Five Independence officers sworn in under city’s new payment scale for police

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — Five new officers took their oaths to serve and protect the city of Independence Wednesday night.

Officer Chad Cox is coming back to the Independence Police Department after two years at a neighboring force. He joined four new colleagues as the newest officers at the Independence Police Department.

He said part of it was the community support in Independence.

“People come up to you, they tell you thank you,” he said. “They tell you they appreciate you. They tell you they want you here,” Cox said.

He also mentioned that the new salary for Independence police officers was a deciding factor.

“I couldn’t say no. I miss my family here,” Cox said. “So, it was time to come back with a great financial decision for me to come back.”

The salary bump is a direct response to police raises in Kansas City, Missouri. They wanted to stay competitive with their neighbors and the raises would help them attract more talent.

“We were creeping up on about 20% of our positions being vacant,” said City Manager, Zach Walker. “That was getting dangerously low for us.”

Chief Adam Dustman says he’s happy about getting new officers in the department.

“It’s not lost on me either that these five said, ‘Hey, I’m going to go make that kind of money.’ And it’s attractive. That’s a great thing,” he said.

He also said that they’ve seen an increase in new applicants, with the recruiting team having interviewed eight candidates on Wednesday.

“They’ve had interest from other agencies as well as even from outside of the state, which is really, really impressive,” Dustman said.

Overall, the pay bump is going to cost the city $5.5 million. On August 6, voters in Independence will vote on “Proposition PD” which would implement a one quarter cent sales tax in Independence, to fund the salaries of these new officers.

City Manager Zach Walker told FOX4, that regardless of how the vote goes, they will still have to pick up the tab for the higher salaries.

“So, we have to pass this tax if we want to be able to not only keep our police services at the level they’re at, but also protect our other city services as well,” Walker said.

He said that the millions of dollars will have to come out of other areas of the city’s budget, which is already tight.

“If the tax weren’t to pass, then that means we’re going to have to go back in and look at our budget and find out where those cuts are going to come to balance to meet the obligation we’ve made here,” he said. “It seems that they are willing to support the taxes that are necessary to pay for these kind of services because they realize the return on that investment that they’re getting.”

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