The Indianola City Council approved a budget amendment at their most recent meetings, setting Indianola Police Department supervisor wages.

City Manager Ben Reeves tells KNIA News the council made it a priority to have competitive salaries for Indianola Police Officers, however a change was needed for positions of leadership within the department.

“An action had been taken in the past to increase the salaries of our unioned officers, but what wasn’t considered at that time was how to create parity with the senior officers as well. There is a certain compression rate that takes place when you increase the salary of the frontline officers and then they don’t necessarily have the incentive to continue to work towards positions of leadership. So we need to make sure we have a good pay structure that takes care of our entire department.”

Reeves said this will help retain experienced and well trained personnel, and will help keep officers in Indianola for their entire careers if they wish.