By Rebecca McCarthy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
GWINNETT, Ga. — In its $12.9 million budget for 2008-09, the city of Suwanee has paid attention to law enforcement.
City officials added more police positions, started a program allowing officers to take home their vehicles and purchased equipment for the Police Department. The city also upgraded two positions.
Suwanee isn’t the only Gwinnett community paying more attention to its Police Department. Norcross and Lawrenceville also are increasing salaries and beefing up benefits to retain their police officers.
Suwanee’s take-home program will cost $90,000 a year, but City Manager Marty Allen says it’s money well spent. Suwanee has lost at least one police officer to a nearby municipality that had such a program, and city officials don’t want to lose any more. Suwanee has 36 sworn officers.
“To remain competitive, we’re allowing officers to take home their police cars,” said Allen. “We want to minimize our officers’ leaving for other jurisdictions. You invest a lot of time and money in training police officers and we want to keep them.”
With new cities coming online and starting new public safety programs, it’s a good time to be in law enforcement in the north metro area, said Dallas Stidd, police chief for Norcross.
“New cities have come calling, and the police officers market became lucrative,” said Stidd, who has 36 sworn officers in his police force. “I think it’s a good thing. You have to be aware of market forces, because running a police department now is like running a private business.”
Norcross’ budget, which runs from January to January, included a take-home vehicle program this year. The city also changed the pay system for officers from a standard 2.5 percent annual increase to a performance-based system.
In addition, Norcross is in the final stages of implementing an information technology system that allows officers in the field to be wired and paperless. Stidd said the city’s police cars would be like portable computer workstations.
“As far as implementing measures as a response to smaller cities, these are things that needed to happen anyway,” the chief said.
What’s the deal with taking home a police vehicle?
“It’s a perk like that’s provided in any other business,” Stidd said. “Police officers are always on call. If they don’t have an emergency vehicle on hand, they might not get there.”
For a police officer, having his or her own car is like having an office or work station, said Lawrenceville Police Chief Randy Johnson.
“It gives officers a sense that, ‘It’s mine, and no one else is driving it,’ ” he said. “It’s their car, and all their stuff is in it, and they don’t have to take it out.”
Johnson, who has 72 sworn officers, said his department has had a take-home vehicle program for more than 10 years. He has lost an officer to Sandy Springs, and he doesn’t want to lose anyone else, he said.
“Good equipment, a take-home car program and decent pay and benefits have allowed us to retain most of our officers,” Johnson said. “You have to keep up with the pay. We haven’t had a problem losing people. Not yet.”
Copyright 2008 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution