Gig Harbor police complain of officer shortage as slots go unfilled

The Gig Harbor police department is struggling to keep cops on the street because budgeted positions are not being filled, officers say.

“We’re stressed,” said one Gig Harbor officer who asked not to be identified. “We’re all working too much overtime, we’re stretched too thin, yet we’ve got two open positions the city is not filling.”

The police department is budgeted for 21 officers, but currently has only 19.

Chief Kelly Busey acknowledged that hiring has been delayed, partially because the city is in the middle of contract negotiations with the Teamsters local that represents the officers.

“The positions are in the budget,” he said, “Right now we’re waiting for approval from the mayor and the council to go ahead and hire. It’s my hope that will come as soon as we have a contract.”

Police have been working without a contract for 12 months. Talks are now in mediation.

Officers are talking about a “hiring freeze.”

But Mayor Kit Kuhn said Tuesday, “There isn’t really a hiring freeze, it’s just that we’re waiting for negotiations to finish. You don’t want to hire a new officer if you can’t really tell him what you’re offering.”

Kuhn said he also wants to wait until the city’s new administrator, Robert Larson, takes up his duties in January.

The two new officer slots were approved by a previous city council in 2017, Kuhn said. In March of 2018, about three months after becoming mayor, Kuhn said, he told the chief to go ahead and hire.

“About the same time, we lost two or three officers all at once,” Kuhn said. “So the chief had to spend time filling those positions, and that took five months. By that time, we were into contract negotiations.”

Officers say that with one officer on light duty due to an injury and another on training leave, the department was on one recent occasion down to 17 officers available to patrol.

Busey acknowledged the strain.

“It’s taking a toll on our officers,” he said. “They’re working long shifts, and they’re working a lot of overtime. At times, we have only two officers on patrol, and if one of them calls in sick, then someone has to work overtime.”

Normally, Busey said, the department has between two and four officers on patrol, depending on the time and the day of the week. Officers work three 12 ½ hour shifts a week.

“It works great when we have 21,” Busey said. “Not so well when we have less.”

Another source of strain, the chief said, is competition for officers in a tight market.

“Recruiting and retention is brutal,” he said. “We have other departments offering $15,000 signing bonuses, vacation time up front, all sorts of incentives. We’ve had people recruited right out of training classes.”

The department has lost six officers to other departments in the last eight months, according to their colleagues. Officers have gone to Fife, Orting, Tacoma, the Port of Seattle — even the Tacoma Fire Department.

Part of the problem, officers say, is that the Gig Harbor pay scale has lagged behind other cities. Gig Harbor officers are paid between $5,519 and $6,900 a month, depending on experience.

“We’re a little behind,” other cities, Busey acknowledged.

“We had one guy, a sergeant, who took a demotion to go to the Port of Seattle as an officer and now makes $30,000 a year more,” Busey said. “That’s rough.”

Busey said he needs to hire laterally — that is, hire experienced cops — because there’s no time to train entry-level officers.

“If I hire someone off the street, they’re no good to me for a year,” he said. “There’s a three-month wait to get into the academy, then five months at the academy, then three months on-the-job training. I can’t wait that long. I need people now.”

This story was originally published December 4, 2019 at 12:00 AM.