Selma police officials say department is so understaffed it is close to dissolving

If the Selma City Council doesn’t improve pay and benefits for police officers, there will be no Selma Police Department in a year.

That was the dire assessment delivered by Assistant Police Chief Curtis Muhannad at a meeting of the city council’s public safety committee Wednesday.

“The Selma Police Department is on fire,” Muhannad said. “We can’t even function. This is the worse situation I’ve seen. We sent out letters to (other law enforcement) agencies to help us police the city. That’s a low.”

Muhannad said the city has 31 officers “on paper,” or four officers a shift. But that number includes officers in the training academy and on extended leave, and if an officer misses a shift for some reason, there are fewer officers on the street. That number also includes the chief, assistant chief and detectives in the criminal investigation division. One officer retired this week, and another will retire by fall, he said.

The officers patrol a large area, and if there is a shooting, the entire shift could be tied up for hours, Muhannad said.

Because the pay is set at around $33,000 – the same as a public works employee – the city is losing officers to other agencies. The pay is about $2 an hour less than competing law enforcement agencies, according to Muhannad. He said the attrition is so bad that he said the Selma Police Department serves as the “basic training” site for the Dallas County sheriff’s office and other law enforcement agencies.

“You can’t have community policing without police officers,” Muhannad told City Council President Warren “Billy” Young and Councilwomen Jannie Thomas, Christie Thomas and Lesia James. “We have new cars and nobody to drive them.”

The answer, Muhannad said, is for the council to approve a pay plan he said he presented to Mayor James Perkins Jr. Muhannad said the play plan includes 14 steps with a 2.5% pay increase per step. The increase would be based on an annual performance appraisal. The current appraisal “doesn’t mean squat” because it doesn’t tie to a pay increase, he said.

Muhannad said the situation has deteriorated over many years, but “if we don’t fix it, people will hold that the current council, mayor responsible for that failure.”

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We need a competitive pay plan and benefit package to sustain and retain these officers,” he said.

Young said the council asked Muhannad to speak to them “because you would tell it to us straight. That you have done.”

“Citizens of Selma, we have a huge problem,” Young said. “The first thing you do with a problem is you admit you have a problem, and that we do.”

Young said the council will consider the pay plan when it is brought to them, presumably before the next budget that begins Oct. 1. “I’m glad we’ve made the public aware that we are addressing this problem,” Young said. “We’re not just sitting on our hands.”

Young said, “We need to take care of the (police) family we have now and grow our police family. I hope we can do that.”

James told Muhannad that she has heard that officers are leaving because Muhannad is too stern.

“I will take that,” Muhannad said. “I hold (officers) accountable, and I’m stern. I stand on right. I want to make sure my officers stand on right. I’m straight forward. They’re men and women. They carry a gun. I talk to them like men and women. I don’t play.”

In other business, Young said the council will consider creating a citizen review board to look over complaints concerning police. The board will consist of 11 members, one appointed by the mayor, one from each council member and one by the chief. Members will serve two-year terms.