Suburban Police Departments Pay Officers Much More Than Dallas
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Dallas Police officers have a new weapon.
That weapon is a new salary comparison that they plan to use in their battle with city hall over a police and fire pay raise.
The salary of a starting officer in Dallas is just under $50,000.
A pay comparison compiled by the Dallas Police Association shows Houston, Austin and Fort Worth offering $5000 to $6,000 more with almost all suburbs starting at more than $60,000.
"To see that there's such separation, it's not $8000 it's not &10, 000 some of those cities, says Sgt. Michael Mata, Dallas Police Association President, "It's a $15,000 to 20,000 difference."
The DPA is firing back after Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said on Tuesday, "Doing an across the board pay raise is like taking a chainsaw to heart surgery. You can't just throw money up against the issue."
Officers in Dallas are fleeing left and right for higher paying departments.
The disparity in starting salaries isn't nearly as revealing as those after five years.
In Plano, it jumps to $87,034 while increasing to $79,824 in Richardson and $79,200 in Irving, $76,712 in Mesquite, $75,988 in Grand Prairie and $75,011 in Frisco.
Dallas officers get $57,543 after five years.
Fred Parrish owns an executive placement firm. He says the disparity in police pay is surprising.
"It would not be hard for someone to go north of here 15 or 20 minutes. Twenty minutes and they certainly would do that for these kinds of differentials," says Parrish of The Profit Experts.
Mayor Rawlings says the police associations are overlooking $41 million in pre-approved raises already in the proposed budget.