retain, Retain, RETAIN!

If we expect to provide adequate safety coverage for our community we must RETAIN current officers. And it CAN be done.

If we are to retain seasoned officers, we must repeal the current PORS salary cap of $10,000 a year for retire-and-return officers.

South Carolina continues to hemorrhage officers. They leave because they have met their obligation of 25 or 28 years of service and/or they seek higher income to provide for their family.

Many officers meet this obligation while still having many years of healthy service they can offer. They can choose to retire and many do. Some desire to return to the job after retirement. This is the absolute BEST candidate for rehire!

You ask Why?
They know what the job entails;
They take very minimal retraining;
They are immediately productive employees;
The agency knows exactly what type of performance to expect as an employee.

These are a minimal amount of positives and we urge our state legislators to remove the salary cap to return to work.

If retaining officers is to be a viable goal, we need to encourage those officers to return to the job while being able to receive full retirement pay AND obtain fair and adequate pay for the “new” appointment.

We can only encourage those to return by asking our legislators to remove the $10,000 salary limit.

We need to ask for a fair and liveable wage to be paid to our officers. Many qualifiy for public assistance because the pay is so low. In order to hire a new age of officers, they come to the table expecting a realistic pay grade.

When the private sector offers a more satisfactory living wage, we lose candidates.

No average person would run toward tragedy. The fact that this is a true statement means we simply deserve to be paid a decent wage.

What can you do?
Let us hear your thoughts;
Tell your local government council that YOUR officers deserve decent pay, and;
you as a tax-paying citizen deserve adequate protection and coverage.

Terry Gainey, President
South Carolina Fraternal Order of Police

Posted on Wednesday, August 16, 2023