A panel of Georgia House members are encouraging colleagues to back bills next year to both help keep law enforcement agencies from losing officers and attract Georgians to the profession.
The recommendation were made by the House Study Committee on State and Local Law Enforcement Salaries, which held a series of hearings this fall to examine the issue. Rep. Mike Cheokas, R-Americus, chairman of the study committee, said the panel was designed to shine light on the issues law enforcement officers face and encourage more people to join the force.
“It’s a grueling profession and a dangerous profession and it’s something that a lot of young people don’t look to,” he said “I think we need to offer opportunities for that so that they can look at it as a way of making a living and creating a career.”
The push for changes came after national talk of reducing police budgets arose in response to the killing of Black men and women across the country in recent years, with activists saying the criminal justice system doesn’t keep them safe. Georgia lawmakers last year passed legislation that prohibits steep reductions in local budgets for law enforcement, preventing “defund the police” efforts to redirect money to services such as mental health treatment or education.
The recommendations initially didn’t include specific salary goals — only noting that studies found that the average salary for Georgia police officers is the sixth lowest in the country. Local public safety salaries are paid by cities and counties.
The report was amended to urge state and local law enforcement agencies to strive to offer a starting salary of $56,000.
Georgia Capitol Police salaries start at $40,080, though law enforcement agencies in some of the state’s larger cities and counties offer more. For example, the starting salary of a Gwinnett County officer is $47,284 while Cobb County officers start at $50,377.
State Rep. Yasmin Neal, a Jonesboro Democrat and former police officer, said,
“I think we need to explicitly state in the committee recommendations that it’s the position of this committee that salaries be raised. That’s the point of this committee. They are looking for a number.”
, State Rep. Clint Crowe, a Jackson Republican and former police officer, said that the recommendationwasguidance and not a mandate.
“There are going to be some departments that just can’t absorb that,” he said. “When you have 159 counties and 500-and-however-many cities, that’s going to be very tough for them to do.”
The panel also recommended the University System of Georgia create a degree in law enforcement and expand the number of schools that accept Georgia Public Safety Training Center coursework toward degree credit. They also want to create an optional statewide retirement system for public safety employees. The system would allow retirement plans to follow the employee as long as they continue to work in public safety in Georgia.
A Senate study committee in 2020 held similar hearings, where law enforcement officers told lawmakers that better pay and more training would improve police practices. Since then, the Legislature has approved bonuses for public safety officers and salary increases for state employees, including those in law enforcement.
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