Soperton City Council Pivots to Pay Scale Discussions for Police Shortage

The Soperton City Council shifted discussions away from salary raises in favor of reviving discussions of city-wide pay scales as a method of alleviating a shortage of local police staff.

A pay scale or salary structure is a system which bases an employee’s wages on certain factors such as rank, time spent with an organization or difficulty of work. Council Member Kendra Madison-Harswell felt a pay scale system city-wide would be “fair and equitable” and that the vacancies were an opportunity to implement it “while the iron is hot.”

According to Soperton Police Chief Brian Scott, the Soperton Police Department has three vacant positions, including two officer positions and one corporal position. The vacancies have been a long-term issue for the department, as the two officer positions have been vacant since Scott took the position of police chief.

Discussions regarding police salaries began during the council’s May 18 meeting. Scott approached the council to suggest raising the base entry pay for new recruits from $20.70 per hour to $23.70 per hour, along with a similar $3 raise for existing staff.

These salary increases were intended to keep the Soperton Police Department competitive with other local police departments, such as Mount Vernon and Dublin, which also hire from the same pool of recruits.

“We’re kind of sandwiched between all these other places, and we’re paying well, but we’re not paying well enough to be competitive,” said Scott during the May meeting.

The aim was also to attract recruits with experience in police work rather than officers fresh out of police academies because, according to Scott, “Soperton’s not a place for rookies.”

Though the council did not make a decision on the issue during the May meeting, Scott returned for the council’s next meeting on June 15. He provided the council members with a document detailing how the proposed raises would impact the city’s budget through fiscal year 2029.

In the document, Scott provided outlooks for a potential $2 raise as well as the proposed $3 raise, though he clarified the suggestions were not rigid and could be altered by the council.

“After being able to look at it for a while, I have no qualms with it,” said Mayor John Koon. “I think we will be able to sustain it. At least the $2, if not the three; I think that’s very sustainable over the period of five, six, seven years.”

However, some council members expressed similar concerns as they had in the May meeting, such as the Soperton Police Department’s strategies for promoting the vacant positions. Scott said he was relying on social media and word-of-mouth, as the department does not have the staff to allow for alternate methods like career fairs.

Instead, Scott’s strategy is to leverage Soperton’s nature as a small town as a selling point for new recruits.

“I think what we offer here is a small community,” said Scott. “It’s relatively safe with a supportive council, and so you get someone that’s been, you know, in Dublin that’s… taking eight or 10 reports on a shift – just call to call to call – and you say, ‘Hey, come over here.’”

Council Member Xandra Brown also expressed concerns about the sustainability of the raises in the long term and whether the raises would actually lead to new recruits.

Due to the concerns with the raises, several council members expressed interest in reviving the pay scale model presented by Scott a year prior. However, no official action was taken on the issue during the meeting.

“I think what we need is to revisit, Chief, that pay scale that you presented for us to start with, and let’s see that is, and see where we can go and how we can work that out,” said Koon.