Georgia sheriffs say they have 1,500 unfilled jobs — and need more cash to hire
It’s usually a big announcement, a thing to celebrate when somebody’s looking to hire 70 or 80 people in Macon-Bibb County. And Sheriff David Davis needs about that many folks to do things such as run the jail and answer calls faster, but he and a lot of other law enforcement bosses say they need some state help to hire.
Davis said he doesn’t want to make dire statements. He said department handles its business and makes arrests every day.
But he can also list how things would go if he had more than the 540 or so sworn officers who are now running the jail and enforcing the law.
A lot of folks are working overtime, he said. He tries to spread the “misery of shortages.” He said it is a burden and they have to get creative in staffing and assignments to make sure calls get handled and cases get worked.
With more staff, “you’d see more deputies out, I think it would have an effect probably on response times. There are times when the deputies are tied up out in the field” and they have to prioritize calls, Davis said.
“The deputies have calls that are stacked up on them,” he said. “You answer this one and you got two waiting.”
Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said that he has 27 sworn positions including his detective.
“Do you know how many deputies I have today in those 27? Thirteen! Do you have any idea what it’s like to run with half, over half of your force gone?” he said.
Statewide, probably about 1,500 deputy and jailer posts are vacant, said Terry Norris, executive director of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association at a state Capitol hearing earlier this month.
That’s why some help with officer compensation is the association’s No. 1 legislative priority; it's something they've been working on for a while.
Sheriffs say the pay situation doesn’t help sell the job, especially since the state gave its officers — such as state patrol — a 20 percent pay raise in 2016.
What the sheriffs want to get at is starting pay parity with state troopers — troopers make more than $46,000 as soon as they’re done with training and take their oaths.
“The average salary of a law enforcement officer in Georgia is $40,770, the average starting salary of a deputy in Georgia is below $32,000,” said state Sen. Greg Kirk, R-Americus, speaking on the state Senate floor earlier this month. “This puts Georgia 47th in the nation in pay for law enforcement. This is an ongoing problem, this is a problem that has been kicked down the road for many, many years.”
But a state payment doesn’t seem like it’s in the cards, not this year anyway.
Right now, counties pay for sheriffs’ offices, the state doesn’t. And the real cost of higher starting salaries isn’t clear. Besides more pay for new folks, any senior officers who find themselves making less than a new person would demand pay raises, too.
The state would want something difficult to prove: that local governments look at new money as sacrosanct for law enforcement, not as a windfall that allows them to spend their local money elsewhere.
Some state leaders have said deputies need to go to their county commissions. Indeed, Davis himself has done that. He said he leveraged the conversation about pay in negotiating funds for raises of up to 12 percent for some of his staff. And a quick internet search of newspapers suggests other sheriffs are doing the same.
But despite Bibb’s budget shortfalls, it’s got more of a tax base, more stores and population than rural counties.
A bill that got unanimous state Senate approval would open a grant program to sheriffs' offices in Georgia’s poorest counties.
“Folks, we have to also protect our people that are in those counties, we have to help those local law enforcement officials to find ways to afford to be competitive when they’re hiring these deputies and these police officers around the state,” said state Sen. Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, author of Senate Bill 366.
If his bill became law, the amount of money put in the program would be set by the Legislature every year.
His bill passed the state Senate overwhelmingly, the same day they also passed three other “back the blue” bills, as recommended by a state Senate task force on law enforcement compensation: Senate bills 367, 368 and 369. The first says indemnifications for first responders killed in the line of duty could be paid to an estate, not just to any dependents, widow or widower. It's meant to provide something to the families of officers who may have no spouse or children. The second directs an existing state agency to help local law enforcement apply for grants. The third specifies that a part of fees paid in new “accountability” court cases will help fund a law enforcement retirement fund, as fees in other courts do. Each of the bills needs state House support to get to the governor’s desk.
Davis, along with dozens of other sheriffs watched from the upstairs gallery on Feb. 14, the day the bills passed they state Senate. They stood at the end for lawmakers’ applause.
Afterward, out in the hall, Davis said the sheriffs had made steps, though not quite strides.
He has some other ideas, such as, for example, making pensions portable from county to county, as teachers’ pensions are.
Sills said he’d like to see a bill that says the state can’t hire sheriffs’ staff.
“That would help more than anything. And I’m not being funny. I’m serious,” Sills said.
A cynic could say the bills point to election season populism: 2018 is an election year for every state office under the Gold Dome, including all 236 legislative seats. The support of a network of elected officials across the state doesn’t hurt anyone running for office.
Though an idealist could point out that some complex problems that some sheriffs are facing are getting attention; and that for some lawmakers at least, that's a priority year in and year out.
Asked if he expects ongoing attention after the election, Davis said he’s seeing real respect under the Gold Dome for law enforcement, for what they do protecting the public. He said he’ll see how long it lasts.
“But we’ll be back next year if need be,” he said.
They most certainly will be back next year. The annual legislative session ends March 29.
This story was originally published February 22, 2018 at 3:18 PM with the headline "Georgia sheriffs say they have 1,500 unfilled jobs — and need more cash to hire."