They put their lives on the line because they took an oath, but working a high risk job for low pay and no benefits can take a toll on part-time police officers.
“They told us when we graduated 98 percent of us are gonna start with part time jobs and it’s gonna be hard to get that full time position,” Duncansville Police Patrolman Lance Morris said. “I’m thinking to myself, ‘Ah, it can’t be that hard to get full time.’ Here I am over a year later…”
A year out of the police academy, which cost him $5,000, Patrolman Morris splits his time between Duncansville and Martinsburg Police Departments, all while looking for a full-time position to better support his family.
“We’re a training ground,” Duncansville Police Chief James Ott said. “We know that because we can’t offer benefits. We can’t offer really great pay.”
According to the Department of Community and Economic Development, about 20 percent of all police officers in Pennsylvania are employed part-time.
That’s largely due to budget cuts.
“Municipalities in some cases will start to fold to that,” Chief Ott said. “One of the first areas that you’re cutting in a budget is going to be your public service. It’s the largest expenditure a municipality will have.”
Many officers in our region make as low as $12 per hour. On top of that, many have to buy their own duty gear and gun.
Part-time, no benefits. Patrolman Morris admits it’s a struggle.
“You can’t live off 40 hours a week so you hope you get the 40 hours,” he said. “You have to work 60 to make decent money to raise a family.”
“The pay that they’re making, sadly, in some cases shameful for what you’re asking them to do,” said Chief Ott.
They’re not just writing speeding tickets. Lloyd Reed Junior was a part-time police officer. Last November, he was killed while responding to a domestic call.
“With this job you don’t get to deal with the good too much,” Patrolman Morris said. “More than likely if you’re going on a call it’s for something bad. You go from everything to helping a lady that’s stuck on her scooter in the park to you have a guy in his house that’s shooting at the police officers.”
“A bad day in this profession, your family is planning a funeral for you,” Chief Ott said.
With such high risk and little pay, fewer people want to wear the badge.
“As a whole, it feels thankless at times,” Chief Ott said. “You’re scrutinized in everything you do. You’re underpaid. You can’t get full time. You can’t get benefits.”
Representative Frank Burns, 72nd Legislative District, runs the “Push Out the Pusher” program. He has suggested a regionalized police force.
“If they regionalized, it would be able to have 24 hour coverage,” Rep. Burns said. “Now, that police officer may be in the neighboring municipality, but he will get there much quicker than a state police officer would.”
He said it would help save and pool enough money from multiple municipalities to be able to afford full-time officers, benefits included.
“That way each municipality wouldn’t have the cost of buying new equipment, maintaining a building,” Rep. Burns said. “It would all be in one building, same police cars for all municipalities that join.”
Cheif Ott said in small communities, it’s not that easy.
“If you don’t establish a proper structure to regionalization, or purchasing services elsewhere, your community suffers,” he said.
“Everybody wants the actual, physical location of the police force in their area,” Rep. Burns said, “and that’s a hurdle we have to get over if we attempt to do something like this.”
Burns said there have been talks in Harrisburg about allowing County Sheriffs to have more authority, as well as growing the State Police force, but no movement has been made yet.