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At the Monday, August 5 meeting of the Sudbury Public Schools School Committee, Sudbury Police Chief Scott Nix shared a few updates on the ongoing collaboration between the schools and the police department. But an important detail emerged in the discussion: the police department is soon to be short 7 officers in its department of 30. Nix also noted an officer that typically serves as the school resource officer to Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School has been reassigned to patrol this summer. (6:47)
On Thursday, August 8, the Sudbury Police Association announced that their annual Public Safety Day in September was being cancelled due to staffing shortages.
The announcement arrived just as collective bargaining negotiations are expected to pick up between the Town and the police union groups.
The most recent patrol officer agreement we could find on the Town website is available here.
The most recent sergeants agreement we could find on the Town website is available here.
The most recent lieutenants agreement we could find on the Town website is available here.
Police staffing shortages are not uncommon in Massachusetts, and across the country, in recent years. However, a variety of programs have been launched to attract more candidates to careers in police work, and several cities and towns have increased base pay to attract and retain officers. Police officers tend to be among the highest paid employees for cities and towns, but that’s typically due to overtime pay and details, not base pay.
A recent report from Newsweek highlights the states with the highest and lowest compensation for police officers. While Massachusetts is in the upper-middle of the pack, it’s also one of the states with the highest cost of living.
The trend lines for police recruiting in recent years aren’t necessary holding steady. The Police Executive Research Forum reported that recruiting rebounded dramatically in 2023.
“For the first time since the start of the pandemic, agencies reported a year-over-year increase in total sworn staffing. Responding agencies reported hiring more sworn officers in 2023 than in any of the previous four years. Agencies saw fewer resignations in 2023 than they did in 2021 or 2022, though they still had more officers resign last year than in 2019 or 2020. And retirements dropped back down to roughly where they were in 2019 after being elevated for the previous three years.”
Police Executive Research Forum [Report HERE]
At the local level, one question is whether or not Sudbury’s compensation and benefits are competitive with surrounding cities and towns. But comparison of collective bargaining agreements isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison in many cases. Each town has it’s own salary steps and employment tiers, as well as benefits, incentives for professional development, paid and sick time off, and so on.
Insofar as base pay can often make up a smaller portion of total compensation than one might expect, the overall benefits package and terms of the contract can play a bigger role in attracting and retaining officers. In Fiscal Year 2023 the overtime pay totaled $510,234 for Sudbury police officers, which is about a quarter of the budgeted salaries for officers showing 2,235,870. (Page 56) Other compensation listed in the Town budget includes sick leave buyback, holiday pay and stipends. But the overall compensation picture looks a bit different than what you might see in a town like Brookline.
To make matters more complicated: even if the compensation in a town were the best in the state, if a department is understaffed and officers are required to work excessive overtime, the job can take an excessive toll with required overtime. And understaffed departments end up having to spend more on overtime.
With significant nuance and variation in each and every town’s contract with police unions, the focus comes back to the Town of Sudbury and it’s local unions. Can they can reach mutually acceptable agreements that help to solve the officer retention challenges, all while navigating a Town financial forecast that is reportedly suboptimal? The town’s leadership has been getting the job done with other unions this year, and it appears they’ll need that hot streak to continue.