October 26, 2006
To: City of Miami Police Department Personnel Resource Management Chairperson
From:
Subject: Proposal to Write a Report Recommending a Pay Increase to Remedy the Shortage of City of Miami Police Officers
Over the past few years, the nation has faced a "crisis" with the shortage of police officers (Axtman, 2006). It is well known that crime rates increase with the decrease in the number of police officers. Researchers have looked for the cause of such a decline and have identified low pay as a major reason for the deficiency.
Problem
Recent protests by City of Miami Police Officers have captured the attention of Miami-Dade County. Protesters are complaining that very low wages have created a scarce supply of police officers in the City of Miami. Better salaries, protesters say, will prevent officers from leaving to higher paying police departments.
Many examples exist that support the protestors' claims. Also faced with the problem of officer shortages, the police department in McKinney, Texas found that a raise in wages helped "attract and retain qualified officers" (Dallas Morning News, 2006). McKinney, losing officers to neighboring departments, solved the problem with a salary increase. Focusing on a city closer to home, police officers were leaving Opa-Locka as well. Opa-Locka City Commissioner Dorothy "Dottie" Johnson identified that "officer turnover is high due to low starting pay" (Berggren, 2006). She plans to remedy this problem if re-elected to her position on the Board of Commissioners.
As mentioned earlier, there ...