Summary of Report 07-705

December 2006

Report Number 07-705

Texas state agencies (excluding institutions of higher education) employ 4,349 full-time classified law enforcement officers, which represents 3 percent of the total state agency workforce. Texas Government Code, Section 654.037(b), requires the State Classification Team within the State Auditor's Office to gather and analyze information regarding compensation provided by local law enforcement departments. In reviewing salary rates for law enforcement positions, we used the following positions to represent the benchmark jobs for their respective salary groups:

- Trooper (salary group C3).

- Sergeant - Department of Public Safety (salary group C4).

- Lieutenant - Department of Public Safety (salary group C5).

- Captain - Department of Public Safety (salary group C6).

The salary schedule for state agency law enforcement positions is contained within the State's Position Classification Plan (Plan), which is part of the General Appropriations Act. Legislative action is required to make changes to it. Implementing the changes to the law enforcement salary schedule recommended in this report would make the Plan more competitive. The minimum estimated cost to the four state agencies of implementing these changes would be approximately $39.9 million for the 2008-2009 biennium. The Department of Public Safety would bear 80 percent of that cost.

The primary focus of this analysis was to compare the State's direct compensation for law enforcement positions to the direct compensation paid by Texas local law enforcement departments that employ more than 1,000 commissioned law enforcement officers. Direct compensation includes base pay and various forms of supplemental pay such as hazardous duty pay, education pay, and certification pay.

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