BURLINGTON, N.C. — There is a major need for law enforcement in the Triad.
Sixteen percent of Greensboro police roles are vacant. In Winston-Salem, staffing at the police department is down a quarter. Both agencies said they've got a few trainees in the pipeline.
Burlington has it even worse, staffing is short a third of where it should be but maybe not for long.
The starting salary at the Greensboro Police Department is around $46,000 in Winston-Salem it’s $41,000.
Officers at the Burlington Police Department, a much smaller agency are making $55,000.
This makes BPD one of the highest-paid agencies in the state.
Lt. Steven Flowers with the Greensboro Police Department said it's making it harder for them to recruit.
“We’re competing with agencies that don’t have near the opportunities for professional growth that we do but a lot of times when candidates are coming in the big number that catches their attention is the starting salary,” Flowers said.
Burlington police said they’ve recently signed two GPD officers and a Guilford County sheriff employee.
Captain Dalton Majors at the Burlington Police Department said new incentives like wellness days and more sick leave are getting more folks to wear the badge of honor.
“We just passed it back in November which gives officers the ability to take 30 days and walk away from the profession with no accrued leave for them and not be bothered to digest the stress and trauma they experience on the day in and day out,” Captain Majors said. “Another thing we passed in November is added sick leave so they get an additional year of sick leave added if they stay for 30 years which gets them to an earlier retirement age.”
Even with all the new attention, BPD is still short 44 of its potential 145 officers.
Winston-Salem is short 145 patrol officers and GPD is down 114.
The big question is whether the shortages impact their ability to protect the public.
“The call time has not suffered dramatically at all,” Lt. Flowers said. “We’re offering and staffing those vacancies with time and a half rate pay, but it doesn’t fill all the vacancies.”
Lt. Flowers said losing officers to another police force is troubling but said applications are coming in daily.
“We’ll get 1 to 2 applications every day but because our selection process is so thorough and rigid a good percentage of folks do get disqualified,” Lt. Flowers said. “We have chosen to never water down our hiring standards.”
Burlington police said city council played a major role in financially supporting the new perks.
Greensboro Police Chief Thompson said he's working with city council to also offer better incentives.