Lafayette Police Department lobbying for higher pay to help with officer retention

(Daily Advertiser)- Jack Bourgeois grew up in Carencro, found a job he loved and believed he could support a family in his career as a police officer.

But not in Lafayette, Bourgeois found. Even though he enjoyed working for the Lafayette Police Department, the 31-year-old couldn’t afford to keep working there because of the low salaries and the compensation program that makes it hard to get a raise.

“That was my main reason for leaving, not seeing pay raises and really no room for moving up,” Bourgeois said. “The money we (me and my wife) made, we were living, but we had no room to move up.”

Bourgeois, who was with the department for nearly four years, originally looked for law enforcement jobs in Texas, which he said were offering double what LPD offered as starting pay. He eventually took a private-sector job in Texas. 

“LPD is losing good officers because of pay. They’re going to go to places where they can get paid more to do the same job,” he said. “And there are smaller departments in the area that offer more, which is sad.”

The starting pay for Lafayette’s police, who answered more than 180,000 calls for service last year, is $34,600. It’s been five years since the Lafayette Police Department has been able to raise its pay plan, which would increase the pay for every level officer.

Lafayette’s city-parish council failed this month to include an increase in police officers’ base pay for next year’s budget.

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