In 2023, officers worked 26,613 hours of overtime. So far this year, officers have worked 20,089 hours of overtime. (Isabella Vesperini)
The Bloomington fire and police departments have been struggling with staffing and wages for years. But they say things may change next year if their budgets are approved.
Roger Kerr, chief of the Bloomington Fire Department, said his department has been short staffed the past few years because of struggles to retain firefighters after they’re trained. Most firefighters find Bloomington’s training program attractive, but they would then leave for departments that paid more.
“We had fallen behind in salary competitiveness,” Kerr said. “We had younger and middle-aged firefighters who were leaving to go to departments that were making, sometimes $20, $25,000 more than they could make here with just a short drive up Interstate 69, so they were taking advantage of that.”
At the City of Bloomington’s budget meetings last month, Kerr proposed a raise in salary of $15,000 for the first year of work, and a $5,000 increase the second year.
“The $15,000 increase will bring us up pretty close to even with White River, Columbus,” he said. “It should put us ahead of our surrounding friends and neighbors here, such as Monroe Fire District and Ellettsville.”
Read more: Bloomington City Council kicks off 2025 budget meetings
Kerr and Jordan Canada, the firefighter union president, said they didn’t feel supported by the previous administration.
While that administration did invest in new trucks and equipment, Canada said it failed to address low salaries.
Canada and Kerr said current mayor Kerry Thomson has better met their needs.
“From day one, they've (Thomson administration) done exactly what they said they were going to do, which had that negotiation in good faith and get our salaries up,” Kerr said.
But it’s not all about money, Kerr said. Outdated facilities also made firefighters less willing to stay. But with a new training building under construction, Kerr hopes staff recruitment and retention will improve. The city is also in the process of renovating one of its stations.
“It goes with their own sleeping quarters, their own more private rooms, charges for cell phones and iPads, all that stuff has been taken into consideration,” he said. “We're hoping that we attract a younger generation that still wants to do this job but also fits their needs.”
Kerr said after hiring four new EMT personnel in November, the department will be fully staffed at 120 full time personnel for the first time in almost two years. When Kerr started working for the fire department in 1988, there were 82 full time personnel. For most of 2023, his department was 21 people short. Even if they were constantly training firefighters, it's still a six to seven-month process.
“It costs a lot of money to bring somebody in, outfit them, train them, put them through (the) Academy, and then get them on shift,” he said. “It takes about a year or so. It's not something (where) you can quickly solve the problems of being short staffed.”
Kerr had to implement mandatory overtime to make up for the lack of staff and increases in the number of calls. In 2023, the department received 5,961 calls. So far this year, the department has received 4,096 calls.
“It brings morale down; people get tired of working,” he said. “That gets pretty tough when you've planned on your kid’s birthday, or you planned on taking family vacation or whatever it is, and you've been told, ‘Sorry, it's your turn to work,’ and you don't have a choice.”
The Bloomington Police Department has also been struggling with retaining staff. Ryan Pedigo, captain of BPD, said his department is currently 15 officers short of being fully staffed at 105 officers.
“It's fair to say that over the last four years, we have certainly struggled,” Pedigo said. “It's been longer than that since I can remember us being fully staffed. But that's really when our struggles have really taken place, as far as losing more than we're bringing in.”
At the City’s budget meetings, Michael Diekhoff, BPD chief, said the department has been struggling to get people just to apply.
“We’re lucky if we get 20 people to apply,” he said.
Similar to the fire department, Pedigo said the police department is losing officers after training them. They go to surrounding agencies with more attractive benefits and salaries. Indiana University Police officers recently received a salary increase of $7,000; a probationary officer is paid $70,325 yearly. The starting yearly salary for a probationary officer at BPD is $63,683. At the Carmel Police Department, the entry level starting salary is $68,662.
Read more: IUPD raises officer pay across all campuses, outpaces Bloomington police wages
That has resulted in lots of overtime. In 2023, officers worked 26,613 hours of overtime. So far this year, officers have worked 20,089 hours of overtime.
“Sometimes, we have to let less serious calls (wait) for a while, while officers are responding to the more emergent calls and calls in which there could be someone in danger,” he said.
Pedigo said it’s been especially hard for the department the last couple of years because it has been receiving significantly more calls. BPD received 20,067 more calls in 2023 than 2022.
“I do not know why,” he said. “I don't have an explanation for that, but this year is trending right along those same numbers, so we're having to do more with less, and that does result in added stress on the officers.”
City Councilmember Hopi Stosberg spoke at the budget meetings about how police may choose where they want to work based on the culture and how they feel about the system. It may not be as important as the pay.
“That’s something that also needs to be looked at in terms of our culture of policing, in terms of our culture of Bloomington, and how Bloomington responds to police and considers public safety as a whole,” Stosberg said. “Those are things that I'm suggesting we reassess to some degree.”
Pedigo assured that his department has a “fantastic police culture.” They have implemented extensive training on de-escalation techniques, and are also transparent about expectations for how officers present themselves and interact with the community.
“We want our officers to police with a sense of caring,” he said. “We don't want them just simply going from call to call and just trying to take care of an issue and move on to the next. We want them to help solve the problems that the community faces.”
Through BPD’s Police Social Worker program, Pedigo wants to give officers an avenue to decompress and avoid getting overwhelmed by the demanding work.
“It is not uncommon for some people to just simply work in this profession for four or five years and decide it's just not for them anymore,” he said. “Unfortunately, officers see a lot of times what is someone's worst day on a repeated basis. So, when police get called to a scene, it really could be the worst thing that that person has experienced in quite some time, maybe their entire life, so that repeated exposure can take a toll on officers.”
Now that officers have new equipment and are permitted to take home their police cars, Pedigo hopes they can respond to calls more quickly and efficiently. With a potential increase in salary, Pedigo would like to see his department fully staffed in the next two years. The budget is over $21 million, an increase of over $2 million. The hope is that salaries for Officers First Class and Senior Police Officers increase under three percent.
“The proposed raises in the 2025 budget have also already made their way out,” Pedigo said. “I'm in charge of our recruiting and hiring, and I've started to receive several inquiries from individuals, both from other agencies and those that are not officers, that are interested in applying.”
