Gorton seeking council approval of raises for police

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Mayor Gorton is seeking council approval of raises for police and e-911. This comes after a long campaign that made public safety a top priority in the city.”

The proposed raises would go to police officers, sergeants, and lieutenants and positions in E-911. Her goal is to gain new hires in these positions and make the salaries competitive. Last month, council members set aside 26 million dollars for public safety raises.

If approved, Police officers and sergeants would receive $8,000 raises, Lieutenants and the ranks above would get $5,000 and different E-911 positions would each receive a $4,000 annual supplement.

The mayor also proposed that the city allow the rehiring of police retirees. The city will have to get approval for this from the Kentucky legislature.

At the council meeting yesterday, Lexington Police Chief Weathers said one of their goals in the department is to make sure they give their staff the best training they can.

“What we do is we bring in laterals, people from other agencies, and they go through our training. At the end, we cut off about 5 weeks,” Chief Weathers said. “I don’t like bringing people in from other agencies and not training them. I think I’ve seen other agencies have problems with that. We want to make sure that the people we bring here are up to the standards we want them to be.”

Gorton says raises will also be offered to sworn fire and corrections positions in the future

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