Birmingham Police Officers being recruited by other departments because of their training
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - Birmingham Police are working on a plan to bring in more officers after city council members earlier this week said one of their biggest concerns was police recruitment.
“We can’t afford to lose anybody else,” Birmingham Fraternal Order of Police board member Lawrence Billups said. “Not having enough people is really starting to wear on those guys.”
Billups said they are short officers because many other departments pay more than BPD, so they lose officers to the better salaries.
“They hear about other guys who have left and gone to other departments and hear about how much better the situation seems to be at those other departments,” Billups said. “They feel like they should be paid their worth because they are working and answering calls. The workload that we are being put on, not only just our regular workload, which has increased, but with the events that the city is putting on. That’s extra work being stacked on top of us.”
It’s not just salaries that has officers leaving. Billups said Birmingham police officers are also being recruited by other departments, because they have such extensive training.
“Once we put an officer out and put him out there in the streets, he is basically the best trained,” Billups said. The best police officer that you can have out there. Certain departments now don’t even send people to the academy. They wait until our classes get two to three years in and basically, they start recruiting them.”
It’s because after two years with BPD, officers can leave and don’t have to pay the department back for training.
“We gotta get to the point where we stop training for other departments,” Billups said. “We gotta retain our officers.”
Billups said morale in the department has been low, but with recent changes in leadership, things are improving.
“I think Thurmond coming in helped a lot with morale,” Billups said. “He came out and talked to the guys and it helped a lot with morale. A lot of guys stayed because of him. All the Mayor and Council gotta do is give him what he needs to work with. I do believe he can help turn some of the things around that need to be turned around.”
Birmingham police tells WBRC they are set to have an in-house meeting next week to discuss the new recruitment plan.
The Jefferson County Personnel Board is voting next month on the Mayor’s plan to increase police pay.
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