Council committee approves pay raises for Jackson police officers

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Jackson Police appear to be one step closer to getting pay raises in the upcoming fiscal year.

On Thursday, the Jackson City Council Finance Committee approved allocating $654,804.94 to provide across-the-board pay increases to Jackson Police Department officers.

If the council approves the budget on Friday, police will see pay increases ranging from $1,500 to $2,000, with those raises taking effect Oct. 1.

It would be the third consecutive year that officers have received a pay raise. Council members approved raises last fall and voted last year to give officers more pay than their American Rescue Plan Act allotment.

Last year’s increase came from defunding several vacant police positions. This year, nearly $563,000 will come from defunding a handful of vacant civilian positions.

“The huge effort came from your department, from what you sacrificed, and we only had to supplement $91,000 of the fund balance until our tax revenues go up again,” said Finance Committee Chairman Aaron Banks. “As our city is safer, our tax revenues will go up again.”

While those increases are moving forward, the Finance Committee has yet to decide on several other requests from Chief Joseph Wade, including $96,000 to purchase license plate readers, $75,000 to buy “safe city” cameras to install in high-crime areas and a $50,000 increase to its towing budget to cover rising towing costs.

In the meantime, the council is opting for another avenue to help JPD obtain new vehicles through its master lease program. That program will allow the city to purchase new vehicles over time rather than having to pay for them all at once.

The council also needs to find another $635,000 to fund an annual subscription service for the department. Deputy Chief Wendell Watts says the subscription is for the JPD’s reporting management system, which keeps records of all calls for service, reports filed and the like.

Budget deliberations are expected to resume Friday at 9 a.m. The council was expected to vote on the budget at a special meeting Friday at 10 a.m. However, that meeting has been canceled.

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