Faced with a bare cupboard when it comes to police applicants, Leechburg Council is looking at boosting pay for officers.

At Thursday’s council meeting, borough officials said the Civil Service Commission has received no applications for a full-time job on the borough’s police force despite openings being advertised.

Council President Tom Foster said it may relate to the hourly pay rate for both full- and part-time officers not being competitive enough.

The hourly full-time rate is $22 an hour, or $45,760 annually, while the part-time rate is $18.50 an hour, according to Foster and Mayor Wayne Dobos.

“The problem is we are losing candidates to bigger departments who pay $60,000 to $70,000,” Councilman Alan Tarr said.

Not only have there been no new applicants for the full-time patrolman’s job, there aren’t any old ones either. When municipalities hold Civil Service exams to fill police positions, they keep lists of candidates they didn’t hire that can be referred to for subsequent openings for a period of years before the candidates have to re-test.

Foster said there was only one candidate the last time a full-time position was filled in April 2020. That left the borough without a list from which to draw more qualified applicants, he said.

Aside from the pay scale, Dobos also thinks the borough’s job requirement for past experience — 1,040 hours — also could be a problem.

“Our requirements are a little too high as far as hours of experience,” Dobos said. “We should lower the hours required and see if we can get someone right out of the (police) academy and train them.”

Councilman Chuck Pascal said he would prefer for an officer to have at least 1,000 hours of experience.

“If you knock 40 hours off that’s hardly worth it, Chuck,” Dobos responded.

Foster asked Dobos to meet with Police Chief Jason Schaeffer and come up with some suggestions on changing the wages and requirements for the full-time officer’s job.

In the meantime, Dobos said the borough would welcome applicants for the part-time positions and use part-timers to supplement the borough’s roster of three full-time officers.

Over the past few years, municipalities that have historically relied on part-timers have found it more difficult to find them as classes at the police academies have decreased in size. That has led many municipalities to increase the pay scale for part-time officers.

Foster is hoping that at least some part-time applicants will emerge.

“The sooner, the better because overtime is going to break us,” he said.

Tom Yerace is a freelance writer.

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