BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — In the latest effort to recruit and retain law enforcement officers in Kern County, the Board of Supervisors has approved a 22 percent pay raise for Kern County Sheriff's Office detention deputies. The increased pay rate begins this week.
The lack of law enforcement has been felt across the entire county, with fewer patrol officers leading to longer response times. County officials say that a lot of that stems from not having enough detention deputies. They hope this incentive package will turn thing around for Kern.
KCSO recently released a promotional video in their push to bring in more detention deputies.
WATCH THE NEW KCSO RECRUITMENT VIDEO:
According to Zack Scrivner, Kern County Board of Supervisors representative for District 2, there are nearly 80 vacant positions in the Detentions Bureau as of right now.
"There are sections of our jail that are sitting vacant because we don't have the staff to maintain it," said Scrivner.
This lack of staff means the Sheriff's Department has been spending a lot on overtime for the staff they do have, as well as pulling patrol deputies from community surveillance to fill positions in detentions.
Ryan Alsop, the chief administrative officer for Kern County, noted that being a detentions deputy is not an easy job, and KCSO has seen a significant loss of staff in recent years, even after offering raises and adding various bonuses in the past, such as incentives for deputies who live in the communities they patrol.
This most recent amendment to the original KCSO employee salary adjustment aims to make the detention deputy jobs more at par with other county sheriff's offices in terms of compensation.
In addition, the amendment also changes the $15,000 bonus from being paid out over a period of 5 years and instead gives it as a lump sum at hire so long as new deputies agree to work for KCSO for at least 5 years.
The monthly salary for a detention deputy is set at around $5,000 to $6,000, and includes full medical and dental health benefits, 12 days of paid county holidays, and winter recess, among other perks.
Altogether, the new KCSO compensation structure will cost Kern County $7.4 million dollars from the General Fund, but Alsop believes the county supervisors will allocate Measure K funds to keep the increased pay rates into the future.
"This is such a big issue with detentions that we wanted to get started now, so we are paying for that now, but I think the board will consider utilizing Measure K funds to sustain this effort long-term in the years ahead," said Alsop.
Anyone who is interested can find more information about KCSO jobs and submit an application online at the Kern County Sheriff's Office recruiting website. Additionally, the department is holding a recruitment event from 2:00 to 6:00 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at their facility on Pegasus Drive.
