More Details on Pay Boost for Santa Fe-based Police

More details have emerged on a recent proposal to provide Santa Fe police officers with extra cash if they make the City Different their home base.

The City Council is set to consider a resolution to bump up pay by 15 percent for officers living in or near Santa Fe.

Currently, only about 22 percent of Santa Fe’s police officers reside in the immediate area. Many live in places such as Rio Rancho or Albuquerque, where the cost of living tends to be cheaper than in Santa Fe.

For the average rookie police officer in Santa Fe, who earns about $38,958 annually, the 15 percent incentive would mean an extra $5,843 or so a year.

“The idea of the incentive is to try and keep all our officers here in Santa Fe, within that 15 mile radius, so we have them in our community,” City Councilor Bill Dima said. “The whole idea is to attract officers to live here in Santa Fe because it’s nice having the officers living in our neighborhoods. It’s a good crime prevention measure.”

The resolution may also get the wheels rolling on an apparent plan to scale back the police department’s vehicle take-home policy, which allows officers to commute up to 60 miles to work in their patrol cars.

The measure refers to “implementing a mileage distance of 15 miles for new commissioned police personnel to take home police vehicles.” At least two of the resolution’s sponsors appear to interpret the provision differently, however.

Councilor Ron Trujillo said he understands the language to mean new hires can only commute on the city’s dime within the 15 mile radius, although current police officers would be grandfathered in under the 60-mile policy.

Dimas said he believes new officers will still be able to take advantage of the existing take-home policy.

City Attorney Geno Zamora said specifics can be worked out during the city’s committee review process

The measure also revives a program for police officers to live in manufactured homes on city property. The idea has been floated before, most recently in 2009. At the time, city officials wanted to build affordable housing for public safety officers in local parks as a way to deter crime and provide low-cost rental units to new officers, but the plan was shelved due to opposition from residents and budget cuts.

“I think it would be great,” Trujillo said. “I think it would be wise to put (housing) in some of the parks.”

If the resolution is approved by the City Council, its provisions won’t automatically become city policy. Rather, they’ll be put into the budget for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, and city managers will negotiate details with the police union.