ELYRIA, Ohio — Many Northeast Ohio police departments, both big and small, are struggling to recruit officers. While the Cleveland Division of Police is reporting some progress, the Elyria Police Department chief is saying they'll never be able grow their force with their current salary offers.
Elyria Chief William Pelko told City Council Wednesday that they are short-staffed, with currently only 79 full-time officers to handle 35,000 calls a year.
"These ladies and gentlemen, they're working their butts off to answer these calls and stuff," Pelko told legislatiors. "And I worry there's going to be burnout with them, as well, or they might go somewhere else because there's more money, or more money and less work."
Pelko shared that the department's starting salary for new recruits is $60,563, which he says is not competitive enough to build up their force.
"We're competing with these other agencies who have a higher salary," he explained, before giving comparisons to other departments in the region.
"North Royalton is paying $69,000 to $84,000, based on your experience," he said. "Twinsburg's paying $65,000 to $76,000 to start out."
Elyria Councilman Maurice Corbin told 3News he agrees with the chief's assessment, and that Council will be coordinating with Mayor Frank Whitfield to hopefully increase the city's budget for police.
"I would like to see us increase the budget so that Chief Pelko knows that he can go out and get four, five, six, 10 officers," Corbin said. "We could probably use 30 more police, and when you figure out the salary and the benefits, that's a significant chunk of a change."
Both Corbin and Pelko acknowledge they're not alone in this.
"Pretty much every department in Northern Ohio is looking to increase their number of patrolmen," Corbin admitted.
The city of Cleveland has also been struggling with recruitment as of late, with a spokesman saying that as of Wednesday, they have 1,211 total officers but are budgeted for 1,498. However, he also shared some good news, claiming that since Aug. 23 — when the city increased the cadet salary from $16 to $24 an hour with a sign-on bonus offer of up to $5,000 — applications have gone up 45%.
