Low Pay Causes Police Deputies to Seek New Jobs

Merced County Sheriff's Department's spokesman, Paul Barile recently told reporters at the Merced Sun Star newspaper that six officers have the left the department in the last six months to take positions at other law enforcement agencies because the pay is higher there. The department is expecting to lose four more officers by July.

Police officers began leaving early last year in large numbers but officials are saying that amount has dramatically increased over the last six month. Barile stated in his interview with Merced Sun Star reporter that, "We're consistently losing about a deputy a month."

Manteca, Ceres and Chowchilla have some of the highest paying positions in law enforcement and as a direct result have taken on more of Merced's Police Officers than any other city.

Paul Barile also went on to say in his interview that both new and veteran officers are looking at other law enforcement agencies in the county because some of them are offering salaries that are as much as $2,000 more a month.

A Merced County deputy sheriff makes between $3,382 and $4,512 a month while the same position in nearby Tracy pays between $4,765 and $5,792 a month. The pay for working at the California Highway Patrol is between $4,740 and $5,762 a month.

Sheriff Mark Pazin has looked at the situation and said that recruiting and keeping police officers on staff is the biggest problem the Merced Department faces. Interviewed at the same time as Barile, he told reporters, "When our guys can literally go across the street to the Merced Police Department and get an instant 20 percent increase, I don't know how I'm supposed to compete."

Surprisingly, some of Merced's finest deputies have trained for the Federal Bureau of Investigations and have served on K9 units and the swat team, which has in the long run prompted some deputies to look for positions elsewhere, where they can be compensated for their specialized training in a way that Merced can not.

Merced is considered one of the poorer towns in California, regardless of its growing population and property expansions, because of the rate of immigrants it supports. More than 50% of the population living in Merced receives government assistant in one form or another.

A high rate of immigrants combined with lack of good education has been part of the reason why jobs in Merced pay so low. Kids growing up in the rural farming town tend to move away to go to college and many do not return because of lack of good paying jobs with room to move up the corporate ladder.

Poor education, low paying jobs, endless immigrants and failure to provide entertainment for the youth has been blamed for the rise in gang activity in Merced and now with police officers leaving for higher paying jobs there are fewer officers watching local gangs members.

Sgt. Vern Warnke, the man going to bat for the Merced Sheriff's Department, has addressed the general public saying, "We don't have enough deputies on the streets right now to fight the gang problem in this county, and it's only getting worse. If this problem is not addressed within the next year, it will be a crisis."

According to Warnke, there is now only one officer for every 1,000 Merced residents. That number used to higher with at least two officers per every 1,000.

Although Merced's payscale is low, the housing market is not. The cost of living in Merced has continued to rise at a horrifying rate and now many of the Police officers patrolling its streets can not even afford to live in its community.

The Merced County Board of Supervisors has been made aware of the situation but refuses to do anything about it because Merced is locked in a six year contract that doesn't end until 2010.

The board did offer, however, an additional cost of living increase if the Sheriff's department agreed to extend its current contract to 2012 which the department refused to do.

As of right now there is no easy answer to the problem. The county and the Sheriff's department union representatives are working on a solution but there are currently no plans to make a change to the contract.

Last summer gang members shot and killed a 16 year old boy outside the front doors of the $99 cents store in broad daylight in the middle of the afternoon. They mistakenly thought the young man was a gang member and shot him out of retaliation. It was later discovered the boy had no gang affiliations.

Earlier in June, eight gang members took it upon themselves to vandalize the picnick area surrounding Yosemite Lake in Merced. Over $2,000 worth of damage has been reported to have been done over a two to three week time span.

Officer Stephan Gray was gunned down by gang members in 2004 after a routinely stopping Tahua "Tao" Rivera for a traffic violation. Following his death, a manhunt that included all the surrounding law enforcement agencies, was implemented.It took two days to locate and arrest the killer.

These are only a couple of incidents that have taken place in Merced. There are countless other crimes ensuing every day and with police officers leaving the department, the rest of us Merced residents are wondering who will watch out for our safety.