DETROIT (WXYZ) — At Wednesday's Detroit City Council meeting the effort to raise Detroit police officer salaries moved one step closer towards approval as the city council moved forward with the legal control associated with it.
Now council says the contract and budget will be brought forward at next Wednesday's city council meeting.
The proposed agreement would immediately increase starting officers' pay by $10,000, pay for officers with 4 years on the force would increase by $13,000, and officers would receive an increase of 4% a year for the next four years.
During Wednesday's meeting Lieutenant Mark Young, President of the Detroit Police Lieutenants and Sergeants Association, spoke in favor of the effort.
He referred to the fact that the department lost 72 officers just in the months of August and September, 2/3 of those officers went to other police departments, primarily in the suburbs.
It's beneficial for other departments to poach Detroit Police Officers because the City of Detroit pays for Detroit Police new hires to go through a 6-month training academy.
"A large part, we were the laughing stock of the law enforcement community," said Lt. Young, referring to the loss of employees. "We were a farm agent for other law enforcement agencies."
An effort to recruit DPD officers can be seen off I-75 and East Grand Boulevard where there is a billboard aimed at recruiting DPD officers to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department says they're down 200 officers.
Detroit Police Department says they're down 300 officers.
"It’s important that this agreement goes without delay, we’re using all our efforts to hold our department together," said Lt. Young. "This would not only help with retention but it would also give the department and the city greater opportunities to have a larger pool of candidates to choose from to select the best of the best."
