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Oak Ridge police to adopt multi-tier officer pay and training plan; trainees to start at $48,464
Summary
Council heard details of a new police professional development plan that redefines entry and progression pay bands, ties pay steps to certifications and sets community engagement expectations.
Eric, a city staff member, and Police Chief Smith outlined a new multi-tier professional development and pay plan for the Oak Ridge Police Department that ties pay progression to training milestones and community engagement.
Under the plan described during the budget presentation, the department will replace the prior "police officer trainee" and "police officer" titles with Police Officer 1 and Police Officer 2. Eric said the new starting pay for Police Officer 1 — the trainee who will attend the academy — will be $48,464, a roughly 3.97% increase compared with the prior starting pay. The starting pay for the certified officer category (Police Officer 2) was presented as $51,001.
Chief Smith described training expectations tied to progression: officers should complete Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training when classes are available, complete crash-investigation and basic-crime-investigation training, and perform two hours of community engagement annually (examples cited included Shop with a Hero or speaking to civic groups). Chief Smith said some training will be hosted locally — "a lot of the crime scene investigation is right here in Oak Ridge" — and other courses will require travel to regional academies when necessary.
The plan also includes further tiers (Police Officer 3 and 4) with defined increases (for example, a 5% increase on promotion to Police Officer 3). Chief Smith emphasized that officers who choose not to pursue the progression can remain at their current classification if they prefer: "If you're a police officer two and you don't want a collateral duty... that's okay."
Council members asked whether pay comparisons included security forces at local plants; Eric said the comparison did not include federal security forces and instead used a set of nearby municipal departments including Maryville, Sevierville and Knoxville. The compensation committee unanimously approved bringing the recommendations forward for Budget and Finance review, Eric said.
