In an effort to attract the highest quality candidates, the City of Bloomington is now offering several new incentives within the Bloomington Police Department (BPD). Additionally, significant salary increases were agreed upon through the collective bargaining process, and are reflected in the recently approved contract between the City of Bloomington and the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP).
The City offers the following incentives to ensure that the Bloomington Police Department remains competitive in the market for the best officers:
- $5,000 signing bonus for applicants that are already a certified police officer
- $3,000 signing bonus for non-certified applicants
- $1,000 quarterly retention bonus in 2022
- $750 monthly rent assistance, beginning at the start of employment, for officers that rent a residence within the City
- $18,000 one-time down payment assistance for officers that purchase a residence within the City (after a probationary year)
- Take-home patrol vehicle for officers that live within the City
“We are grateful to our high-quality and well-trained police officers and dedicated to taking seriously the recommendations of the Future of Policing Task Force, the first of which addresses paying and retaining the people that work at the front lines of public safety in our community,” said Mayor Hamilton. “Our City Council and the administration worked together to pass the Recover Forward initiative and an increase in the Local Income Tax to provide for these incentives, salary increases, and support of our nationally accredited Police Department, which ultimately supports our community as a whole.”
The new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) increases the salary of an Officer First Class by 13.2% in 2023. This means that the salary for officers that have completed their probationary year, as well as the starting salary of those hired that are already certified officers, will be $66,327 in 2023. Further, the total percentage of increase in the Officer First Class salary over the four years of the CBA totals 21.9%. A police officer salary increase for the purposes of stability and continuity was the first recommendation in the April 2022 inaugural report from the community-member-led Future of Policing Task Force.
"The mental health and physical safety of BPD officers are top of mind in the important task of recruiting and retaining a well-trained and highly disciplined department. All improvements in fully funding public safety will include keeping pace with the needs of police officers,” said City Council President Susan Sandberg. “The City Council has pushed hard to restore what has been lost, to increase public confidence in our police department, and to give patrol officers all due respect for their sacrifices and professionalism."
Bloomington Police Department is nationally accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA) (calea.org) in recognition of the department’s excellence in public safety and commitment to the community. BPD will continue to be a leader in delivering public safety and implementing recommendations and best practices like those from the 21st Century Policing Report (https://bton.in/n8c2w), #8Can’tWait (8cantwait.org), Bloomington’s resident-led Future of Policing Task Force (https://bton.in/nnwXo), and others.
In addition to the above incentives, the Bloomington Police Department has made efforts to support the overall health and well-being of BPD employees. The Department also offers unlimited free access to a workout facility and to a Tactical Athletic Trainer for both on and off-duty injuries as well as injury prevention. Further, police social workers and a peer support group are available to provide unlimited free confidential mental health, counseling, and wellness assistance to employees.
Original source can be found here.
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