Critics of government spending — which is to say almost everyone — frequently call on governments to operate more like businesses. They usually mean the government should budget within its means, cut costs, contract out services for the lowest prices and generally be more efficient.
But businesses also respond to market forces, and they do what they can to keep their best employees.
Today, the Optimist Club’s Respect for Law Enforcement Day, it’s worth remembering the fundamental business principle of the law of supply and demand and realizing that we need to apply it to our law officers in Henderson and Vance County.
There is a tremendous demand for trained police officers in North Carolina, and a higher demand always drives up the price. But our local governments are breaking the law of supply and demand: We pay our law enforcement officers just as we pay any other public employees, according to a chart that assigns jobs to specific pay grades that haven’t been adjusted in 3 1/2 years.
Henderson Police Chief Glen Allen explained the problem perfectly before City Council members Thursday night.
“They are marketable commodities. They can go elsewhere,” Allen said of sworn law officers. “I don’t think we have a lot of employees in other departments going to other municipalities for higher-paying jobs. I’m losing them constantly.”
When officers leave after a couple of years, we aren’t losing just good people with talent and experience. We’re losing money: Allen said Henderson has spent more than $1 million in the past eight years to train officers who are now protecting and serving other cities and counties.
The City Council and the Board of Commissioners must respond to the simple reality that police officers and sheriff’s deputies aren’t the same as other government employees. Maybe that means raising salaries across the board. Maybe it means creating a salary contingency fund to allow the police chief or sheriff to counter offers to their most valuable officers from other departments. It certainly means doing something.
If we want to live in a safe, prosperous community, we can’t afford to do nothing.