HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Houston Hackett can see the difference he's made as a police officer in Hendersonville.
"I can show up to my job every day and feel like I am making a difference," said Hackett. "We love to be seen; the citizens love to see us out there, and that is hard to get nowadays."
It's a job fewer and fewer people want to do, but Mayor Clary said the preventative police work their officers do has had an impact.
"One of the things we have seen recently is our sales tax is going up, specifically from people outside of Hendersonville to shop here, and they are doing that because they feel safe," said Clary. "We want to hire the cream of the crop. The problem is the crop of people going into police work and staying in police work has thinned out a lot."
When officers leave, usually there's a reason.
"When they look around and they see better pay," said Clary.
As of Tuesday, that's changed.
"For our master patrol officers, for our sergeants, for our corporals, they are going to see a 10 percent increase in their pay in the next two weeks," said Clary.
The next testing date will be on March 31st. To find out more information about how to apply, contact the Hendersonville Police Department.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at ( Kim.Rafferty@newschannel5.com).
Fundraising efforts are underway in Brownsville and Nutbush, TN to build a statue for a major superstar who was raised there, Anna Mae Bullock. You probably know her by her stage name, Tina Turner. I was a huge fan of Tina and glad to see efforts are underway to showcase more of her ties to West Tennessee.
-Lelan Statom
