CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Police Chief Ty Burdine presented to the City Council on Thursday his plan to increase entry-level pay for officers from $47,480 to $57,712 due to facing more competition from other nearby communities.
Burdine went into detail about the recruitment and retention crisis the Clarksville Police Department is facing, with salaries at eight commuting-distance agencies $10,000 to $20,000 higher than what CPD had been offering.
Recruitment and retention crisis
“The Clarksville Police Department continues to face a shortage of law enforcement applicants, resulting in several open vacancies,” Burdine said during Thursday’s City Council executive session meeting.
Burdine said that following the adjustment, CPD will implement equity adjustments for specific members of the department ranging from patrol officer to sergeant to mitigate salary compression. “These adjustments won’t be applied to all employees; it’ll be limited to employees who have been identified by the established formula.”
Burdine said that they have 32 sworn police officer vacancies, which includes one retirement and a few pending resignations. “But what I call operational vacancies – these are 56 less people in a car responding to calls, patrolling neighborhoods, trying to combat traffic – 56 less people because it takes one day to quit, and it takes one year to replace that person,” he said.
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Burdine also said that CPD has had 83 officers leave in the past two years, including 51 who left for other employment opportunities, which accounts for 60% of the 83 officers lost. “We’ve lost multiple to THP, Gallatin, Lebanon, Robertson County, ATF, TBI and so forth,” he said. “We train them, we pay to train, we equip them, then they use that training to go onto other places to work. And our tax dollars are paying for that training.”
‘There’s never been this much disparity in my tenure ever’
Burdine also pointed out CPD’s 14% decrease in qualified applicants, which means the department cannot hire at the rate they are losing officers.
“We’ve never been the highest paid in the state; we’ve never been the highest paid in the region,” Burdine said. “But there’s never been this much disparity in my tenure ever (since 1997). And it’s showing up with our applicants.”
Burdine said what’s concerning about the retention of employees is the average lateral salary.
“I don’t know how many times when I’ve done exit interviews with employees who sit and front of me and say, ‘Chief, we like it here. We like the city, we like the leadership, we like the department, but I have a family to think about.'”
First year of deficit in retaining, losing employees
Burdine said one of the most concerning slides shows that in 2025, CPD had a deficit with retaining and losing employees. “This was our first year ever having a deficit,” he said. “I cannot go through another year sustaining a deficit of officers. We cannot become a department where we have long wait times. I don’t want it. We have lots of ideas about the department to include a gun team to combat violence, but I don’t have the staffing to do it to be honest with you.”
Burdine said they are using overtime all the time to fill shifts. He said it is taxing on employees, but they have no way around it with their current deficit. “This is minimal staffing just to get the job done,” he said.
Two months ago, CPD had 38 candidates show initial interest in being hired. Nine were tested, eight passed the physical, seven passed the written test, so they were only able to assign four. “I’ll never be able to staff our department with those results,” he said.
Burdine said CPD can fund the $10,000 increases in pay in the current budget because they’ve so short in payroll through unfilled positions. “The cost for the remainder, if this goes into effect in April, would be $810,514.”
‘I’m telling you we need this’
Councilperson Tim Chandler said his biggest concern is going to be next year’s budget. “Right now, not just the city, not just the state, but our entire county has a big, giant question mark. We really don’t have any idea what our finances are going to be like,” Chandler said. “You’re going to do this now, but that means you’re still going to have to come back to us on the budget to ask for us to increase it to cover it.”
Chandler asked if Burdine is open to making cuts during the city budget process if needed.
“I don’t like coming to you all and asking for things, I really don’t, but I’m telling you we need it,” Burdine said. “Let me tell you this: You know just as well as I do the value of experience. I’m losing five to seven officers that have the experience of executing search warrants, experience of knowing the Fourth Amendment and Fifth Amendment. The value of experience, you cannot put a price tag on it in my opinion.”
Burdine said he understands the impact a financial move like this would have on next year’s budget. “According to my hiring plan that we’ve had, just to get to where we want, 2.2 (officers) per 1,000 (citizens), we’re 47 short of that currently, plus the 56 operational vacancies. Despite that, I’m not going to go to the table and ask for 15 officers from the hiring plan to help mitigate and get this done, because I’ve got to retain officers.”
Burdine said when looking at major department expenses, it comes down to staffing and vehicles. “We’ve started to try to get ahead with (department) cars through grants for this fiscal year.”
What about pay for Clarksville firefighters?
Also Thursday, Mayor Joe Pitts reminded everyone that in December, the City of Clarksville approved a pay-improvement plan for Clarksville Fire Rescue.
Pitts and Fire Chief Freddie Montgomery Jr. agreed on a plan to raise minimum standards of public safety proficiency within CFR. The plan’s goal is to ensure that all Clarksville firefighters are also trained and certified as Emergency Medical Responders (EMR’s).
“Since implementation on Jan. 10, 2026, CFR effectively raised the minimum standard to Firefighter EMR. This moves the base pay from $43,066 to $52,347 for fully certified firefighter EMRs,” according to a city press release. “CFR currently has only 12 personnel below the $52,347 pay. Those personnel are given until Jan. 1, 2027, to achieve EMR certification, which is typically an 80-hour course.
“This class is given to all personnel, while on duty. However, since this is a new minimum standard, all newly hired firefighters will achieve the certification in the six-month academy, and pay will be adjusted upon graduation. The measure to train and equip personnel for greater public safety competency will also boost CFR pay. Using no new money in the city’s budget, CFR has established EMR as the minimum standard for all firefighters and adjusted all certified EMR salaries to the minimum EMR pay of $52,347 in a three-phased plan.”
- Phase 1 (January 2026): Adjust salaries for all currently certified EMR’s.
- Phase 2 (March 2026): Adjust salaries for newly-graduated and certified recruits. Offer free EMR training to fire suppression personnel.
- Phase 3 (January 2027): Continue free training to certify all remaining personnel by Jan. 1, 2027.
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