Fremont County is large, diverse, and filled with opinions, or “talk in the 10.” “Talk in the 10” is an opportunity for you, our readers, to articulate and share your thoughts about what is happening in the community with the community. Letters may have been edited for clarity and length, but generally have been published exactly as received. The views expressed in the following are solely those of the author. Send your letters to our editors by emailing opi[email protected]
I am writing to express my concern over the current pay and treatment of the Lander
Police Department. Lander has always been a tight-knit community and part of that is due to the safety provided by our first responders. It has been brought to my attention recently, however, that the officers working in Lander are not being paid fairly and are being treated unfairly. Officers starting out here make as little as $38,000 a year, according to the published city salaries from 2023. This compensation pales in comparison to the wages offered in other communities around the state. Officers can earn a starting wage of $55,000 a year in Cody, Wyoming, which is not far from our community. Beyond the differences in pay, Lander has not provided cost of living allowances to these officers in years. Meanwhile, other communities in Wyoming are providing those increases. For example, Cheyenne recently provided a 3% cost of living increase to their city employees due to inflation. This difference in pay/compensation is abysmal and needs to be
addressed. Lander is missing out on having talented, skilled, and professional officers working here simply because they can’t afford to live in the community that they want to serve. There are graduates from The University of Wyoming who go on to the Academy and want to stay in Wyoming, unfortunately, departments like Lander that don’t provide livable wages don’t attract those individuals. Those individuals who are educated and want to make a difference in communities across the state look for jobs elsewhere.
The treatment and pay of these officers not only affects them personally, but it impacts their families and the community as a whole. This is not the type of message or environment that we should be fostering as a community. These officers are hardworking individuals and deserve to be treated as such. The culture of how we treat law enforcement needs to change, and the best starting place is to increase the pay for these officers. That increased pay will attract more officers which in turn can change the current culture and climate of the department. If we continue to allow this poor treatment of our officers we will soon find ourselves in the company of cities like Portland, Baltimore, or Seattle.
Regards,
Lea Rasmussen
Lander