The Edgewood Police Department is asking to increase its employees’ pay by $10 an hour.
The Town Commission discussed this request last week, but ultimately chose to postpone action until a future special meeting.
That special meeting will be preceded by a workshop to better understand how the pay increases fit in with the town budget.
“We’ve got to make sure we are doing this properly. This is the people’s money and we want to make sure that we are crossing all the t’s, dotting all the i’s and we’re not missing anything,” Mayor Ken Brennan said.
The police department says the raises are needed to retain officers. Currently, Edgewood police officers make less than those employed by Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Bernalillo County, Santa Fe County or New Mexico State Police.
Commissioner Stephen Murillo said not only could the pay increases prevent police officers from leaving to work at other agencies, it could also help the town better recruit officers.
“We shouldn’t be followers, we should be leaders on this,” he said.
Edgewood Police Chief Roger Jimenez said the town is unique when compared to other similarly-sized jurisdictions in New Mexico.
“Edgewood is very, very different in the challenges that we face here,” he said. “We’re surrounded by two of the biggest cities in the state, we have to deal with all the stuff that was coming into and trickling into Edgewood.”
During the two years that Jimenez has been with the Edgewood Police Department, it has increased from 11 patrol officers to 21.
“We’re actually being proactive and making sure that these people know, the criminals know, they’re not welcome here,” he said.
