City Council recently approved a new contract with the union that represents Altoona’s police officers.

The three-year contract with the Mountain City Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police calls for increases totaling 20 percentage points — 8% the first year, followed by 7%, then 5%, according to City Manager Christopher McGuire.

“People are going to say ‘Oh my God,'” about the total size of the raise, but city leadership felt it was necessary to help stanch the ongoing leakage of Altoona officers to other area law enforcement agencies that pay significantly more — and also to help shrink the cost of the recruitment efforts that those losses force upon the city, McGuire said.

“We’ve become a training ground,” McGuire said. “We’re trying to bend that curve — to make it attractive (for officers) to want to stay.”

The city has lost about 25 officers over the last three years to other law enforcement agencies, including the state Attorney General’s office, according to Police Chief Derek Swope.

Before the first annual increase that took effect Jan. 1, Altoona officers were starting at $53,000, McGuire said.

The first year will bring the city’s starting salary into the “high 50s,” he said.

But Hollidaysburg officers this year will start at $74,000, Allegheny Township officers will start at $80,000, while Penn State Altoona officers start at $87,000, he said.

Logan Township officers make $84,500 after three years, and its patrolmen earn more than the city’s lieutenants, McGuire said.

With the new contract, APD officers will still be earning less than officers in other area departments, but “we’re chip(ping) away,” McGuire said.

To deal with the employment losses, the city has been spending $250,000 a year, with two annual rounds of testing — written, agility and medical — and background checks, according to McGuire.

The new contract may reduce that recruitment effort to one annual round, an official said.

The Altoona officers not only get paid less, but deal with a higher volume of calls than other local departments, according to McGuire.

There were about 32,000 last year, with 2,700 arrests and more than 250 drug overdose cases, McGuire said.

“This is real city law enforcement,” he said.

Officers can move on after three or four years, having experienced lots of arrests, a high crime environment and having learned “street savvy,” he said.

There are 68 officers on the city’s roster, including seven who are working with field training officers and one in a police academy, Swope said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.