Chesterfield County would need to spend $3.7 million to bring its police department in line with area localities in officer pay and compensation, according to an internal report released yesterday.

If the problem isn't fixed soon, the report says, the department will continue to lose officers to other law-enforcement agencies and the private sector.

The department has hired 289 officers since 2001 but lost 215 officers, during that same period -- with a large majority leaving voluntarily for reasons other than retirement, the report says.

Of the 136 in that category, the report identified at least 41 officers who quit to join other police agencies. The department's turnover rate was 9.41 percent in 2007, the greatest in at least seven years, according to the report.

Losing those officers is costing the county hundreds of thousands of dollars -- if not millions -- in training costs, the report says.

Chesterfield spends about $122,600 to recruit, hire, train and equip each new officer. Nearly $32 million has been spent on training and equipping new officers since 2001, the report says.

"How much money has been wasted over the last seven years on hiring police officers to leave and go somewhere else?" asked Chesterfield police Sgt. Kevin Carroll, president of the Chesterfield Fraternal Order of Police, and a member of the 30-employee committee that studied the retention problems.

Pay and benefits that lag other area police departments is driving the exodus, the report suggests. Chesterfield has fallen behind Richmond, Henrico and Hanover in starting and maximum salaries for its officers, as well as the average salary it pays officers with five to 12 years experience.

Carroll said Goochland County recently increased its starting salary for deputies to $42,000 a year, which is $4,000 more than Chesterfield's starting pay and $270 more than that of Chesterfield officers with 10 years experience.

The 120-page report, released publicly yesterday, was researched and compiled by a "Police Employee Retention Team" formed last September by Police Chief Thierry G. Dupuis. Committee members include officers of every rank through captain, as well as civilian employees.

The report says the department has been dealing with "significant and increasing morale issues" related to police officer pay "for a number of years now."

Carroll said county officers are grateful for the 4 percent merit raise recently granted by the Board of Supervisors for all county employees in fiscal 2009. But he said it doesn't address the severe pay inequities within the police department that require immediate action.

Dupuis called the report an excellent start but said some patience will be required to turn things around.

"I've told my staff [that] we didn't fall behind over night, so it's going to take us a while to create a plan, and fund that plan, in order for us to move forward."

Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or mbowes@timesdispatch.com.