Starting University of Arizona police officers make almost $4,000 less than starting officers of the Tucson Police Department, and some officers are not happy about it.

"Salaries for UA police officers are not even equal in pay to Pima Community College officers," said UA Officer Denny Mallory, who has been with the UA Police Department for 2 1/2 years.

The annual starting pay of TPD officers is $29,400. UA officers get $25,478 annually, and, according to Pima Community College human resources, a starting certified PCC police officer makes $26,650 annually. All of the pay rates are based on a 40-hour wor k week.

Officer Jeremy Sheridan, a two-year UAPD veteran, said the lower salary is frustrating because both police departments go through the same training.

Sheridan, who is also a UA graduate student, said UAPD does help its full-time employees with tuition.

UAPD Acting Lt. Brian A. Seastone said not all law enforcement agencies can pay the same salaries and salaries have to be lower at the university than at bigger agencies.

Julius Parker, associate vice president for business affairs, said officers must understand that the university cannot compete with the city and state in paying its employees. He said all three state universities have to deal with that.

TPD officers are given raises when the Tucson City Council approves a pay increase, but the university doesn't have that option, Parker said. He said giving UA officers a raise would mean taking the money from another department.

Salaries have to do with the university's budget and the only time UAPD can give officers a raise is if the entire university gets a larger budget, Mallory said.

The university tries to keep up with other departments through a process called "classification maintenance review," Parker said. He said if a department's salaries fall behind by 10 percent or more compared to its city counterparts, the salaries will be increased.

When all department heads at the university were surveyed about what bothered them most at the university, the number one response was salaries, Parker said.

He said university officials are not pleased with the salaries they pay people in their departments, and UAPD is just one element of the problem. He added that UA President Manuel Pacheco asks for employee raises each year and is trying to get more fundin g for all departments.

UAPD operates on a $2.9 million annual budget, which covers the department's operating costs, Seastone said.

The department has 49 uniformed officers and is state funded, Parker said.

He said there are also 17 security officers and 21 community service officers at UAPD. The community service officers are students who are paid on an hourly basis and work 20 to 30 hours a week, he added.

Parker said these officers are assigned specific problem areas at later hours.

"They are the eyes and ears of the university," he said.

Paying officers overtime is also a problem for UAPD.

When officers have to go to court, they are not paid, Seastone said. Instead, officers are compensated for their time, meaning they get the amount of time spent in court off of their 40-hour week.

"The law requires that we pay compensation and we are doing what the law says," he said.

If an officer works an event such as a football game or activity on the UA Mall that would put him over 40 hours a week for six weeks in a row, then they must be paid overtime, Parker said.

Overtime pay is time and a half for officers, Seastone said.

Another way UAPD suffers financially is that TPD sees the university as a training ground and many UAPD officers join TPD after two years of experience, Parker said.

Seastone said this does happen and it hurts UAPD because the department has to find and train a replacement, which costs money.

He said it takes 16 weeks to train a new officer and another 16 before the officer can patrol alone.

"You can't blame a person for taking a job for more money," Seastone said.

One UA officer said he is not too concerned about how much he is paid.

Cpl. Juan Alvarez, a seven-year UAPD veteran, said he works at the department because of the job, not the money.

He said that UAPD is one of the best police departments in the county.

Officers for TPD are also paid more if they speak Spanish, but that is not the case with UAPD, Alvarez said.

He also said UAPD does not have the luxury of the number of detectives TPD has, but because of this, UAPD officers are better trained because they have more duties and responsibilities.

Although it is not required, most UAPD officers have an associate's or bachelor's degree, Alvarez said.

Kerry P. Dinsmore, a family studies senior, said, "I agree that they deserve more pay, they have equal training and deal with a lot of the same situations that TPD does."

Seastone said the department is not a fund-generating department, but UAPD does apply for grants.

This year, five additional officers were hired by UAPD as part of a four-year federal grant that added 100,000 police officers nationwide, Seastone said. The department's $400,000 grant was approved in December 1995.

Seastone said the grant is a matching fund grant.

In the first year, officer's salaries will be paid by federal funds.

In the second year, 75 percent of the salaries will come from the grant while 25 percent is paid by the university.

The third year costs are shared equally.

The last year the university must cover 75 percent of salaries and the grant 25 percent, Seastone said.

The UA is currently working on getting a four-year extension on the grant, Parker said.

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