Citizens of Glendora are displaying “Keep Our Cops” signs in their yards to bring attention to police officers leaving Glendora in search of better pay, which is causing the community around Citrus College to lose experienced officers.
Transparent California’s website reports the salaries of public employees. The website reports that Glendora police officers made $87,004.00 on average in 2016.
However, in surrounding cities such as Azusa, pay varies from $90,386.40 to $94,925.31.
Glendora used to pay close to the median salary of the area, typically sitting at about sixth highest out of thirteen nearby departments.
“Now we are second to last among surveyed cities,” said Glendora Police Officers Association President, Josh Price.
Glendora had 31 police officers employed in 2016. Two officers left the department on Dec. 12, 2017.
One officer has left this past March and another officer will be leaving at the end of April.
When a crime is committed on campus, Campus Safety works with Glendora police to address the problem.
“Less officers on duty, if it ever came to that, would have an impact on response time to our campus.” Ben Macias said. Less local officers could mean longer response times.
Keeping experienced officers that “know the campus is important,” mathematics professor, Paul Swatzel said.
A political action committee is being formed to support Glendora assembly candidates that would be supportive of raises to Glendora police officer salaries.
Assembly members are able to effect changes in the city and change policies that affect public workers.
“We are not asking to be the highest paid agency by any means,” Price said. “We are asking for our pay to be competitive with the surrounding agencies. Competitive compensation can help retain seasoned officers, while attracting the best possible candidates.”
Negotiations are still ongoing.
