It’s time for a pay raise, says Selma Police Chief Robert Green.

Despite two new officers being sworn in to the Selma Police Department on Thursday, three current police department personnel are officially calling it quits.

Officer Andre Roper, Sgt. Don Shepard and dispatcher Phyllis Houser are officially leaving the department for positions with the Alabama State Troopers.

The reason, said Green, is more money.

“Right now, we just don’t offer our officers enough money for them to stay here” in Selma, Green said. “As a result, many of our officers are leaving because they are finding better paying positions elsewhere.”

Green said the starting salary for an officer with the Selma Police Department is approximately $22,600. Green said he fears still more police officers may leave Selma for better paying positions with the state or even with the Montgomery Police Department.

According to figures obtained by The Times-Journal, the starting salary for an officer with a high school diploma with the Alabama State Troopers is $25,641.20. The starting salary for a police officer in Montgomery is $29,038.

Starting salaries for officers with police departments in Marion and Greenville, cities which have less than half the population of Selma, are $17,500 and $18,000 respectively, approximately $5,000 less than what officers are paid in Selma.

“When people are being paid so much more in Montgomery or with the state, it is no wonder we have so many officers leaving,” Green said.

One Selma police officer, who wished to remain anonymous, said that for the amount of work Selma’s police officers perform on a daily basis, many feel they are not being paid fairly.

Green said that with the police department already facing a shortage of officers, the city “really needs to pay its officers more in order to keep them here.”

“Hopefully, they [the city] will realize the important job our officers perform on a day by day basis, and that we really require more money to keep more of our officers here in Selma,” he said.