JEFFERSON CITY — Labor leaders for the Jefferson City police and fire departments are urging the passage of a ballot measure that would increase the public safety sales tax in the city to a rate of 50 cents per $100.
The current public safety tax, passed in 2021, sits at a rate of 25 cents per $100. The measure will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot.
Leaders of the unions for the Jefferson City Police Department and Jefferson City Fire Department say their primary concern is recruiting and retaining personnel, which they attribute to a lack of funding.
Detective Jason Ambler, president of the Jefferson City Police Officers Association, said the department is down 18 officers.
Ambler said the Jefferson City Police Department has a good reputation for people going into law enforcement, but the starting salary deters some from joining.
"Unfortunately, when you're dealing with recruiting, individuals that are in a police academy are hearing our starting salary," Ambler said. "And for the mid-Missouri area, we are second lowest."
A graduate of the police academy who starts their career with the Jefferson City Police Department would make $53,345. By comparison, a posting on the Department of Public Safety's website lists $53,487 as the salary of a Capitol Police Officer, and Columbia Police Department offers $60,611 as a starting salary.
If that officer instead chose the route of a deputy at a sheriff's department, Boone County offers north of $60,400 and Cole County starts deputies at $56,000.
It isn't just entry-level officers who are choosing to build their careers elsewhere. Ambler also noted that, in his time on the force, he's seen several talented and experienced colleagues leave for better paying jobs.
"I know that there has been a handful of individuals that the department has invested lots of time and money into them," Ambler said. "Unfortunately, they were able to find jobs in the private sector that paid more. It costs more to train and recruit a new officer than it does to pay someone qualified who's been on the job for an extended period."
Jefferson City voters may not notice the staffing shortage from the number of officers on patrol, but Ambler said residents would notice a lack of badges in other places.
"We have had to move officers from specialty units such as school resource officers, CIT — officers that are assigned to a mental health task force — that have had to be pulled from those specialty units to go back to cover the road because, at end of the day, patrol is the backbone of any department," Ambler said.
The Jefferson City Fire Department also has similar concerns. Firefighter James Noah, the president of Jefferson City Firefighters Local 671, noted a disparity in even the raw number of applicants hoping to join the Fire Department.
"Our recruitment pool has fairly dwindled from where it used to be," Noah said. "We used to get upwards of 200 to 300 applicants. Now we're roughly getting 40 applicants or so throughout that recruitment process, and maybe not all of them (are) making it through that recruitment effort."
Noah pointed to the oncoming retirements of several members of the Fire Department as another potential contribution to the staffing shortage. He also mentioned retention of members as a point of concern, highlighting the financial costs to the taxpayer when a member of the Fire Department leaves.
"With retention issues, not only are we losing quality applicants and quality individuals once they make it through the ranks, but we're also losing that investment and what that means for bringing them on the trucks," Noah said. "It's roughly about $15,000 to outfit a firefighter with specialized gear that's custom fit to them."
Fewer firefighters also means fewer first responders arriving quickly on scene.
The Jefferson City Fire Department has sent out both of its ladder trucks with only two personnel on board. According to Noah, this is not enough people to operate the extending mobile ladder on the top of some Jefferson City firetrucks.
Noah said the ladder could be the only method of escape for people trapped by flame on higher floors. If an understaffed truck responds to the fire, the person in question would need to wait until additional fire department units arrived before the ladder system could be safely deployed.
"That could be somebody's lifeline on elevated platform, whether it's a three- or four-story building or a high rise," Noah said. "That's their means of egress because the stairway and the hallway's blocked off. In order to do that safely and effectively, we have to have staffing for the apparatus."
Body cameras for the Police Department are another area of concern. The department began using body cameras as part of a three-year lease with the city in 2023. With that agreement expiring, Ambler said the cameras not only need to be replaced, but that this would create additional costs.
"Technology has evolved to the point where, kind of like a cellphone ... they're not offering any technical support or replacement if one was to get damaged," Ambler said. "So as that technology evolves, so does the cost of doing business with regards to them."
In June, Jefferson City Council approved a contract worth over $330,000 with Axon Enterprises for new body cameras. The contract falls under the potential uses for funds raised by the tax, according to the city's memorandum of understanding with the police and fire unions.
Both Ambler and Noah are optimistic that Jefferson City voters will adopt the new tax, and both have been involved in public outreach and dialogue to back their optimism.
"We want to give the citizens the level of service they deserve and, quite frankly, expect to continue doing our line of work," Ambler said.
"I think we've got the community support," Noah said. "We answered some honest questions and flipped some votes within that engagement and our transparency and what this looked like for Jefferson City."
Officials from the Police and Fire departments declined to comment.
Voters in August passed a public safety sales tax in Columbia by a margin of just under 0.28% of the vote, according to previous KOMU 8 reporting. By contrast, Jefferson City's 2021 vote on the current public safety tax was passed with nearly 70% of the vote.
