BRISTOW, Okla. — Bristow Mayor Kris Wyatt said officer pay "is an absolute priority."
Wyatt never held public office until she took the mayoral oath last May.
Since then, the town’s hospital reopened, and they began work to expand the airport. The city council also made strides to raise pay for police officers.
Before the Nov. 22 council meeting, the starting pay for a BPD officer was $16 per hour. A vote raised them to about $18.50 per hour.
Eleven officers make up the whole department. One approached Wyatt and said he was entertaining another job offer.
"I’d heard rumors that probably five more had been approached by other departments," Wyatt said.
With just eleven officers on the department, the council had no choice but to raise them. Nevertheless, Wyatt wants this to happen. In fact, she wants more; aiming to get starting pay around $21 per hour.
The owner of Shooter’s Shop, a gun store in Bristow, told 2 News Oklahoma he’s not surprised some officers thought about leaving.
"A guy's gotta make money to put food on his table," Paul Nedlose said, "So you can’t really go against the guy that went to Bristow Police Department first and got their CLEET training and then moved on to a higher paying job, you can’t blame them for that."
Officers can go to Creek County, Sapulpa, Kellyville, and even Tulsa for more money. The average first year officer at TPD makes more than $70,000 per year, according to their website.
"It becomes kind of an issue … like how far are you willing to travel from home to make another dollar or two an hour?" Wyatt asked.
The only thing stopping Wyatt is the limited offers in Bristow.
Raising eleven officers another $2.50 per hour would cost the city more than $57,000.
"We have sales tax, and we have water taps. That is where we make our money. So it’s going to force us to be a little more selective in how we allocate," Wyatt said.
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