Raise starting Police Officer pay and fairly compensate current Officers in Alexandria, VA

The City of Alexandria has long been one of lowest paid police departments in the NOVA region. This has resulted in poor recruiting quality AND retention of officers. We pride ourselves on being one of the best police departments in the area and feel that we should be compensated as such.  First responders do not expect to get rich doing this job but we do expect to be paid fairly and comparably to our surrounding jurisdictions.

I am writing to ask you to introduce into your guidance and support a raise in starting pay for City of Alexandria Police Officers to $48,092.12 and a 5% across the board salary increase for all current City of Alexandria Police Officers.

The current starting pay for City of Alexandria Police Officers is 9% below the current market average and 12% behind the market leader (Fairfax County).  Our Police Officers starting pay has remained the same since 2006 ($43,617) which makes it incredibly difficult to recruit and retain quality officers.

It costs approximately $111,174.00 to train and equip a new police officer for The City of Alexandria.  This city has LOST approximately $2,779,350.00 in the past two years in training and equipments costs because of officers leaving to go to other departments that now don't have to spend their own money on training.     

As a tax paying citizen of the City of Alexandria, I want to know that my money is being invested in the future of the Police Department (and this City) - not paying to train an officer, just to leave and then get hired by a higher paying neighboring jurisdiction.   

By signing this petition, I am asking YOU as my elected officials, to make sure that our Police Officers are paid equally to the comparable jurisdictions so that we can maintain the quality of Police Officers that The City of Alexandria is known for.  

https://www.change.org/p/city-of-alexandria-city-council-raise-starting-police-officer-pay-and-fairly-compensate-current-officers?share_id=WKZqNVGDxV&utm_campaign=share_button_action_box&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition