Police chief says all officers are back on patrols

Published 8:17 pm Wednesday, August 31, 2016

The Selma Police Department’s “sick out” is officially over.

Selma Police Chief John Brock confirmed that all of the officers are officially back at work, following a sick out that started on Aug. 11 as a demand for pay raises. Brock said it’s hard to know exactly what day all the officers were back since there are two different shifts.

However, he’s thankful it’s finally over.

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“The shifts are full. They are back to normal, if you call it normal,” Brock said. “In our business, nothing is ever normal, but we are back to full staff.”

Brock said no officers left as a result of the sick out. Two officers did leave the department recently, but Brock said their departure was already planned well before the “sick out.”

“Nobody has turned in their resignations to me as of today and I haven’t heard anybody that’s planning on leaving,” Brock said Wednesday. “Nobody has resigned, nobody has quit or anything like that, over it.”

Brock said the supervisors didn’t get a lot of time off during the sick out, so they were relieved when officers came back to work.

The Selma City Council voted Aug. 18 to give public safety employees a raise Oct. 1, but didn’t outline how much the raises would be.

The police and all other city departments haven’t had a permanent pay raise since 2007. Employees have received bonuses around the holidays the past three years of up to $1,600 for full-time with three years of service with the city.