COLORADO SPRINGS — Tuesday, El Paso County Sheriff Joseph Roybal appeared before the Board of County Commissioners. In front of a large group of his own deputies, Sheriff Roybal asked the board to allocate $600,000 more in funding to his office.
The funding, Sheriff Roybal says, will go towards raising his deputies' salaries.
"As the pay increases, as the morale improves, hopefully the retention improves, and then we can reduce the number of attendees in the academy," Sheriff Roybal said. "That's when we will start seeing, start seeing that cost savings, and it's not only the cost saving that's important, but it's trained personnel."
According to a release from the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, deputies in El Paso County are paid less relative to other Front Range law enforcement agencies. Sheriff Roybal said these potential pay bumps would help his staff receive "more competitive" wages, which would help staff retention and lower training costs.
You can read the release below:
"Why would we train them just to lose them to another agency outside of our jurisdiction?" Roybal said. "That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. So for me, this is an investment, not only in the community, but an investment in retention of our deputies."
State statute determines Sheriff Roybal's salary, so his pay would not be affected by this potential increase in funding.
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