Epsom Police Chief Wayne Preve said he’s lost two officers this year to other departments that offer higher pay and more opportunities.

Officer Joseph Lister left in April, about two weeks after the March vote, at which the town inherited its fourth default budget in a row. He took an opening with the Northwood Police Department.

Officer Korey Crochmal was finished with his duties in Epsom on Friday, July 4, and is leaving police work altogether, Preve said.

“We were pretty lucky for the past two years. We had a full staff. Of course, what really put a damper on things was the default budget,” said Preve, adding the department has seen some cost-of-living raises but is still lagging behind what surrounding communities are paying their officers.

Currently, Preve said, Epsom pays new recruits a starting salary of about $30,000 per year, or $14.44 per hour, after they graduate from the police academy.

That salary is much lower than the starting salaries for new officers in surrounding towns. Chichester starts at about $32,000, Pembroke starts at about $36,000, and Allenstown starts at just over $38,000.

By the time a brand new officer gets that salary, the department has already paid between $25,000 and $30,000 to advertise for and narrow down a new recruit, pay them for their police academy attendance, field training, all physical and psychological tests, and other costs associated with hiring new officers.

At the vote in March, a warrant article for a one-time salary and benefits increase for firefighters and police officers failed 539-367.

“Of course, it’s all going back on the raises failing. A lot of guys were holding on, hoping the raises would go through, and they didn’t,” Preve said. “They held on as long as they could hold on”

Preve said Lister actually came to him two weeks after the election and said he would not be leaving the Epsom police if the town had voted in the raises.

Preve is in the process of filling two vacancies in the department, and, after going through a candidate selection process, had only one viable candidate.

Allenstown sees same problem
While Allenstown’s pay is slightly better than Epsom’s, Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland said the department still has major retention issues when trying to compete with the larger departments in cities which offer significantly higher pay and more specialization opportunities.

“We’ve lost 46 policemen in 10 years,” Mulholland said. “We’re populating the police departments of Nashua and Manchester.”

Allenstown is likely to lose two more officers as well, Mulholland said, one to the Salem Police Department. Another has applied elsewhere but hasn’t been hired anywhere yet, Mulholland said.

In exit interviews, most of the people who left cited better pay somewhere else as their reason for leaving, Mulholland said. The department currently starts new recruits at $17.58 per hour, and that’s after dishing out $23,326 in compensation for the police academy, field training, uniforms, and everything else associated with a new hire.

“It’s the ultimate irony because we spend money to train these people and we wash out the ones who aren’t going to cut it,” said Mulholland, adding officers get their experience in small departments such as Allenstown and make all their “rookie mistakes” before moving onto a bigger and more financially beneficial department.

Hooksett openings
Hooksett’s starting pay for a brand new recruit, whom the town would have to put through the academy and field training, is $16.38 per hour, said Hooksett Police Chief Steven Agrafiotis.

The Hooksett Police Department lost four officers in 2007, including one who went to Florida and two who went to the Manchester Police Department.

The fourth one left a supervisory position with Hooksett to take an officer’s position in Massachusetts. “He said after his first year there he’d make as much being a patrolman down there as he did as a sergeant up here,” said Agrafiotis.

To attract certified officers with more experience, the Hooksett Police Department offers a lateral program in which, depending on experience, officers coming to Hooksett from another department can start higher up on the pay scale. That way, officers don’t end up taking a pay cut in going from a department they’ve worked at for a number of years to Hooksett.

“Does that maybe hurt a smaller community that can’t do that? Yes, but at the same time, if we want quality people here, we decided years ago we have to do this,” Agrafiotis said.

Agrafiotis also pointed out that Hooksett is a springboard for officers looking to get into the Manchester Police Department, and in turn the Manchester department acts as a springboard for state jobs and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Training ground in Pembroke Pembroke Police Chief Scott Lane said new recruits can expect to make $16.93 per hour in Pembroke after they’ve gone through the academy and training.

“Generally speaking, you need to rely on a salary and a half when a new person is coming in,” Lane said.

He added that himself and two sergeants on the Pembroke police force all came from Allenstown years back.

“Retention is an issue for everyone right now,” Lane said. “For the longest time, Allenstown was a training ground the Pembroke police hired from.” Lane said he lost an officer a few years back to state Highway Patrol, and another part-time officer who went to Concord.

“Most of the officers we’ve lost have gone on to more specialized training,” said Lane, adding that Pembroke police officers often specialize in certain areas to be more efficient and keep things interesting.

The police chiefs for both Candia and Auburn said they haven’t had to deal with high officer turnovers at their departments for several years.

Candia Police Chief Michael McGillen said his department had a pay raise matrix in place before he even came on board to stabilize the pay.

“It’s here in place because Candia did have a lot of turnaround in the late ’90s,” said McGillen.

Currently, brand new recruits can get $17.05 per hour in Candia after going through the academy and training.

Auburn Police Chief Ed Picard said his department has not seen a huge officer turnover recently, and has lost a total of four officers over the past decade or so to Manchester and a couple of others to Bedford.

Picard said new recruits typically make about $32,000 per year with the Auburn Police Department.

He added Auburn absorbed three officers from the Hooksett police and has acquired seasoned part-time officers who retired from other departments such as Manchester and Derry.

“We were fortunate when the town came to grips with the fact that it doesn’t make any sense to be penny-wise and pound foolish,” Picard said.