Eunice Police officers began receiving a $3 an hour pay raise in January in attempt to retain and attract trained officers.
The starting pay moved up to $12.75 an hour.
Voters in May 2019 approved a 0.25% sales tax to fund the pay raise.
But last week the news was about Ville Platte’s city council raising the starting pay for police to $15 an hour.
Eunice Police Chief Randy Fontenot said, “I approached the mayor and will be approaching the city council. It is time that we start looking at increasing officer pay again.”
Mayor Scott Fontenot said that while he hopes the city eventually can match the $15 an hour Ville Platte rate, there isn’t extra revenue to pay police more in the Eunice budget.
But he also questioned if Ville Platte will be able to sustain the pay raise in the years to come.
The police chief said he first asked for the Eunice Police pay raises five years ago, so he’s figuring if might take another five years to get new raises.
About Ville Platte, “Their goal is to hire officers ready to put boots on the ground.”
In other words Ville Platte and other departments are wanting to hire officers already trained.
“We have become the training ground for Acadiana,” the chief said.
The chief said the Eunice department is short five officers from its full staffing of 33. Officers are working overtime he said the provide five officers on a shift, he said.
The staffing shortage is stressful for officers, he said.
The chief said Ville Platte Police were down to one officer on patrol and there were well-publicized calls from some city officials for the National Guard and State Police to help with security.
