Arizona House Republican Caucus
By Justin Pierce (Dist. 25)
Date: August 4, 2014
Public safety is the first role of state government. Without a strong public safety sector, the right to life, to say nothing of its enjoyment, becomes more tenuous, especially to those with limited resources.
As Chairman of the Public Safety, Military and Regulatory Affairs Committee for the Arizona House of Representatives, I know that public safety professionals are not motivated by a desire to get rich, but by a desire to protect us and our freedoms. At the same time sworn officers of the law should receive a level of financial stability and benefits that recognize the risk these men and women take each day.
Until this last session, the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS), our premier law enforcement agency, which patrols our highways and provides a number of crime enforcement services to counties and communities throughout the state, had not seen a pay increase since 2009, when there was a Special Line Item appropriation of $1.2 million for sworn officer raises.
Thanks to strong support from Speaker of the House Andy Tobin, R-Prescott, the fiscal year 2015 budget included a one-time appropriation of $3.3 million for DPS, with the intention of giving all Department personnel a 2 percent pay raise.
This one-time increase may not be much, but it marks a step in the right direction, particularly in light of employment trends and the possibility that staffing needs could spike sharply in the coming years. Since the 2009 recession DPS has seen vacancies for sworn officers and support staff increase significantly. The budget tightening and hiring freeze that the agency has gone through has led to nearly a 10 percent decrease in its workforce, dropping from 2,211 employees in 2008 to 2,002 employees in 2014, figures that include full-time, part-time and non-appropriated employees.
The problem in attracting and retaining these highly
skilled professionals comes down to a very large wage differential between what
DPS can offer and what other law enforcement agencies, both in-state and
out-of-state, are offering. In some instances the wage differential is more than
$10,000 per year, according to the Arizona Highway Patrol Association (AHPA).
AHPA conducts a salary comparison every year prior to DPS submitting its budget,
and based on last year’s comparison, DPS is 23 percent below the average law
enforcement salary.
