Laurel police are seeing the benefits of a new pay raise

LAUREL, Miss. (WDAM) – The city of Laurel approved pay raises for police and firefighters in June.

These increases took effect on October 1st.

City leaders said they are already seeing a difference, even though less than two weeks have passed.

“It’s hard to hire officers and it’s hard to retain them, and a lot of that has to do with pay,” Laurel Mayor Johnny Magee said. “So we as administration and council decided to increase wages to the highest in the region.”

Six new officers were sworn into the Laurel Police Department earlier this week.

He says the number of officers on the force has declined

LPD Chief Tommy Cox’s recent hires increased the number of police officers in Laurel from fewer than 40 officers to about 45.

Cox said he hopes the application/hiring trend continues.

“We expect to have about 50 (officers) by the end of the year,” Cox said. “So that would have been about 10 extra officers, which is really nice. It takes a lot of the workload off of the other officers. It relieves the administration considerably. That takes a lot of pressure off the boss.”

Cox said even if the raise isn’t directly related to crime on the streets, the raise will attract more applicants to the LPD, and the more officers on the road, the better for public safety.

“It just gives you extra visibility,” Cox said. “And visibility is the only thing. It’s a great deterrent to crime the more police officers there are around.

“Now it’s hard to quantify. I can’t tell you what didn’t happen because we had extra officers out there. But everyone knows it’s a great deterrent to crime.”

After just three weeks on the job, Allison Goldman said she was proud to be part of the change.

“Not many people want to do this job anymore,” Goldman said. “It has to be something you really want to do in your heart. In your heart you want to do it. The same goes for the city and the entire state.”

While new officers like Goldman are still settling in, Cox said several more will be starting Monday.

Cox said LPD is also preparing a training academy for a new class of applicants.

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