The Logansport City Council Public Safety Committee met Monday evening to review Police Officer salaries and also address the possibility of allowing patrol officers to take squad cars home between shifts. Police Chief Brad Rozzi and Assistant Chief Rob Smith spoke with committee chair Larry Hood and other members for more than two hours, and presented case study information in support of providing take home cars for police officers. Rozzi and Smith emphasized a few long-term benefits with take home cars, including demonstrated increase of morale in police officers, ability for officers to respond instantly to emergency calls, and a significant decrease in maintenance costs in patrol cars. Rozzi and Smith estimate newly purchased cars for patrol officers would, in a take home situation, have a road life of more than six years. Currently patrol cars have a life of three to three and a half years, as they are often on the clock 24 hours a day. Ideally the police department would like to acquire seven new cars over the next two years.
Police Chief Rozzi and Assistant Chief Smith also reviewed current police officer salaries, a potential increase in longevity pay, and establishing specialty pay and compensation for field training officers. Currently, officers who train new recruits do not receive any additional compensation for that training and “drive along” time. The police department has had issues over the past few years with recruiting new police officers and also retaining existing officers. The department will soon operate with 35 police officers. It needs 44 to be considered fully staffed. Rozzi and Smith believe that increasing compensation for police officers in one or more of these areas will play a big role in attracting new officers to Logansport and keeping them here long-term. The Public Safety Committee plans to meet again to finish reviewing the information presented and readdress the requests, as well as their own budget concerns.
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