FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The Fayetteville City Council approves pay raises for the police department during its meeting on March 8.

With the increase, the starting salary for police officers at the department is now about $55,000 a year. The department says the bump in pay will help with recruiting.

“It would be prudent for us over the next few years for us to continue to add to the ranks of the police department to keep up with population growth, especially since we see additional increases in crime. However, that will get us much closer to the other big cities in Arkansas,” said Deputy Chief Jamie Fields.

Fields says hopefully this pay increase can fill as many as 23 open positions at Fayetteville Police Department.

“To continue to add to the ranks of the police department to keep up with population growth, especially as we see additional increases in crime,” said Fields.

Fields says the number of people applying to become police officers has reduced by close to 70% in the last three years.

“The rise in crime, the rise in aggression towards officers, social justice reform, negative political rhetoric, that makes this job maybe not as attractive to new applicants,” said Fields.

Sonia Harvey, a Fayetteville city council member who voted for the raise in officer pay, said she hopes this pay raise also provides the community reassurance of their safety.

“You want someone who’s rested, who’s well paid, and who understands and is well trained to do the job and do the job right,” said Harvey.

Harvey says police put their lives on the line every day so compensating them for what their worth wasn’t a hard decision to make.

“We could make sure we could offer the best salary to those people who are willing to get out there and take a risk and put their lives on the line for safety, for people in Fayetteville,” said Harvey.

The department says it’s still short more than 20 sworn vacancies. The deadline to apply for the next department test is on April 4.