reviewing about 30 resumes in an effort to fill the two vacancies. He said he hopes to have one slot filled within the next month. The second officer may be hired before the end of the year once the first officer has had time to receive the proper training, he said.
The neighboring town of Lyman hired one officer last month after the town's Public Safety Department lost a man to the Duncan Police Department and another to private business. Lyman officials have been slow in hiring a second officer because only a few applications have been submitted, and Mayor Bill Groce says of those, several represent nothing more than a fascination with the profession - not a commitment to the job. "They all have these childhood fantasies," he said. "It looks very dramatic. They just imagine as a child that, `When I grow up, I want to be a policeman or a fireman,"' he said. "Pretty soon it settles down to the point to where they find it isn't what they thought and they want out. They just decide, `Well that's not for me."'
Some small towns often find themselves in a situation of either having to hire a person with no training or experience, or take a veteran who may have a prior discipline problem, officials say. Greer Police Chief Dean Venable has seven vacancies to fill, five of which are positions for uniformed patrol officers. He said he hopes to hire one patrol officer, one dispatcher and a detention officer in a few days. He said he's generally pleased with the stack of resumes he has for the remaining positions. However, he has found in the past that experienced officers seeking new jobs in smaller departments often have something in their past which deserves attention. "There's a shortage of people out there with experience who haven't experienced problems on the job," Venable said. "People don't leave unless they have a reason to leave, and I'm interested in what that reason is."
Of the five uniformed patrol officers that left the Greer department since last year, at least two resigned after controversy arose about the way they handled a case. Venable also said he takes his time when hiring officers, hoping to get the right person with either good morals and valuable experience or a genuine desire to learn and stay with the department. "I'd rather take him and send him to the academy and let him stay in Greer for 25 years," he said.
In an attempt to stem the number of officers leaving shortly after receiving paid academy training, Greer and Lyman officials recently initiated police trainee contracts. The agreements require that all academy-trained officers agree to pay back a pro-rated amount of the cost to send them to the academy if they leave before a certain cut-off date. The decision was made in an attempt to keep towns from losing money when officers move to other law enforcement agencies after receiving training. However, neither Lyman Mayor Bill Groce nor Greer Police Chief Dean Venable said the agreements scare potential officers from wanting to sign with the departments.