nothin Harp Calls For Rookie Raises | New Haven Independent

Harp Calls For Rookie Raises

New Haven will need to find a way to pay starting cops more if it wants to stop the suburbs from stealing them, Mayor Toni Harp said Monday.

Harp said that the next police contract — currently in negotiation — will likely see cops advance to a full beginning salary once they finish field training, as occurs in the suburbs, rather than have to wait two years.

In recent years suburban departments have been luring young New Haven cops with higher salaries (not to mention quieter beats). In one recent class, 18 rookies fled for the burbs within their first two years on the job.

We made it really inexpensive to pick up the people we train. It costs us nearly $65,000 to train these people,” Harp said on her weekly Mayor Monday” program on WNHH radio.

Right now first-year officers earn $44,404 a year when they complete field training and start patrolling on their own. It takes another two years to get to the full beginning-grade pay of $52,729. Suburban cops often start at above $70,000.

Even then, they earn tens of thousands of dollars less than rookies make right away in suburban department, noted police union President Craig Miller.

You’re sitting with someone in the academy, and they’re earning $72,000 a year” at a suburban department, Miller said. (Some suburban cops train at New Haven’s academy.) That’s what some of these guys complain about. They should get a fair shake compared to other departments.”

I have to give the mayor much respect that she does recognize this issue, that we need to have this addressed,” Miller said.

Contract negotiations have just begun. Both Harp and Miller said they can’t divulge specific numbers on the table, but Harp said she’s committed to seeing rookies start on the beat with higher pay.

It will cost us somewhat more,” Harp said. But think about what it costs us to constantly be replacing all these folks that we train. And then they leave us within two years.”

Harp was asked if her administration would raise taxes to pay for those raises. She said her hope” is that that won’t be necessary.

Her first hope is that the state will make good on a pledge to fund at least 40 percent of cities’ lost revenue due to state property tax exemptions under the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program (PILOT). But given a project $1.5 billion deficit in the coming state budget, that might prove difficult.

Harp said her next move would be to find savings elsewhere in the city budget to cover increased cop salaries.

In any event, the city must find a way, she said. Public safety is our first and most important responsibility.”

Click on or download the above audio file to hear the full episode of WNHH radio’s Mayor Monday,” which also covered sanctuary cities, rules on marijuana use by prospective cops, and the city’s new environmental goals.

The episode was made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem, Moses & Devlin, P.C.

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