Raleigh Police Officers demand higher pay

Rick Armstrong is the vice president of Teamsters Local 391 representing close to 450 Raleigh police officers who are members of the Raleigh Police Protective Association.

Rick spoke at City Council on April 9, 2024. 

I would like all those who support Raleigh police officers to stand up.

Good evening, My name is Rick Armstrong, I am vice president of Teamsters Local 391.  We represent close to 450 Raleigh police officers who are members of the Raleigh Police Protective Association.

I think we can all agree that public safety should be a priority in the upcoming budget.  For the citizens of Raleigh to be truly safe they need a fully staffed police department. Currently RPD has close to 100 operational vacancies or about 15% of the department.

One of the main reasons for so many vacancies is retention.  Raleigh police officers continue to leave for other neighboring police departments with better pay. RPD is one of the lowest paid police departments in the area.

The raise we are asking for would cost the COR (City of Raleigh) less than ½ of 1% of the annual $1.2 billion budget.  

We have hundreds of officers who have signed a petition requesting a raise that would make RPD competitive with other departments in the area and around the state. 

Recently the city manager just received a 10% raise under the premise; and I  quote “to ensure equity and alignment with her peers’ salaries, and also based on her achieving her annual goals.” To be clear we support her raise and believe this quote is an excellent method to determine pay raises. We are just asking the city to apply it to our police officers. 

We know the men and women of RPD have met their goals.  Now they just want alignment with their peers’ salaries.  A 15% across the board raise for all officers would put their salaries in alignment with their peers.

A recent study shows it takes an individual to make over 100k to live comfortably in the city of Raleigh. A 27 year officer makes  $85,000 a year.  After working 28 years for the city they are still not living comfortably. These men and women risk their lives each and every day.

They deserve better.

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