After talking to representatives from Cobb Police, the county’s November-December Superior Court grand jury said work needed to be done to improve turnover in the department.
Local and federal agencies want to lure Cobb officers to their departments because their training in Cobb is considered outstanding, grand jurors said. Also, salaries must be more competitive with area police departments.
Cobb Police Chief John Houser, who met with the grand jury, said the 600-officer department’s turnover rate doubled between 2010 and 2011, with one precinct losing three officers in a week.
“We do a great job. Our citizens are safe,” Houser said. “What is concerning is the turnover with our officers leaving for departments with some of these other incentives.”
And when officers leave, it could take a year to replace them because of training requirements, Houser said.
Houser said officers are attracted to other departments that offer extra pay for college-educated officers and are not as restrictive on overtime as Cobb. The grand jury recommended that county provide incentives in these areas.
Houser said officers can be sent home if they receive overtime at the end of a pay period.
The grand jury also recommended that officers be allowed to take their cars home, which it said could improve safety in neighborhoods by making police more visible and also decrease downtime between shifts and allow shifts to overlap.
Any of these additions would require funding from the Cobb Board of Commissioners. And Commission Chairman Tim Lee said that will be a tough sell.
“We just have too many officers, and that’s too big of a capital investment to do that,” he said.
But Houser said allowing officers to take their cars home could eventually save money because the vehicles won’t have as many miles and officers will take better care of the cars because they feel more of a “buy-in” with them. This could allow the cars to have longer life spans and decreased maintenance costs.
“In the long term, I think the counties and the cities start recouping their investment and the department is more efficient,” he said.
While not making a recommendation, the grand jury said the police department is running out of operational space, meaning that a new and larger police headquarters will be needed.
Lee said commissioners will wait to see the final recommendations of the county’s Citizen Oversight Committee before making a decision on what to do with police compensation.
“Right now, we don’t have the money to give raises to anybody,” he said.
Northwest Cobb Commissioner Helen Goreham said the board will have to be careful in how it handles police pay.
“I do have a desire to be competitive in our pay scale, but there’s the practicality of ‘Do we have the money to address it?’” she said.
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Cobb BOC talks out of one side of their mouth about how they love public safety, then turn around fail to support them. They can talk the political talk, but fail to walk the walk everytime.
@Just Wondering, InTheRoom and Apublicservent - the roles of firefighters although very important are very different. One example is that a single police officer has to make multiple decisions a day reguarding a person's rights, arrest and deadly force all areas of serious liablity. A firefighter is always in a group of four or more with a Lt. Engineer or Battalian Comander to made decisions by a text book. Police don't have that luxury. You are solo with the dreds of society, with your knowledge, training, wits and a gun to serve the community to the best of your ability.
Cobb needs to get public safety off parity. That alone could save money. The fire dept is very top heavy.
Wait hold on... We're staged for P.D.
And for combining the S.O. and P.D. look at what Clayton County is going through with their S.O. You really want politics playing even more of a role in public safety?
1. The PD has much higher physical & written testing requirements. These requirements are tested each year at annual cerification/training. Alot of the SO personnel are not required to maintain the same physical fitness or training standards. If they did and we combibned the two, you would loose alot of the personnel from the SO.
2. Alot of the SO cannot, will not or refuse to work traffick accidents, murders, armed robberies, doemstic dispute cases or traffick enforcement. The certified deputies are purely capable by certification to do so now, but they dont!! Why?? Knowbdy knows. KENNESAW VOTER is so vocal & pro-Sheriff.........But he has probably not had the opportunity to really look into both sides or visited both sides to see the functions they perform.
3. If you ask PD personnel they would rather work calls for service and if there was a merger they would work the jails. If you ask a deputy the majority went to the SO because they did not want to maintain the standards the PD has in place or could not meet the standards (I'm just keeping it real).
4. Even if you do not want to pay higher taxes as a citizen of Cobb, Cobb employees still deserve a COST OF LIVING ALLOWANCE/RAISE. In the (5) years of no raises the price of food, gas, clothing, taxes have gone up and the county has done nothing to off-set that.
5. There is so much mis-information on these posts from the uninformed it is a comedy at times. Some of that misinformation includes officers/deputies pay, amount of vacation time, benefits....etc.
You can sit & do nothing and rant/rave..........but when your county goes to hell and you need or want quality service.......your not going to get it or expect it!! You will get a half-wit that was hired on sub-par benefits/pay and end up costing you in the long run!!
If there was a merger between the PD and SO, the SO would be the overtaking agency, thus requiring those in the PD to work in the jail. If that was done, you'd have a mass exodus of experienced officers.
Dunwoody - better pay, take home car, cheaper benefits benefits
Sandy Springs - better pay, take home car, cheaper benefits
Alpharetta - better pay, take home car, cheaper benefits
Smyrna - comparable pay, take home car, cheaper benefits
Kennesaw - comparable pay, take home car, cheaper benefits
GSP - less pay, take home car, comparable benefits
Private Sector - the PD lost someone to Waffle House!
I don't know about you, but I'm seeing a trend in most of the departments that are taking the county's veteran officers. Not to mention there are many more officers that wish they could leave, but they're vested and it would be detrimental to their retirement to leave. There are also new recruits who plan on training with Cobb since they still have top notch training and going elsewhere after the 2 year commitment, especially since former Cobb Officers are pushed to the top of the list at many agencies.
On a side note, I wasn't with the county 15-20 years ago, but the stories I've heard about the inner workings of the county itself worry me. I can't substantiate any of them, but when you hear the same story for multiple people, there might be some truth. All I can say is that you can only keep things up for so long before it comes crashing down or someone in the know decides to say something.
I never worked for a PD, but educated my children in private school. Some of the best students are home schooled.
Next time there is a gunman on the loose, maybe you might give your phone number so we can call you to solve the problem.
I would hate to pay any additional taxes but feel that our police and fire should be level with other departments. There is so much waste in our county that we could pay a fair wage to essential personnel such as police and fire. Why does Cobb need a spokesman?
The sheriff IS a politician.
That being said, PLEASE keep posting your nonsense. Your silly comments have been making other MDJ readers feel smarter and better about themselves for years.
Also, a CCPD trainee is paid 1 and a half years salary ($60,000) plus health, pension, payroll tax, etc ($8,000???), and training costs ($20,000???). Total approx $88,000! This is before they can actually police on their own and fill a beat. The county requires a two year commitment from a new hire from their hire date, which equates to 6 months of an officer filling a beat.
If an extra $2,000 heck, even $4,000 keeps those officers on the job, isn't that cheaper than paying to train and prepare people to work elsewhere? I guarantee you that anyone that is not within 10 years of retirement is keeping their eyes open for something better.