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Metro Council approves pay raises for BRPD; other city departments could receive raises in May
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BATON ROUGE — Massive pay raises for Baton Rouge Police officers were approved at the East Baton Rouge Metropolitan Council meeting on Wednesday evening, with members saying they will consider raises for other departments in May.
The nearly 40-percent department-wide raise brings pay for starting officers from $40,000 to $58,000 a year, the biggest pay raise in BRPD history.
"Very happy for the men and women of the Baton Rouge Police Department who work tirelessly everyday and I think deserve this pay raise," Baton Rouge Police Chief T.J. Morse said.
Morse says the department is currently 170 short of being fully-staffed. The city hopes the raise will help recruit more officers to the understaffed force, and Morse said it already has. He told WBRZ earlier this month that BRPD saw interest in becoming an officer go "through the roof" after the raises were first announced.
"What was holding us back is pay, so now that we are getting that up to the levels that I think are fair and competitive, we're going to be able to start hiring a lot more people and putting more officers on the street to serve the community," Morse said.
But, the vote didn't come without some opposition. Some members of the council were looking to push back the vote until next month.
"Our concern was that your vote will pass and the others wouldn't. We've seen it happen too many times on this council. So taking them collectively would ensure that you got what you deserve, but also that everybody else did as well," Metro Council member Darryl Hurst said.
The mayor's office introduced an item calling for a public hearing for proposed pay raises for the constables office and other city-parish departments on May 13.
"The new item coming up would propose a 15% for city constables and 3.5% for city-parish employees, which I think is enough. I'm not saying it's enough, but anything is better than nothing," City Constable Terrica Williams said.
Williams says she is hopeful for seven votes in favor of the proposed raises.
"If they can go home at night and going to sleep knowing that they did not do right by not just the constables, but the people within the City of Baton Rouge... we would have to rethink people that are sitting in those seats," Williams said.
Mayor Sid Edwards says he anticipates seeing the same results three weeks from now.
"When I say I'm going to do something, you can write it down. My word is my bond, and we been working on them, for them, and everyone. And we are going to continue to work for them, and I'll tell them, stay tuned," Edwards said.
The council also approved pay increases for East Baton Rouge EMS.
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