Ohio police, fire workers get cash incentive from state as retention bonus

More than 500 local police and fire first responders are among thousands statewide to receive a $4,000 per person “retention incentive” as the state attempts to address overstaffing and burnout issues in the industry.

“Because we wanted to help as many agencies as possible in every corner of the state ... essentially, everyone who applied and was eligible received an award under the program,” said Bret Crow, communications director for the Ohio Department of Public Safety.

Not every grant is exactly $4,000, but more than 10,000 first responders from 300-plus agencies are receiving $35 million in total, according to Gov. Mike DeWine. First responders from Fairborn, Trotwood, the Miami County Sheriff and the Lebanon Fire Department were among those who got grants.

But many agencies didn’t apply, or applied for grants under a different arm of the Ohio First Responder Recruitment, Retention, and Resilience program.

Some happy, some upset

Fairborn Chief of Police Ben Roman said the eligibility for getting the incentive was being an employee of the department before June 17, 2022. All 99 Fairborn Police and Fire employees who met that criteria received the $4,000 bonus, for a total of $396,000. He said Fairborn wants employees who will stay for the long haul, which is tough as turnover rates grow.

“From the time we hire them and put them on the road, before they even work their first day we are thousands of dollars invested ... between the police academy and training ... so the goal is for us to retain our employees,” Roman said. “I think it’s an important step (toward retention) so we can continue to provide great service to the community.”

Kyle Thomas, president of the Dayton Fraternal Order of Police, said he’s excited the state is focusing on such an important initiative, especially after so many first responders struggled with burnout after working through the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Thomas said he wasn’t aware that Dayton didn’t apply for retention incentive funding, and said the money could’ve made a difference.

“I don’t know that this alone fixes the (compensation) problems that the city of Dayton has, but it would’ve sure gone a long way to start us down the right path,” Thomas said. “We have an issue where employees don’t feel supported, and now they don’t feel compensated.”

Dayton Police Department spokesman James Rider said DPD applied for funds under a different part of the grant and received $4.5 million to fund 26 new hires, as well as $388,000 for a wellness program.

“There’s no positive step that you can say is the wrong step,” Thomas said. “...The money towards hiring new and wellness is obviously huge. However, you have to look at how (it) was spent. Did they actually increase allowable manpower by 26 people or did they just take that money and fund a class that they already had in service?”

Other cities’ approaches

The city of Kettering did not receive any funding under the grant program. Fire Chief Mitch Robbins said his department did not apply for the funding due to restrictions on usage, and because of the way the city used Cares Act and ARPA funds to pay for the salaries of police and fire personnel.

Trotwood Deputy Fire & EMS Chief Chad McInturff said the retention funding was of the utmost importance to his department.

“This is going to be something to encourage our employees to stay with us here in Trotwood. Especially in this day and age (where) money is a huge factor of where people choose to continue to work,” McInturff said. “We really think that getting this funding is going to allow us to retain some of the staff that we already have and make it easier to fill our current staffing needs,”

McInturff explained that many local fire departments are effectively sharing a pool of employees, as people keep switching departments to stations that pay more.

“Nationwide right now we’re facing a shortage of firefighters and particularly after COVID, a lot of folks got out of the fire service, which makes our staffing problems even worse.”

State officials explain program

According to state officials, the purpose of the new grant funding was to help staffing and show support to essential workers, even more so after COVID-19.

“We funded retention incentives for any agency that requested help for eligible ARPA expenses via a (request for proposals) process. We then contacted applying agencies and sent them the attached application asking if they needed to fill a vacancy, hire more staff, or offer retention incentives to existing staff,” said Crow, of the Ohio Department of Public Safety.

Crow said the state did not deny any application unless they were an ineligible organization or they requested to pull their application from consideration.

“In Ohio, we value our first responders and know that the work they do is essential,” Gov. DeWine said. “Our goal through this program is to ensure that our firefighters, EMTs, and law enforcement officers have the support and resources they need for their personal well-being and in their professional lives.”