Baton Rouge mayor, police chief want study on police department pay raises

With the Broome administration pushing for a pay scale study it hopes would lead to raises for members of the Baton Rouge Police Department, there are mixed opinions on where the money will come from.

On Wednesday, the Metro Council will consider a $39,500 study requested by Mayor Sharon Weston Broome and Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul that would analyze local officers’ salaries and benefits compared to other agencies in the region. The study, which would include both data and recommendations from SSA Consultants, is part of Broome and Paul’s effort to make salaries and benefits for Baton Rouge Police officers competitive.

“We ask a lot of our officers, and it’s a difficult job,” Paul says. “We like our officers to be highly trained and professional, and we believe they should have professional pay as well.”

Once the study is complete, Paul says officials will see if there’s room in the current budget for pay raises or factor them into next year’s budget. As for where the money for the raises would come from, Paul says it depends on how much is needed and what the study says the department’s options are.

Similarly, Broome says the city-parish will look for additional funding opportunities once the study is complete.

Metro Councilman Matt Watson, who recently proposed a property tax to fund police pay raises last year, says money for the raises will have to be found by his fellow council members.

“Without raising money, the only other way is finding inefficiencies and trimming the fat in other areas,” Watson says. “It’s going to take good old-fashioned, roll-up-your-sleeves work.”

If approved by the council, the study would begin as soon as the contract is signed and could be finished as early as August, says Christel Slaughter, a partner at SSA Consultants, which would conduct the study.

The department currently has 654 officers, with 44 vacancies, and the starting salary for officers is around $32,900 per year.

The Metro Council meets at 4 p.m. Wednesday on the third floor of City Hall, 222 St. Louis St. See the full agenda.