New starting salary for Abbeville Police Officer: $40,000 a year

Since taking office as Abbeville chief of police last summer, Mike Hardy has worked every avenue to recruit new officers.
With the approval of the new budget, city officials have given Hardy a big recruiting pitch of $40,000 starting salary for officers.
During its final meeting of 2022, the Abbeville City Council approved the operating budget for the new year. The city’s fiscal year runs from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31. Included in the budget is a $13,000 across-the-board raise for members of the police department.
That pushes the starting salary for new officers to $40,000. The city will use funds from the half-cent sales tax passed in ‘19 for the raises.
“I want to thank Mayor (Roslyn) White and the council members,” Hardy said during the meeting. “I think it’s a more-than-adequate budget that you worked on with me this year.”
Hardy said he’s already reaching out to recruits.
“We’re starting at $40,000 a year for a starting police officer,” Hardy said. “If you know anyone in that line of work, or anyone who would like to be in that line of work, we are recruiting. We will have info on our website (abbevillepd.com) and the city’s website (cityofabbeville.net). I’m going to the academies to let them know when you graduate, you don’t have to work in Lafayette. You can work for Abbeville and make the same money.”
Hardy said this puts Abbeville’s pay in line with surrounding departments. Abbeville lost officers to some of those departments in recent years. The goal is to have 32 officers for full staff, down from 39. That is designed to help balance out the raises.
Councilman Francis Touchet Jr. said this move is focused on one thing, shoring up public safety.
“I want to commend the mayor and this council,” Councilman Francis Touchet Jr., “for putting forth efforts to ensure that safety in the city is of the utmost importance moving forward. This is a hefty thing that we are doing.
“Public safety is the most important thing for the city.”
White said that along with salaries, officials took insurance and retirement into account.
“We ran the numbers based on everything,” White explained. “That’s the numbers this council looked at before they proposed the raises.”
Hardy said the city’s insurance benefits will be an additional hook.
“We have a real good insurance policy,” Hardy said. “Our benefits are going to help us a lot.”
With the approval of the raise, Hardy said he fully expects there is going to be more applicants for the department. He had one during his first five months.
“We’re getting the word out,” Hardy said. “We are going to get you some police officers.
“I think this is going to be a big attraction.”