The St. Louis County Police Officers Association is a Chapter of the National Fraternal Order of Police
Lodge #15 and has a long tradition of maintaining the highest standards for our police officers here in St.
Louis County. Unfortunately, St. Louis County Government, by way of neglect and unwillingness to
address a critical problem, has created a situation where we are experiencing serious problems in
recruiting qualified police recruits and retaining experienced officers.
Last year the Saint Louis County Police Department lost 67 experienced police officers and civilian
employees through resignation or early retirement. Many of these employees felt they had no choice but
to leave the County Police Department for careers with competing departments or other employers
offering better pay and lower out of pocket family health insurance costs. Did you know that many of our
officers are paying 22.4% of their Gross wages just to provide health insurance for their families? For a
dispatcher it’s 28.15%. That’s roughly 50% of their take home pay gone before paying any bills or putting
food on their tables.
Our Police Officer’s pay has not kept pace with surrounding police departments, which has left us ranked
33rd of the top 44 police departments in the area. This situation has been brought to the attention of
County Executive Charlie Dooley and Chief Operating Officer Garry Earls by the Police Association at
several County Council meetings as well as private conferences. Mr. Earls stated he believes the St.
Louis County Police is the finest police department in the area and should be ranked somewhere in the
top 5 to 10 police departments in pay.
After meeting with Mr. Dooley and Mr. Earls and confinning they were aware of the problem, the
Association conducted a study and created a fiscally responsible plan to restructure our pay scale and
correct this situation. The plan was designed to slowly scale our officer’s pay up to position 10 in the St.
Louis area over a three year period. The County’s budget was examined and it was determined they
could easily cover this plan with a fraction of a new revenue stream created in 2007 by an already
established cell phone tax, earmarked for LAW ENFORCEMENT USE.
As of the rapidly approaching end to the first quarter in 2008, Mr. Dooley and Mr. Earls have spent most
of this revenue stream on other issues and have continued to disregard the problems within the Police
Department. After cutting our merit raises by 40% in 2004 and with our out of pocket family insurance
costs by far out pacing any salary increases, many experienced officers are left with no option but to seek
other employment. In 2008, the cut in merit raises was corrected but, after 4 years, the damage was
already done.
We would like every taxpaying citizen and business owner in St. Louis County to contact St. Louis County
Executive Charlie Dooley and ask him to address this critical situation at your police department. Thank
you for your HELP IN OUR TIME OF NEED. With your help, the St. Louis County Police Department will
continue to provide the same excellent police services they have since its inception in 1955.
St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley can be e-mailed at: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or, please
address a letter to the County Executive’s attention at 41 South Central Ave., Clayton, MO, 63105.
Please also send a copy of your message to: S1. Louis County Police Officers Association President Bob
Frohne at: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).