Imagine you are a police officer who responded tirelessly to your community in the wake of Hurricane Florence in Wilmington, NC.

Image you are leaving your home, your family, your pets, and all of your belongings to ensure the safety of your community before, during, and after Hurricane Florence.

You are working 12 hours plus over time just to meet the needs of your community. You are sacrificing your time, your energy, and, quite literally, your own safety to ensure that others who chose not to evacuate, looters, rubber neckers, emergencies medical care, and others who decide to be the unofficial weather person with their cell phone return to the hospital, local shelter, other safe locations, or to jail in some cases.

You work tirelessly to ensure the safe passage of EMS, Duke Power, Firepersons, and other first responders during this natural disaster. You, as a police officer, even cut trees out of ride of way so that EMERGENCY vehicles and other important officials like FEMA, the american red cross, and other organizations can bring the much needed supplies, help, hope and love to your community during and after Hurricane Florence.  See video here. https://www.newhanoversheriff.com

Now imagine that you are expecting normal compensation of your regular 40 hours per week plus any overtime pay as any other reasonably employed person would expect. Imagine your first pay check after providing safety for your community before, during and after Hurricane Florence should reflect your regular pay plus time and a half for overtime. You open your pay stub and it reflects only the regular 40 hours per week with no over time pay, but you were given comp time which is the equivalent to vacation days at the normal pay rate.

As I listen to how the City of Wilmington is planning to pay administrative leave plus planning to give bonuses to City of Wilmington for a job well done, I hear how other government/county employees are getting overtime in their pay during this time of crisis in our community. I can only imagine and have heard from several New Hanover County Sheriffs Office Police Officers that they (officers are asking to remain anomous for fear of retaliation) fell like they have been punched in the gut and all of the air in their lungs are gone at the reality of the services that they provide daily, and then over time hours risking their lives during hurricane Florence and New Hanover County Sheriff's Office only gives New Hanover County Sheriffs Office Police Officers, vacation days at regular pay?

What message is New Hanover County Sheriff office sending to their police families that serve the community tirelessly, whole heartedly, and without reservation?

This is the reality of MANY Sheriff's Officers who work for New Hanover County Sheriff Office.

I am writing this petition today because as a local advocate for more than 17 years in this community and in others communities as well, I have heard story after story of New Hanover County Sheriff Office only providing comp time due to a rule that New Hanover County Sheriff Office Police officers have to exceed 171 hrs in a pay 28 day cycle before they start getting paid overtime.

This means that a New Hanover County Sheriff Office Police Officer working patrol or in the jail on 12-hr shifts technically works 14 days out of 28. That puts The New Hanover County Sheriffs Office Police Officer at 168 hours total. In order to get any overtime, the New Hanover County Sheriffs Office Police Officer would have to work another 3 hours somewhere to meet the policy as set forth by New Hanover County Sheriffs Office.

Here is what I and many other New Hanover County Sheriffs Office Police Officers are finding issue. Given if this overtime would have happened at any other time besides a natural disasters the policy I could see the New Hanover County Sheriffs Office providing comp time. For the New Hanover County Sheriffs Office to take time and a half away from New Hanover County Sheriffs Office Police Officers and ONLY giving them comp time at regular pay is a violation of any best practice that we have seen from Wilmington/New Hanover County/government entities that are funded by similar if not the same funding sources.

The New Hanover County Sheriffs Office should follow the other government entities and give compensation throughout this natural disaster similar or the same as the other government bodies.

The fact that a New Hanover County Sheriff Office Police Officer wasn't compensated through this natural disaster, also know as Hurricane Florence, is honestly a miscarriage of justice. The same New Hanover County Sheriffs Office police officers that has not been appropriately compensated and helped tirelessly for days, they worked through knowing that their own homes were completely destroyed, knowing that their families evacuated and the New Hanover County Sheriffs Office Police Officers were left behind.

It brings tears to my eyes and makes my heart hurt knowing that these same New Hanover County Sheriffs Office Police Officer are still picking up the pieces of their home and life, but still has an employer who could care less that they too, like others didn't have flood insurance, now have been given another blow by not being properly compensated for protecting the very community they swore to protect is now not supporting them as they recover from what they have seen, felt, gone through and are still going through.

I urge everyone to please sign this because the sacrifices made by these officers should not also have to be about sacrificing appropriate compensation.

In closing, the New Hanover County Sheriffs Office is allowed to apply to FEMA for overtime pay for for additional Police Officers overtime, vehicles used, damages they sustained, and any other resources that fall outside of the normal scope of day to day operations. I as a voting member in New Hanover County will remember and vote for those who made a difference in these issues with our police officers of New Hanover County Sheriffs Office. I urge you all to sign this petition and also reach out to those who are in direct power to change how our officers are compensated during this natural disaster.

How are we #WILMINGTONSTRONG when we are failing to appropriately compensate the police officers of New Hanover County Sheriffs Office??? #Wilmingtonfailingourpolicefamilies
#WILMINGTONFALLING

You can reach the local authorities on managing, implementing and enforcing polices as aforementioned below:

https://governor.nc.gov/contact/contact-governor-cooper

bill.saffo@wilmingtonnc.gov

Ed McMahon, Sheriff, NHC, EMcMahon@nhcgov.com

Woody White, Chairman, NHC Commissioners, wwhite@nhcgov.com

pkusek@nhcgov.com

rzapple@nhcgov.com

swatkins@nhcgov.com

council@wilmingtonnc.gov