CLARKSTON, Ga. -“We’re right here to do the job, to maintain you protected and to maintain you protected,” mentioned Clarkston Police Division Chief Christine Hudson.
That’s the Clarkston Police Division’s message to the general public after important staffing shortages resulted in simply 9 officers patrolling a metropolis of shut to fifteen,000.
Many residents at a metropolis council assembly in late July known as on the mayor, council, and metropolis supervisor to repair alleged inside issues like a “poisonous work surroundings” inflicting officers to give up.
The battle led to a considerable improve in pay and advantages for Clarkston Cops.
“It’s very evident that we wanted to lift our pay as a result of our surrounding companies, they’re elevating their pay,” mentioned Chief Hudson.
In the present day, Chief Hudson says her staff is nearly totally staffed with salaries for beginning officers rising from $46,000 to $60,000. Present officers additionally acquired between a 12 to twenty-eight p.c improve of their salaries.
After six years, Sgt. Joel Priest mentioned he was able to throw within the towel, left with no different selection however to answer homicides and shootings all by himself.
Now, he’s inspired to stay round.
“Each division throughout Georgia and america is having the identical drawback, officer scarcity. No person desires to be the police anymore and the Metropolis of Clarkston stepped as much as the plate and paid their officers,” he mentioned.
In the meantime, residents like Brian Medford say they really feel an entire lot safer seeing extra patrol vehicles across the metropolis.
He’s grateful the division is regaining its energy.
“I’m thrilled to demise that our officers are lastly getting the pay they deserve, that they richly deserve,” mentioned Medford.