The Greensboro Police Department is short 129 officers out of a budgeted force of 689.
It’s getting close to a 20 percent vacancy rate and is going to climb at a faster rate this year because of a federal program in the early 1990s that temporarily paid the salaries of new officers. Because of that program Greensboro hired more officers than usual 30 years ago, and those officers are now becoming eligible for retirement.
The Greensboro Police Academy graduated 13 new officers on March 7. To stay even at 129 vacancies that class needed to graduate at least 30 officers.
There are a number of reasons why Greensboro can’t recruit more officers, but one reason that’s easy to fix is that Greensboro doesn’t pay nearly as much as other law enforcement agencies in the state.
Right next door in Alamance County, Burlington is starting officers at $55,411 a year compared to $44,583 in Greensboro.
After six months, police officers in Burlington get a 2.5 percent raise. So after six months on the job, police officers in Burlington are being paid $56,796 while police officers in Greensboro are being paid $44,583.
In Burlington, police officers also receive tuition reimbursement and longevity pay after five years. Of course, like every other competing law enforcement agency in the state, Burlington provides take home police cars for patrol officers.
In Greensboro, officers start at $44,583 a year plus a signing bonus of $2,200. So in Greensboro the starting salary is over $10,000 less than in Burlington. Another way to put that is that in Burlington police officers are paid over 24 percent more than in Greensboro.
According to the Greensboro Police Department website, with three years’ experience an officer can expect to be making $45,000 to $46,000. Even at the upper end of that range after working for three years in Greensboro, an officer can expect to be making $9,000 less than a new recruit in Burlington.
At the March 7 Greensboro City Council meeting, Councilmember Yvonne Johnson noted that the City Council voted to give police officers a raise last year. But that raise doesn’t bring Greensboro police officers anywhere close to what police officers in Burlington are being paid.
Lol…Burlington does not have the east greensboro city council calling the shots nor do they waste 900k a year for a council members pet project.
Agreed! Nor are they Defunding the Police. They are supporting their police unlike our self-serving Māori and Greensboro city council.
Higher pay, less crime, take home cars, less interference by the city council, lower cost of living. I hate to say it but even Stevie Wonder can see this is a no brainer. Wake up “Woke” Greensboro and Guilford County. There is a simple fact of life. When you see something is not working and you don’t fix it, it gets worse.
You had me until that ‘woke’ comment. Just more conservative BS. None of the issues you mention that the city leadership isn’t doing is a result of their ‘woke’ mindset. Why to spoil a good message with BS conservative talking points? Not surprised really.
Pretty sure the whole defunding the police was a “woke” mindset…
Well, ain’t this just dandy. If I were a young police recruit I would definitely be alarmed and questioning this wage difference. But Greensboro Police have to watch their attitudes and their demeanor or they can get kicked to the curb. No way would I put my life on the line for this salary. District Attorney Crump and our mayor, Missy Vaughan do not support our police department. Missy Vaughan more concerned about our homeless population.
Ahh, but Burlington doesn’t have NEARLY as many minority contractors, so it all balances out.
This is a unique way of defunding the the Police Department. Shame on Greensboro. City Salaries should increase immediately. Oh but, City employees just lost 8 percent until June with the biweekly pay plan. Reevaluate your choice for City Council and City Manager. Pay City employees a living wage comparable to surrounding cities.
With what we have sitting on the city council, several as “career sitters” our city is in trouble in many ways. I have discussed with fellow citizens that the council is, in fact, practicing “defund police” without all the publicity. Do they think citizens are that stupid?
As stated before, this is an active plan to defund the police in Greensboro. The number of vacancies will be a minimum of 200 by the end of the year.
Even a child (like me) and figure this out. If you can make much more, get more bennies, AND, more respect; why would you work for the GPD?
Perhaps you have to be a resident of Alamance to work for their PD, I don’t know. Family or no, I would move now, right now.
The primary safety rule for self-defense is to avoid dangerous locations and circumstances. No matter how tough you think you are, you ain’t.
We avoid certain areas and businesses in Greensboro and the County. If we can be assaulted and vandalized anywhere, any time, it ain’t worth it. This is happening right now. Little Portland, big Sedalia.
Those of the small minority who bothered to show up for the last elections gave us the crap. the polls are the last chance, then anarchy.
Get out of the County!
Hand waving emoji, and please sell your house above market value. We don’t want to hurt our thriving housing market!
You also have deputies leaving the Sheriff’s Office in droves headed for Burlington!
Only 13 new graduates?!….Poor pay and a generally anti-police oriented City Council, I’m surprised they even got 13. Who would want to work for Greensboro PD?
Two left already, so now you have 11 rookies left in training. I’m sure another couple will see what a disaster that agency has become and move along. I am actually suspicious of any rookie that wants to stay at GPD. What is it about that place that would make you want to stay? Sad times folks.
It’s pretty upsetting to know that I pay the highest property taxes in the state, just to have the city pay the lowest salaries to the most important city department.
So!
You must feel really proud to know that Greensboro has the highest gun violence among children 13-17 of any city in the state 97% are black children yet we have one of the lowest paid police departments for a city of our size. Your attitude helps perpetuate the cancer in Greensboro.
Thank you Rhino Times for continuing to bring these issues to light. It will take the citizens of Greensboro to speak up at city council meetings before the council will address these issues. They will not listen to “voices” within the police department. The department has had to reorganize because of shortages within. Narcotic enforcement teams, traffic units, gun units, community resource teams and public housing units have already been or will be dissolved by July because of manpower shortages. Don’t believe me? Ask the chief in an open city council meeting to tell you what he has had to do to put more officers back on patrol just to cover call answering duties. He has had to make hard, unpopular decisions but he has no other choice because the City Council, Jamiah Waterman and the city manager refuses to listen! Several GPD officers have already left for Burlington and more are on the way out. And these are officers that have over 10 years or more with GPD. This proves that pay, take home cars and benefits matter!! Wake up and I don’t mean in the woke way!
This chief is not making any hard decisions. Putting off a reorganization until July is not making a decision.
Go ahead council, defund this sh*&tty department and move on. It is what you want to do anyway.
But at least our Mandate Mayor has our police force doing important things like guarding her Performance Arts Palace downtown or harassing folks asking for change on medians and throwing away possessions of the destitute. Our city council is 99 percent geriatric lifers that are so dependent on voting themselves raises and propping up their nonprofits, quasi profits, or their livelyhoods they have little time or desire to fund basic city functions properly. For shame.
After the abusive increase in property taxes, Greensboro and Guilford at least need to be paying LEO salaries that are competitive with surrounding areas. Safety of the citizens needs to be a priority. We don’t need to wait for a crime wave to know that those positions need to be filled.
The website pay is wrong in the FAQs. It’s been wrong for months. They don’t even put forth the effort to correct it to try to even attract potential employees. It’s like the city is trying to see how hard they can crash this flaming pile of garbage to make sure nothing survives. It’s defunding and destroying without having to vote on it.