Orlando police union calls for higher pay for officers

ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando police officers say the city’s proposed salary increase doesn’t reflect the work officers do.

There are now 62 sworn officer vacancies within the department, which comes out to about 7% of the department’s staff.

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The union said pay is a big issue for filling those openings. They believe pay should be on par with larger cities in Florida, such as Tampa, which just approved an 18.5% pay increase over the next three years.

On Wednesday, the city came to the table and offered a 2% raise in salary starting in October, and a 0% raise each of the next two years.

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“Obviously, we weren’t very happy with that,” said Shawn Dunlap with Police Union-FOP Lodge 25. “They told us that was their baseline.”

The starting pay in October would be $50,233. Dunlap said the city used comparisons to pay at the city of Kissimmee, with starting pay of $48,402 and Oviedo starting at $47,277.

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But Dunlap and other officers believe they should be compared to larger cities in Florida, like Tampa, where annual pay for police officers already starts at just over $60,000.

The union said they’ve recently lost officers to smaller agencies in central Florida, like Winter Park and Winter Garden, when in the past officers would usually move from smaller agencies to OPD.

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The city said the salary increases are just one aspect of the financial compensation and that historically OPD officers have been the highest paid in the region with the best tools, technology and training.

The city said this is also the beginning of the negotiations and they believe they will reach an agreement.

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