Hooksett is facing a costly proposition: pay their police officers more, or spend more money training new police officers. The Chief of Police in Londonderry contends that officers from Hooksett have been transferring to surrounding towns such as Londonderry in search of better wages. The Chief of Police in Londonderry, Mr. Patrick Cheetham sent email communication to The Hooksett Bridge in response to his editorial letter that was published in the Union Leader stating that “We have hired 5 HPD officers over the last 10 years, all mostly came over because of the better pay. I offer my comments as an agency who has benefited from hiring these certified officers.” The Town Council and Budget Committee have agreed on the pay raise rate for Hooksett PD as outlined in the new contract, whose union contract expires on June 30th 2026. Hooksett’s pay scales lag behind larger towns such as Londonderry leading to officers from Hooksett supposedly leaving the force for better pay in other towns.
A vote will be taken on raising tax rates to facilitate better police pay, but what will the voters decide on March 10th? The estimated tax rate impact for Fiscal Year 2026-27 is $0.04 per thousand dollars of assessed value and the estimated tax rate impact for Fiscal Year 2027-28 is $0.05 per thousand dollars of assessed value. While recommended by the Town Council (5 Yes – 1 No); this increase was not recommended by the Budget Committee (4 Yes – 5 No). This agreement would offer the patrol officers a 6% increase in pay and the dispatchers a 3% increase in pay in the first year. In the second year the patrol officers would receive a 8% increase in pay and dispatchers a 3% increase in pay. These increases in pay would allow the Town of Hooksett to offer competitive wages when hiring officers; especially compared to the surrounding departments offering better pay currently. Further the raises would serve to help retain the valuable officers already serving Hooksett, rather than training a class of officers every year at $100,000 a year and not gaining a return on investment.
The town of Hooksett will vote to approve the cost items included in the collective bargaining agreement reached between the Hooksett Town Council and the Police Employees, Teamsters Local 633 which calls for the following increases in salaries and benefits at the current staffing level: for 2026 to 2027 an estimated increase of $124,166.00 with $30,422.00 in benefits and $93,744.00 in salary across its’ patrol officers and dispatchers. For 2027 to 2028 they expect an increase of $169,479.00 in total with $43,690.00 in benefits and $125,789.00 in salaries across their 40 employees. Furthermore, to raise an appropriate $124,166.00 for the current fiscal year, such sum representing the additional costs attributable to the increase in salaries and benefits required by the new agreement over those that would be paid at current staffing levels.
Police officers themselves work within a union unique to each town. Hooksett and Londonderry possess their own union contracts for officers. Similar sized towns such as Durham, Exeter, Goffstown, Milford and Windham all possess differing union contracts as well. As a result, different pay scales and steps for the officers in each town. Total compensation and benefits must also be taken into account when comparing their wages.
Londonderry for instance offers a base pay of $25.59 with maximum of $30.59 for dispatchers, $30.37 to start for a dispatch supervisor. Patrol officers in Londonderry make $31.27 to start and $40.73 at year 3, with Sergeants making between $42.65 to start and $49.14 by year 3. Londonderry employs approximately 64 officers, 2x K-9s, a service dog, and 18 staff members in other roles. Meanwhile Hooksett offers an initial pay of $26.90 per hour as of July 7th 2025 and a maximum pay of $35.82 hourly for its patrol officers, and an initial pay of $23.94 hourly with $30.34 hourly maximum pay for their dispatchers. Hooksett employs
approximately 28 officers and one K-9 as well as 12 other staff in varying roles. Notably, Londonderry PD employs a substantially larger number of officers which could lead to an increased budget and more pay per officer. Londonderry also possesses a population of approximately 12,000 more people than Hooksett, further reinforcing the possibility of better wages being a result of a larger town with a larger police force and subsequently a larger gross tax revenue.
Benefits also vary from town to town. Londonderry for instance offers higher shift differentials compared to Hooksett, with Hooksett only offering a shift differential of $1.00/hour for the midnight shift. Meanwhile Londonderry offers $1.00/hour differential on weekends, $1.25 on the afternoon shift and $1.50 during the midnight shift. As for holidays, Londonderry offers 13 paid holidays a year while Hooksett offers 11 with 1 floating holiday. For scheduled work on a holiday, Londonderry offers 1.5 times the base pay hourly rate for an employee, and Hooksett the same. However Hooksett offers double time for unscheduled work on a holiday, despite having one less than Londonderry.
As for time off, Londonderry starts off at 10 days per year and gains 1 per year until year four, wherein they receive 16 vacation and then 1 per year from there. Hooksett comparatively offers 11 total vacation days until year 5, where you receive five extra days and again five more days at year 10. At year 15 Hooksett offers 25 total vacation days, three more than Londonderry. Here Hooksett compensates slightly for their much lower wages with increased vacation time coming with seniority, compared to Londonderry’s more gradual system of earning more vacation time yearly.
So Hooksett has lower pay rates than Londonderry, likely owing to it being a smaller town; they attempt to compensate with double time on unscheduled work hours during a holiday and more vacation days with seniority. The pay rates still cannot keep up with Londonderry’s increased shift differential pay and 1 more paid holiday per year.
Similarly sized towns to Hooksett like Durham, Exeter and Goffstown also offer varying wages: Durham paying $30.90 to $43.60 for patrol officers increasing at a rate of 90 cents per year roughly, Exeter paying $25.93 to $33.15 for patrol officers at a rate of roughly 64 cents per year and Goffstown paying $28.00 to $35.02 for patrol officers at a rate of 70 cents per year. These wages are adjusted on seniority, educational background, and experience to include prior military service and service in different roles in the department. Detectives generally make more than new Patrol officers, and so on.
For the taxpayer this means one thing: will your money go towards maintaining a police force, or training a new one? The Chief of Police in Londonderry contends that Hooksett spends ample funds training an officer over the course of a year, only to lose these fully trained officers to other towns such as Londonderry offering a more competitive wage. He argues that this increases the burden on officers who stay, increasing overtime and burnout amidst a smaller force. But the question is: is a pay raise more sustainable than continuously training new officers?
The pros of a pay raise are dually economic and social. Economically, it does appear to be cheaper to simply pay officers more than to try to sustain a high rate of employee turnover
and continuously train new officers. Further, a stable local police force consisting of officers who live in the community and have ample time and experience within it allows for more in depth policing work to be conducted with a generally friendly, experienced group of officers who know the lay of the land.
The cons of a pay raise are: an increased burden on the taxpayer amidst a time of economic uncertainty, lowered wages and fewer job openings than previous or even pre-Pandemic years. The estimated tax rate impact for Fiscal Year 2026-27 is $0.04 per thousand dollars of assessed value and the estimated tax rate impact for Fiscal Year 2027-28 is $0.05 per thousand dollars of assessed value. While recommended by the Town Council (5 Yes – 1 No); this increase was not recommended by the Budget Committee (4 Yes – 5 No).
This article is not to sway the voter, but to explain in plain English the pros, cons and context of the issue at hand. The voter should not read this article and be told who to vote for or how, rather the voter should read this article to utilize its objective analysis to make an informed decision on the matter at hand. They should pose themselves the question: “what do I value in a Police force? Stability at the cost of increased taxes; or preserving the current tax rate in hopes that the police force will work out its’ retention woes via other means?”
Without a pay raise the public are thus relying on the same cadre of officers to continue work as usual while new hires must be trained, acclimated and developed in their respective locales.
Police union contract up for a vote
