DeKalb County, GA — DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond has announced a 6.5% starting salary increase for all sworn police officers. This makes DeKalb County officers the highest paid among large local governments in Georgia, according to a press release.

“Protecting the lives and well-being of our residents and businesses is our top priority,” Thurmond said. “Our Keep DeKalb Safe plan focuses on retention, recruitment, hiring and violence interruption.”

Here are the starting salaries for new hires that will be effective as of Oct. 1:

– $50,500 for police recruits, up from $47,000.

– $3,000 hiring incentive.

– $52,000 for POST-certified police officers, up from $50,931.

The Keep DeKalb Safe plan includes hiring EPIC Consulting Group LLC to help with an aggressive national recruiting effort to increase the applicant pool for police officers.

DeKalb County firefighters will get a 6.5% salary increase as well. The new salaries will be:

– $46,500 for firefighter recruits, up from $43,500.

– $3,000 hiring incentive.

– $48,825 for firefighters, up from $46,675.

The prorated funding for these salary increases is $2.4 million and will come from existing fiscal year 2022 police and fire rescue budgets.

Later this week, DeKalb County will announce the recipients of $1 million in grants for the DeKalb Youth Safety and Violence Prevention Grant initiative. The county will partner with local nonprofits that provide youth violence prevention and intervention strategies.

Recent public safety incentives this year have included:

– Hazard/incentive pay for frontline employees during the pandemic.

– $3,000 retention incentive payments for public safety employees in 2021 and 2022.

– A 6.25% base salary increase in April.

– Three times overtime pay for police officers in July.