CLEVELAND — Cleveland Police officers signed a new three-year contract with the city on Wednesday, according to union president Jeff Follmer, who said the new agreement gives officers an 11% raise over the three years.
It's been a busy couple of weeks for the city and police department. On July 21, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb removed the interim from his top cop's title and named Wayne Drummond the City of Cleveland's 41st chief of police.
This contract extension comes after one out of every four officers left the job during the pandemic in Cleveland.
Records show that 404 officers left the force between Feb. 1, 2020, and May 4, 2022, with 46% of the officers who left the force retired, and 37% of the officers who left resigning, some of them taking higher-paying jobs in the suburbs. The remaining 17% left for medical reasons, were terminated or died.
The #Cleveland police department says there have been a historic number of departures from the force.
— Sarah Buduson (@SarahBuduson) August 3, 2022
CPD says:
- Since Jan. 1, there have been 139 departures
- In 2021, there were 186 departures
- Approx. 60 went to other departments last year https://t.co/iVRRwZZ8c0
The top salary a Cleveland police patrol officer could earn before the new contract was $67,619, which is lower than other cities in the state.
In February, the $1.8 billion budget proposal submitted by Bibb and his administration called for increasing Cleveland police staffing to 1,640 to help deal with officer shortages.
#Cleveland budgets for 1640 police officers.
— Sarah Buduson (@SarahBuduson) August 3, 2022
Currently, there are 1358 sworn officers.
So... 282 officers short. https://t.co/keyjNOozlF
RELATED: 1 out of every 4 Cleveland Police officers has left the job during the pandemic
