City of Cassville aims to be competitive in law enforcement hiring

A new committee has been formed by the City of Cassville to address the police department’s staffing and competitiveness when it comes to hiring.

The Police Department Efficiency Committee includes Alderman Mike Phillips, Alderwoman Taylor Weaver, Finance Officer Isaac Peterson, City Administrator Steve Walensky, Police Chief Dana Kammerlohr and consultant Mike Lawton, who has more than 30 years of law enforcement experience.

“At the time Chief Kammerlohr announced her retirement, there were some conversations with the mayor and council on the department’s future, and that morphed into conversations about wages and competitiveness,” Phillips said. “The purpose is to look at staffing requirements for a city our size, shift times and salaries. We hope to set out some future guidelines to help our next chief of police.”

Kammerlohr announced her retirement in February, effective June 1. She said officer hiring and retention have both been challenges for Cassville in recent years.

“It’s not just Cassville,” she said. “It’s nationwide. It’s hard to find experienced officers, especially ones that want to come to a lower-paying department than others in the area. Retention has been rough because they can go elsewhere and make more. One recently got out of law enforcement completely.”

Cassville has nine on staff currently, counting Kammerlohr. That figure is two short of fully staffed after a resignation was submitted on Friday.

“We also have a parttime position frozen and a full-time position frozen,” Kammerlohr said. “There are a couple of academies that graduate in May and we hope to have some applicants before then, but if not, by then we should have some.”

Phillips said the next committee meeting is in April.

“At that meeting, we will have salary comparisons with surrounding counties and look at opportunities to make adjustments to be competitive not only with wages, but looking at things like paying for ammunition or vests. We plan to compare apples to apples as best we can in our area.”

Cassville’s starting salary for a new officer is $37,669. After passing a law enforcement sales tax last year, the Barry County Sheriff’s Office pays over $40,000 starting salary, as does the Monett Police Department.

‘Our ultimate purpose is to be competitive,” Phillips said. “We will take back a recommendation to council that will detail if we should increase of if we are more competitive than we thought. These are guidelines we will set forth for the new chief, and if we are not competitive, we need to have a plan of action to change that.”