Sheriff Roberson Appreciates Raises Approved by Quorum Court for Law Enforcement

Low wages for Arkansas law enforcement is a statewide issue.

On Tuesday Sheriff Tim Roberson joined KHOZ’s “Around the Table” program and discussed recent raises given to the sheriff’s department by the Boone County Quorum Court at the beginning of the year.

“Our quorum court has given us the biggest raise that I can recall,” Roberson said.

Lower-level employees, such as jail staff, all received a two dollar per hour raise. Roberson said, “it was almost embarrassing what they got paid.” Everyone else in the Sheriff’s department got a one dollar per hour raise.

Roberson acknowledged the money management ability of the current and past quorum courts making it possible to give these raises.

“We do pretty good with our money because we do have great people taking care of it,” Roberson said.

As for law enforcement pay across the state Roberson said, “Arkansas has some issues across the board with their pay raises... like our state police. You know, Texas starts at about double what Arkansas does. Oklahoma kind of the same thing. Missouri’s kind in line with us but has better benefits.”

As a result of that Roberson said Arkansas law enforcement agencies, especially those on a state border like Texarkana, have problems with their officers crossing the boarder to the neighboring state for the higher wages. He said that Arkansas must get better because they are losing troopers, especially the young ones, due to low wages.

Roberson said, “as time goes on, I think we’ll get competitive with other states.”

He and other law enforcement representatives were in Little Rock in late 2021 pushing for a special tax credit for law enforcement that was being discussed in the state legislature. Unfortunately, the measure failed to get to a vote.

Check out the full interview here: