Chief Jerry Holdaway told the Radford City Council that the Radford City Police Department is operating with a critical staffing shortage and an increasing workload that has strained officers and support staff.

Holdaway said the department is currently nine sworn officers short and described call volume trends, including between 80 and 120 mental-health-related calls per month and a rise in firearms seizures (50 so far this year compared with 27 last year). He said the department has returned salary-savings dollars to the city in prior years and has secured grant funding that offsets some costs.

To address retention and recruitment, Holdaway requested a $10,000 annual pay increase for sworn officers and a $2,500 increase for six non-sworn staff positions; he also said the city’s starting salary for recruits is $47,199 and estimated a two-year investment to hire and train a new officer at about $238,000. "It's definitely a much more feasible and financial decision to give our guys raises versus trying to hire and train and recruit two police officers," he said.

Councilors expressed unanimous support during the meeting and moved to adopt the chief’s plan by voice vote. One councilor noted an eight-minute video shown in closed session demonstrated the calls and staffing pressures the department faces. The council asked staff to explore funding options and indicated similar presentations would be requested from other public-safety departments.

The council did not provide a detailed line-item funding plan in the meeting record; staff and the city manager indicated the request could be managed within the city's budget by reallocating available funds and using some grant offsets mentioned by the chief.