In January, Mishawaka officials approved what it called “historic” raises for public safety employees in the hope of attracting more police officers amid a hyper-competitive market nation-wide.
That round of raises brought a Mishawaka patrol officer to an annual salary of $72,500 annually, but starting in 2024, the city will raise salaries again and move to 12-hour shifts as a means of keeping up with dwindling staffing numbers.
Mishawaka’s city council approved the measure on Monday, making Mishawaka cops some of the highest paid in the state with a salary of close to $90,000 for most officers. The measure will see officers work approximately 240 more hours per year, though they will work significantly fewer days.
“Public safety is public service number one here in Mishawaka," said Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood. "And we know we have limited resources to pay for all of our services and so we began looking creatively at how we could accomplish all of these goals.”
That’s Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood, who also emphasized the plan allows for more officers on patrol at any given time. Currently, most shifts have 10 or 11 officers working, but the new 12-hour shifts could mean 15 to 16 officers on duty.
And despite the significant raises, the change won’t cost the city any additional money since there will be no more mandatory overtime and because the department has been below budgeted levels for a year or more.
Currently there are 96 officers in the department, that’s budgeted for 114.
The Mishawaka police union, called the Fraternal Order of Police, actually came up with the 12-hour shift concept after looking at a number of different police departments around the state. FOP president Rich Freeman said the additional days off are a plus for officers, as are the larger shift strengths.
“We’ve been a reactive police department for a number of years because if one of those 10 officers who’s our minimum shift strength were to go to the hospital, go to the jail. That’s a three-hour round trip, you now reduced it to nine … we were short staffed,” Freeman said.
Freeman remained cautious, however, saying the plan works best if the department stays at about 80 patrol officers, which is no guarantee considering the highly competitive market for police officers.
Last year, the South Bend police union bargained for an 8% raise to bring pay for most officers there up to around $77,000, which was the highest in Michiana until Mishawaka shifted it’s scale. St. Joseph County officers are in the middle of realizing a 20% raise over two years and Elkhart cops saw an 8% bump in 2023. State legislators this session also raised Indiana State Trooper salaries to $70,000.
“It has the potential … to be really a statewide crisis. With communities not being able to hire police officers because they simply can’t find them,” Wood said. “What we’re seeing is an arms race.”
Freeman added he hopes any money saved in the measure goes towards training for officers.
