The gap between the pay rates of Baldwin County municipal police stations has grown recently and many of the police chiefs left behind are growing concerned.

Daphne, Foley, Loxley and Spanish Fort have recently upped their base pay to compete with Fairhope, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. The least among these are now paid $16 an hour at Spanish Fort — at 40 hours a week that’s roughly $33,000 a year.

In 2003, the United States Justice Department's Bureau of Statistics did a series of nationwide surveys and found the minimum average salary for a police officer in a community with a population between 2,500 and 10,000 was $29,000. The maximum average was $36,400.

That leaves Bay Minette, Elberta, Robertsdale, Silverhill and Summerdale far behind 2003’s salaries.

Besides the lowest — which is Silverhill with an annual starting salary of $19,425 — and the highest, which is Summerdale at $13.50 an hour, the other three start at around $12 an hour for a completely trained officer.

That’s nearly $25,000 a year to start a job with possible danger around every corner.

“Every time we make a traffic stop it’s a potential hazard,” said Summerdale Police Chief Dwain Riebeling.

And it’s no wonder some officers are thinking of moving to a station that pays more.

According to Brian Reaves, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Statistics, across the nation retention and salary “tend to go hand in hand.”

“It’s always an issue with (our) officers and we’ve lost a few over the last couple of years,” said Elberta Police Chief Gary Peaden. “You can’t help it when an officer makes $12 an hour here and can go down the road and make 18.”

Even with the addition of five new officers to the Bay Minette Police Department this week they’re still understaffed. They’re down two because they’ve lost seven to higher paying departments in seven months, according to Police Chief Michael Rowland.

In a recent city council work session, the anxious chief said he also has three more in his department who are presently looking around for more pay.

“If we have to, we’re prepared to restructure the shifts,” he said.

That means longer hours for everybody and less coverage of crucial areas.

If the problem isn’t resolved before the upcoming school year, Rowland said he will have to pull his successful School Resource Officers out of every school to cover his patrols.

“This could cause tremendous problems in the schools,” Rowland said.

That got the city council’s attention.

“At this point in our history, we need to do whatever we can to help the schools,” said councilman Tony Edwards.

At the meeting, Rowland proposed an increase of $5.25 to the base pay of $11.02 in hourly wages for an officer who has not graduated from the Southwest Alabama Police Academy. For the initial year, the increase would not cost the citizens of Bay Minette a dime. Rowland plans to take the money out of his surplus funds and the raises will be equal for everyone in the department.

But if the raise goes through, he’s only closing the gap and he hopes it will “make some people take second looks at leaving the department.”

If it doesn’t, some chiefs foresee a real dilemma with paying so little.

“I think this could become a problem,” Peaden said. “To recruit effectively, you have got to compete. If you don’t, you’re going to get the garbage.”