BATON ROUGE - Baton Rouge Police officers could be getting a massive pay raise. The department is about 100 officers short of being fully staffed, and a raise is the mayor-president hopes to fill out the ranks. This is about a 40% pay bump for starting officers.

Baton Rouge City Constable Terrica Williams questions how the city-parish can cut funding and positions from her office during last year's budget cuts, and give pay increases to other agencies.

Williams says that since she began serving as the city constable, she has been working to get her staff's pay up to a competitive wage. She says hearing that another agency is proposed to get such a large increase, and the constable's office is not included, is hurtful.

"My guys go to the same police academy, they train, they post-certified, and we help out a lot in Baton Rouge, and to take funding, take my budget, take my positions, and then give a pay increase and not include us is disheartening," Williams said.

Williams says she questioned Edwards about the proposed pay raises and whether the constable would be included.

"He was like, not now, I'll try to help you later, I'll try to do some things, in June and possible next year, but I just think for my guys, I mean, I have to fight for my workers, because they do the work," Williams said.

Under the proposal, base pay would increase from $41,000 to $58,000 annually.

Mayor Sid Edwards says the pay raise aims to address the officer shortage and attract more qualified recruits to the department.

Edward says on January 1st, the department had 556 officers; it's now down to 524 officers. Edwards says if they drop below a certain threshold, the city would have to pay something called a Dissolution Payment to the retirement system. Edwards says he's been told the department is near the limit.

"Which would could be upwards of 2 million dollars a month. Why are the police going first? Why is it important? Number one, they deserve to have this, like many of our other staff, but if we go into dissolution in Baton Rouge, nobody gets paid," Edward's said

The district attorney's office was another city-parish department that faced a budget cut late last year. DA Hillar Moore says he is glad the police department may see a pay raise.

But he says his office will more than likely be filing a lawsuit against the city-parish to get the funding they need.

"If they are able to fill their ranks, and they fill up 100 police and 75 deputies, that means that's a lot more work that would come through the DA's office, and as you know, we are struggling now and asking for more money," Moore said.

Williams says she hopes she doesn't have to file a lawsuit against the city, but says if they don't respect the constable's office, she'll take other actions.

"If you are head of a department, whether the head of the DA, public defender, coroner, the constable, they're fighting for their departments, and I respect that and I don't blame them. So it's not like this mayor is withholding money I have, we're finding creative ways to fund it," Edwards said.

The Metro Council is expected to vote on the pay raise proposal at the April 8th meeting.