The Lafayette Police Department is taking steps to try and increase officer pay.

The department put in an ordinance for October 15th’s Lafayette City, Parish Council Meeting in regards to a pay increase.

If approved, it would be the department’s first increase since 2014.

“The Lafayette Police Department is asking for a pay plan. And the pay plan is just based upon getting our officers to $40,000 starting pay,” explained Deputy Police Chief, Reggie Thomas.

Thomas says the department can no longer hold off on increasing their officer’s pay, “I call this an emergency. This year alone we have lost 24 officers, and this is only from January.”

Thomas tells News 10, LPD’s current starting pay is $34,600 dollars.

That amount, he says, is making officers leave the department, “One of the things we’re having problems with is other agencies taking our officers because of the pay.

Every agency in the area is at $40,000. You speak to the officers that leave this agency, they’ll tell you that as far as training, the equipment, and as far as the community, they love it here. But they also have to take care of their families.”

He says by getting this pay plan increase passed, positive change can come to the entire department and therefore, the community. 

“When I say it’s an emergency, it’s an emergency for the officers. The officers really want to be here and, you know the council has done a really good job with trying to help us and assist us. So we have no problems with the council, and so we look forward to October 15th and we look forward to this moving forward.”

This pay increase is something the Police Association of Lafayette has been pushing for a long time. They’ve gotten in touch with the council members to see where they stand on this ordinance. 

To see how each council member responded to the association Police Association of Lafayette

If the introductory ordinance is approved, it will move on to final adoption at the November 5th council meeting.