The North Carolina State Highway Patrol is bleeding troopers because its starting and maximum salaries aren’t as competitive as other agencies in the state, Highway Patrol Commander Col. Freddy Johnson Jr. told lawmakers Thursday. And low salaries make it hard to recruit new troopers, he said, meaning roadways aren’t as safe as they could be.
Johnson was among several law enforcement agency leaders who testified before the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety on Thursday. Johnson’s comments come about a month after the State Auditor’s Office reported that the Highway Patrol needs funding to increase salaries to solve staffing problems and maintain its fleet of vehicles. In the past six months, Johnson said, the number of vacant trooper slots has risen 37%.
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The situation is playing out across state government. Thousands of state job vacancies in North Carolina are stretching public services — a crisis that leaders from both parties say will not ease until lawmakers break an ongoing budget stalemate and approve raises for state employees.
Senate Republicans are committed to supporting law enforcement by increasing their salaries to ensure our agencies can recruit and retain highly qualified officers, said Lauren Horsch, a spokesperson for Senate Leader Phil Berger.
The 700‑page report from Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek shows widespread vacancies across nearly every major state agency, including public safety, health care, transportation and environmental oversight. It identified more than 4,500 jobs across state government that have gone unfilled for over a year. The most common reason given for the vacancies was low compensation, the auditor’s report notes.
As part of the January report, Johnson told state auditors that Highway Patrol struggles to recruit new officers because the state limits starting salaries for some of its positions. At the same time, Highway Patrol intentionally keeps some positions vacant so that it can divert the money to other needs, such as fuel costs and vehicle maintenance, the report says.
Highway Patrol had 161 positions that had been vacant for six months or more as of August, the auditor reported. The agency now has 220 vacancies, Johnson told lawmakers Thursday, adding that the Highway Patrol could’ve used the help when responding to more than 6,000 crashes during two snow storms within the last month.
Joyhnson said many law enforcement agencies boosted their starting salaries as anti-law enforcement sentiment started to spread in 2020, when video footage of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd prompted protests across the nation. Salaries offered by the State Highway Patrol haven’t kept up with the competition, Johnson said.
Highway Patrol offers a starting salary for entry-level troopers of $55,000 a year. At least 30 other law enforcement agencies offer more than that, Johnson said. Highway Patrol’s top offered salary is $80,000. That also trails at least 30 other agencies, more than half of which offer a top salary of $100,000 or more.
“We owe them better than this,” Johnson told legislators when discussing the agency’s salaries.
At the same time, Johnson said the agency needs millions of dollars in additional funds for other needs. “We’re severely underfunded on our operating budget, so we need some help with that,” he said.
Highway Patrol needs additional funding to train more K9 officers and improvements to the agency’s driving track, which Johnson said is becoming dangerous for motorcycles. Highway Patrol also wants another helicopter capable of transporting emergency supplies to the mountains.
The auditor’s findings within Highway Patrol generated discussion in the state’s House Select Committee on Government Efficiency meeting on Wednesday, when State Auditor Dave Boliek presented findings from his report.
State Rep. Phil Rubin, D-Wake, said the legislature should provide enough funding to the Highway Patrol so that it doesn’t have to rely on unused salaries.
“A lot of these agencies are just straight-up underfunded and they’re having to sort of tie shoe strings together using vacant positions,” Rubin said. “The fact is: the Highway Patrol should not be having to pay for gas with lapsed salary. That’s our job to fund that.”
State Rep. Keith Kidwell, R-Beaufort, said agencies need to be more transparent about their specific needs when the state is crafting its spending plans.
“We need to get to where: If the state troopers need 20 million gallons of fuel, we budget for that,” Kidwell said. “I’ve found time and time again in the seven years I’ve been here that agencies will walk in and lobby us … and in order to satisfy, we kind of just throw dollars at them.”
Boliek praised Johnson for cooperating with the auditor’s office and providing insight into how the agency funds its operations. “The colonel deserves a tremendous amount of credit for his transparency and working with our office,” Boliek said.
The State Bureau of Investigation also says its staffing levels haven’t kept up with the state’s population growth. The state’s population has increased 81% since 1984 but the number of SBI agents is up only 40% since then, SBI director Chip Hawley told lawmakers Thursday.