BHB/3/15
Sponsored by James Owen, Levi Myers, Benji Barry of Brentwood Academy
This legislation was filed in the Safety and Homeland Security category
Presented as part of the YIG Volunteer 2024 conference
| 1 | BE IT ENACTED BY THE TENNESSEE YOUTH IN GOVERNMENT |
| 2 | Section 1) Terms in this act are defined as follows: |
| 3 | a) Salary: a fixed regular payment, typically paid monthly or biweekly basis but often expressed as |
| 4 | an annual sum, made by an employer to an employee. This does not include insurance benefits, |
| 5 | commissions and bonuses, and time-off benefits. |
| 6 | b) Police: the civil force of a national or local government, responsible for the prevention and |
| 7 | detection of crime and the maintenance of public order. They have jurisdiction over one specific |
| 8 | county. c) Government Worker: an officer or an individual appointed in the civil |
| 9 | service by a state or national government. These include secretaries, accountants, teachers, |
| 10 | librarians, maintenance technicians, and public relations workers that have specifically been hired |
| 11 | by the government. |
| 12 | d) Crime Rate: the ratio of crime (an action or omission that constitutes an offense that may be |
| 13 | prosecuted by the state and is punishable by law) in an area to the population of that area. Murder |
| 14 | rate is included in crime rate but, death rate when death is caused by accident or natural cause is |
| 15 | not. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Section 2: This is an act to increase the salary of starting police officers in Davidson County. The |
| 18 | less police officers are paid will cause fewer starting police officers. This will affect the overall |
| 19 | police numbers. The lack of new police officers will result in higher crime rate and higher murder |
| 20 | and death rate. Police put their lives selflessly on the line for others every day and get underpaid |
| 21 | for their line of work in Davidson County by a marginal 12%. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Section 3: Entry level police officers currently make a yearly salary of $51,000, while the risk of |
| 24 | death is immanent every day in the field that they work in. This salary is below the average |
| 25 | starting salary of a government worker in Davidson County, which is currently $57,000. |
| 26 | Section 4: This act will require all new Davidson County police officers to have a starting salary for |
| 27 | a new police officer no lower than $58,000, which is an increase by 15% in their yearly wage. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | Section 5: This bill will increase the starting salary of police officers in Davidson County, because |
| 30 | of the low salary and risk of death when in service. Davidson County police department is required |
| 31 | to increase the salary of police by 15%, which is $7,650 dollars, so they will be making an exact |
| 32 | amount of $58,650 per year. |
| 33 | |
| 34 | Section 6: Upon increasing starting salary, county officials can vote on funding options. |
| 35 | a) Increase in property or sales taxes to increase budget for police. |
| 36 | b) Increase in county licensing fees to increase the county police budget |
| 37 | c) Funding transferred from other desired budget chosen by county officials. |
| 38 | Section 7: All laws or parts of laws in conflict with this are here by repealed |
| 39 | Section 8: This act shall take place on January 1, 2025, the public welfare requiring it. |
| 40 |