And it sounds like they're trying to, although it's probably a day late and a dollar short. They also lost about 1/4 of their other employees over wages. It used to be that a new police recruit got paid $36K/yr while a 3-year senioir officer got $37K/yr. Now it's 44K and 47K.

https://www.ashevillenc.gov/service/city-job-opportunities-police-department/#:~:text=Employee%20Benefits%20and%20Position%20Information,raised%20per%20city%20council%20approval.


Also, from the year old article linked below:

Pay also an issue

Policing is dangerous, high-stress work, and cops starting out are not making bank, especially when you consider Asheville is consistently one of the most expensive places to live in North Carolina.

"A new recruit, I think, makes roughly $36,000,” Zack said. “I mean, that’s not a lot of money. Not around here. It’s a very low wage, and it’s not competitive with the marketplace.”

Officers who've left but stayed in policing have mostly gone to other departments or sheriff's offices "that simply pay more,” Zack said. The APD has also lost about a quarter of its civilian employees, "all over wages,” Zack said.

The city's proposed budget includes an additional $7.9 million to raise employee pay throughout city departments, and Zack said he appreciates that.

“Compensation is a huge, huge issue," the chief said. "The city I think is doing a very good job at addressing that, and we’ll see what happens when the final budget comes out.”

Last year the City Council voted to "defund" the APD by 3%, or $770,000, although that was really a reallocation of funding that resulting in shuffling some positions, and moving some functions to other departments. As I said last year, I think all these moves to "defund police" are going to result in "refunding police" later on when response times go up and citizens get angry that crimes aren't being solved.