Bibb County has fewer than half the patrol officers it did before consolidation. Why?

People have for years complained about how long it takes law enforcement officers to respond to emergency calls.

There’s a reason why: Bibb County has 83 patrol officers, roughly half the 162 patrol deputies budgeted, Sheriff David Davis told The Macon Newsroom in a recent interview.

There were 200 cops on patrol countywide a decade ago before the city and county consolidated into a unified government in a move that dissolved the Macon Police Department. Though the county spends roughly half of its annual budget on public safety, starting deputy pay in Bibb County lags behind neighboring counties, making recruitment a challenge.

The city-county merger was intended to cut taxpayer expenses and increase the efficiency of services, but 10 years later, county taxpayers are spending about the same amount of money as they did in 2014 when there were two law enforcement agencies and more officers available.

From 204 to 83

Just prior to consolidation, about 130 Macon Police officers and 74 Bibb County sheriff’s deputies were employed to patrol and answer 911 calls, according to the city and county budgets.

About 100 positions were eliminated in the merger as the new government worked to reduce redundant positions between the two agencies. Then, in 2015, more than 55 long-tenured sheriff’s deputies opted for an early retirement.

There are eight consolidated governments in Georgia, but none structured law enforcement the same way Macon-Bibb County has: The Sheriff’s Office is unique in that it is solely responsible for animal control, the 911 center, courthouse security, the jail and street patrols.

Others comparable in size to Macon-Bibb County, including Athens-Clarke County, Augusta-Richmond County and Columbus-Muscogee County, all have at least two law enforcement agencies. In the other consolidated governments, animal control is a function of the county or a service that is contracted out, and 911 centers are either county departments or operated by independent boards.

Hiring challenges

Georgia Sheriff’s Association President Terry Norris said most law enforcement agencies are struggling to recruit, hire and retain deputies.

“It’s happening virtually everywhere, not just on patrol, in the jails — everybody is struggling,” he said. “It’s a hard job. It’s a dangerous job.”

Norris also said fewer people today want to work in law enforcement and “a lot of it has to do with what people see in the media and the negative twists that the public often perceives from what they read and hear.”

What’s more, pay and benefits offered by local police and sheriff’s departments “is much less than what state agencies can pay their people,” Norris said.

Davis doesn’t see consolidation as the main culprit for the patrol officers shortage, pointing instead to challenges recruiting new officers that Bibb County shares to some extent with law enforcement organizations across the country.

“I would feel very comfortable to say, had consolidation never happened… we still would be lamenting shortages at each one of our agencies,” he said. “What has really hurt us has been the fact that people just don’t want to get into law enforcement. There’s not hardly an agency you can find that isn’t dealing with staffing shortages.”

But the number of newly certified law enforcement officers in Georgia has remained relatively stable over the past decade, save for a decrease amid COVID-19 in 2020-22, according to data from the Georgia Peace Officer Standards & Training Council. That means potential deputies are out there, but Bibb County is struggling to recruit them, with some patrol deputies working double or triple time amid the shortage.

Davis hopes to increase salaries for deputies to make Bibb County more competitive.

“We have full-time recruitment. We have a signing bonus,” he said. But when it comes to salaries, “sometimes we lag behind even agencies that are a fraction our size, you know, Monroe County, Jones County, places like that.”

Getting creative

There should be money available to hire more deputies. While Macon-Bibb County allocates nearly half of its annual budget to public safety — which includes the Sheriff’s Office, Fire Department and Emergency Management — in recent years, Davis has not spent all the money in his office’s budget.

The Sheriff’s Office’s spending has fluctuated little in the decade since consolidation with yearly expenses totaling about $47 to $48 million, though the county typically budgets more than that. The 2024 general fund budget earmarks more than $55 million for the Sheriff’s Office.

In 2013, before consolidation, the Sheriff’s Office’s budget was about $30 million and the Macon Police Department’s budget was about $20.5 million. In essence, taxpayers are paying about the same, or slightly less, on policing today compared to a decade ago though there are significantly fewer officers on patrol.

Bibb County deputy salaries lag behind some surrounding counties. The starting salary for a certified officer in Macon is $46,176, while the starting salary for an officer whose employment is contingent upon certification is $38,376, according to county records.

Jones County Sheriff’s Office’s starting pay for certified deputies is $50,035 and the starting pay for jail officers is $37,024, public information officer Crystal Murphy said, while Monroe County Sheriff’s Office’s starting pay for certified deputies is $50,054 per year and $42,207 per year for non-certified deputies, according to public information officer Anna Watkins.

Davis said he’s had to get creative in attempts to fill the ranks. Last year, the department launched a part-time program through which it recruited and hired 43 deputies to work for the same pay as full-time employees but without benefits.

Some of the part-time hires came out of retirement to work but most have full-time jobs at other agencies.

A similar program started in 2022 has helped fill 146 part-time positions at the jail, Davis said. Part-timers are paid at the same rate as full-time employees.

Contact Civic Journalism Fellow Laura Corley at 478-301-5777 or email Corley_le@mercer.edu.