New, entry level police officers joining the Stanley Police Department will see a wage increase beginning Jan. 2, 2024. The current starting wage for a new police officer in the Stanley Police Department is $23.81 with an increase to $27.73 after one year. It then increases to $28.72 after two years. Under the new approved resolution, the beginning wage will start at $26.50 and will increase to $27.73 after one year.

Police Chief Lance Weiland shared his concerns with the city council at the bimonthly council meeting on Monday, Dec. 4. Currently the Stanley Police Department sits at the low end of pay comparisons for police departments in the area. With only Thorp, Cadott, and Colfax lower at $23.00, $22.44, and $22.00 respectively. The Stanley Police Department has faced challenges in recruiting and retaining police officers and according to Stanley Police Chief Lance Weiland it has progressively gotten worse in our area, state and across the country. Not seeing any immediate relief in sight, Chief Weiland recommends that communities look at ways to ensure that these vital services are able to be staffed by qualified and reliable officers. He explains, “Right now, it is a competition in a sense between communities when vacancies arise as we are all competing for the same small pool of applicants, which unfortunately has shrunk year after year. In the end, it does affect service as gaps in coverage, increased response times, and less experienced officers are filling these roles while calls for service and the demand for law enforcement services continue to arise.”

The new wage increase will begin Jan. 2, 2024 and will not affect the wage of current officers. Mayor Al Haas asked, “What will you do with the two recent hires?” Chief Weiland responds that this would go into effect next year and currently is not a budgetary concern as it doesn’t affect any current staff. He added that this isn’t something that was budgeted for the next year so the budget would have to be worked out if someone is hired in the next year. “I personally would rather have to do that and using our funds to pay that difference to hopefully get more qualified applicants versus struggling getting a single applicant,” he said. Haas expressed his concern over the reaction from the recent police department hires if a new individual would be hired in the next year and would be paid more than the recent hires who haven’t yet met their one-year mark for a wage increase. Chief Weiland and the council decided to wait and see if the situation would even arise before deciding how to handle that potential issue.

After the council’s decision to increase the beginning wage of new police department hires, Chief Weiland is grateful. “I am appreciative that the city council does see this as a problem and have taken a proactive approach when it comes to trying to stay ahead of the issues and working with the police department to put things in place so that our services don’t drastically suffer. Our contracted services agreement with the Village of Boyd is a perfect example, along with the recently approved lateral-transfer incentive and the new starting wage for officers that have been put in place. By trying to remain forward-thinking and staying in front of these issues to the best of our ability, I am hopeful that when the next staffing vacancy arrives that we have placed ourselves in a position of advantage and our city and village residents won’t notice any changes to the services we provide.”