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Jackson town councilors recently approved a raise for police salaries — ranging from 5 to 11 percent increases based on rank. It’s part of an effort to retain staff, after several new hires left to take jobs in the county sheriff’s department in recent years.
Low pay and a requirement to reimburse the town for gas costs when commuting outside county lines have made the job less appealing. That’s according to Roxanne Robinson, the town’s director of internal services.
“We have lost about 19 officers in the organization since 2019 but 10 of those we did lose to our partner across the parking lot at the sheriff’s office,” Robinson said at last week’s workshop.
Robinson said it’s impacted Jackson, especially when it comes to institutional knowledge loss and maintaining best practices.
Chief of Police Michelle Weber also attended last week’s workshop and said the raises intend to cut back on recruitment costs and retain new hires.
“I’ve done 15 recruitments since being the Chief of Police in four years. That’s four times as many as I should have to do,” Weber said.
