Missouri City leaders to vote on signing bonus for new police officers

MISSOURI CITY, Texas (KTRK) -- On Monday, Missouri City leaders are considering raising the signing bonus for new police officers.

Missouri City is looking into increasing its signing bonus for new police officers from $10,000 to $15,000, and part of the reason is that they say they don't have enough officers.

This city council ordinance, up for a vote Monday evening, acknowledges that the police department currently has 10 or more vacancies in the police officer rank.

Several other local departments have been working through this.

Pearland PD says it offers a $15,000 signing incentive and currently has only three open positions, which it plans to fill soon.

In Galveston, the chief says a signing bonus helped their department staff up in recent years.

"We had 32 vacancies for a department of 168. We were working very much at a deficit, so we've done our best, and we have shored up those numbers now, and part of that was having a $6,000 signing bonus," explained Chief Doug Balli.

There's been a lot of talk about police pay recently because last year, the City of Houston agreed to a new contract that increases officer salaries by 36.5% by 2030.

Additionally, the Sugar Land Police Department says it has only two vacancies and is actively recruiting.

In League City, officials say they have no new incentives in the works, but their pay is competitive with other agencies of their size in the region.

Missouri City City Council is set to meet at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 2.