A unanimous Roswell City Council has approved 10-percent pay increases for sworn members of the police department, at a total cost of $840,670 this fiscal year.
The human resources and police departments researched the issue and found Roswell’s prior pay grades for sworn police staff were 13 to 21 percent lower than the average of neighboring North Fulton County cities, staff said in a report to the council.
To remain competitive and attract and retain qualified officers, staff recommended eliminating the “recruit” job classification, hiring new officers in the Police Officer I classification, and increasing the Police Officer I pay grade minimum by 10 percent, to $42,418 from $38,562.
To prevent pay “compression” between new and current officers, staff also recommended increasing the latter’s pay, from recruit through deputy police chief, by 10 percent.
To cover the increases, the council defunded nine open positions ($625,149) and tapped a surplus in the detention center budget ($215,521) in the Fiscal Year 2019 budget.
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