GBI budget crimps its battle on crime

Hiring and pay freezes brought on by statewide budget cuts, coupled with salaries outpaced by other state, federal and local law enforcement jobs, have made the bureau’s best and brightest ripe for overtures from better-funded agencies, officials inside and outside the GBI said. The resulting exodus of experienced talent has compromised its effectiveness, they said.

The bureau’s head count is the lowest in over a decade — down 25 percent since 2000. GBI officials — and the local law enforcement agencies the bureau helps — are finding that its involvement is shrinking to match the loss of staff.

“It’s been a big burden on us,” said Union County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Scott Deyton, whose four investigators had to take on a county embezzlement scandal without the assurance of impartiality the GBI would have provided.

The agency has scaled back to taking only violent crimes, inmate deaths, shootings involving police officers and child sex cases, GBI officials said.

“The GBI has all but gotten out of working most fraud investigations due to lack of resources,” said Deputy Director Rusty Andrews.

“It certainly made us re-evaluate our priorities,” said Special Agent in Charge Mike Ayers, who led the agency’s efforts in the Cornwell investigation. “We’re not at liberty to work all the cases we would like to.”

But crime doesn’t take a holiday just because of staffing shortfalls. In rural areas, where the GBI is the front line of investigation, a rash of crimes such as the 16 deaths in six weeks that recently occurred in Region 7, west of Augusta, takes a toll on agents.

The five agents in the GBI’s Thomson office worked three days around the clock to make an arrest after William Pate Morris, 79, was found shot to death on Nov. 16 outside his McDuffie County home.

Immediately, those same agents had to scramble to investigate the Nov. 19 death of 15-year-old Thomson High School freshman Shakira Hudson.

Three days later, the Region 7 agents were tasked with the murder-suicide of Chris and Pamela Holloway in Lincolnton.

“When you start having case after case pile on top of one another, just the physical and mental strain is difficult,” said Ayers, who now leads the Region 7 office. “When you multiply that by 16 times, it makes for a very long month”.

In 1998, the GBI had 275 agents. It peaked at 315 in 2001. As of the first week of January, there were 230. The bureau’s budget for 2011 was just over $60 million, barely a half-million dollars more than its 2000 budget.

An independent study that reviewed ways to retain agents compared the agency to 20 southeast law enforcement agencies, including the Georgia State Patrol and the Department of Transportation’s compliance division. The study found the GBI lagging in salaries and salary progression by between 68 and 83 percent.

A similar study by the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police will address the GBI’s challenges in retaining scientists in its crime lab.

GBI officials point to both studies when they say that federal agencies such as the Secret Service, DEA and FBI aren’t the only ones offering up to 30 percent pay raises to lure agents away.

“We are not only losing agents to higher-paying federal jobs, but to higher-paying local agency jobs, including county sheriffs’ offices, DA offices and police departments,” GBI spokesman John Bankhead said.

Mike Pearson became an investigator for Gwinnett County DA Danny Porter after spending 10 years as a GBI agent. He thinks the veterans field agents with five to 15 years experience — the ones he calls “the backbone of the GBI” — suffer the most.

“I feel like it was that range that was getting shorted,” he said. “It looked like every year, the starting salaries were getting higher to recruit new agents, but it seemed like for the five- and 10-year guys, there wasn’t much difference.”

Second- and third-tier agents, with tenures between five and 10 years of service, average between $39,000 and $49,000, according to GBI records. Assistant special agents in charge can make anywhere from $54,000 to $66,500, and the 27 special agents in charge average nearly $68,000.

Pearson declined to discuss his current pay, but he said money was certainly a factor in his move.

“It was in my best interest and my family’s best interest to take the job in Gwinnett,” he said.

Jeff Branyon left the GBI in March after 13 years to become the head crime scene specialist for a metro-area police department. Branyon said that along with the promotion from a tier-three agent to a supervisory position, his yearly pay increased by roughly $25,000. Plus, he said, he got a better retirement package.

“I was eligible for a promotion with the GBI,” he said. “But had I been promoted, I wouldn’t have had the financial jump.”

The workload is also more manageable. GBI has one crime scene specialist for each region. Covering Region 8, Branyon was responsible for 14 counties in the northwest corner of the state.

“I was on call 24-7 for nine years straight,” he said. Budget cuts also cost him and his counterparts around the state, as well as agents trained to conduct polygraph readings, a 10 percent incentive for their specialized training.

“That’s when you start looking at the whole setup,” he said. “You lose 10 percent pay, and your insurance would go up every couple of years with no raises. You end up with a net loss.”

The state is facing tax shortfalls, and Gov. Nathan Deal has called on state agencies to cut an average of 7 percent from their budgets.

“We would definitely like to be more competitive with some of the salaries,” said State Sen. Johnny Grant, R-Milledgeville, who is on the Appropriations Committee. “But you can’t pay somebody something that you don’t have.”

On the House side, newly appointed Public Safety chair Timothy Bearden, R-Villa Rica, was optimistic.

“We’re seeing what seems to be an (economic) turn in the right direction, and we hope that continues,” Bearden said. “There’s a lot of training involved and a lot of money spent [on the GBI], so we need to make sure that we keep our staff.”

The GBI’s staffing woes

The Georgia Bureau of Investigations has lost agents to other state and federal agencies who are better funded. A quick snapshot of the GBI:

● 2011 budget: Just over $60 million (about a half-million dollars more than its 2000 budget)

● Number of agents: 230 the first week of January (315 in 2001)

● Pay: Second- and third-tier agents (between five and 10 years’ experience) average between $39,000 and $49,000