OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — FOX23 spoke with three Green Country sheriff’s departments after a bill to increase staff pay funding passed the Oklahoma House.

A proposed new law aims to set up a grant program that would allow departments across the state to pay their deputies better wages.

The sheriff’s departments said this is vital for public safety and are calling for better pay to help them keep their deputies who they said leave for other law enforcement agencies that pay better.

“Some deputies might need food stamps. We can’t pay qualified people enough to keep them,” Osage County Undersheriff Gary Upton said.

“We have 568 square miles for Wagoner County. We need a few more deputies per shift out there, but we’re not able to do that because of money constraints,” Wagoner County Undersheriff Mark Secrist said.

“We want to hire the best people, we want to train them and we want to retain them. The only way you can do that is to be competitive monetarily,” Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton said.

If House Bill 4063 is passed into law, it would set up a special grant program to help bring sheriffs’ pay up to a minimum of $75,000 a year, deputies to $45,000 and jailers to $40,000 per year.

Upton said some of their deputies work two jobs.

“In Osage County, we’ve got a lot of deputies that work extra jobs and a lot of times that involve working at another agency. They’ll actually have two different uniforms in their closet and actually be working at two different agencies to be able to make ends meet,” Upton said.

In Wagoner County, Secrist said some of their staff move on to other law enforcement agencies that pay better. He said the extra money would mean they could keep more experienced deputies and increase public safety.

“Absolutely would make the county safer because you would be able to retain people and that way we’re not always in a training mode,” Secrist said.

Walton said his county is the fifth largest in the state and that better funding would help improve safety, especially in rural areas.

“For public safety, for somebody to feel safe in their home, to feel safe when they go to the store, for their kids to feel safe at school, those are expectations that are realistic. Those aren’t frills, those are necessities,” Walton said.

They said people trust their lives to law enforcement and the decisions they make. They said they should be well trained and well paid for it.

The bill passed the Oklahoma State House earlier this month and now goes to the State Senate.

FOX23 will follow its progress and let you know what happens.