SPRINGDALE — Police detectives who are on-call during their off-duty hours could receive extra pay.

The City Council will consider paying police officers $15 a day when they are on call at its 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday.

“I think it is something you have to do,” said Eric Ford, chairman of the Police and Fire Committee. “Anytime you restrict what your employees should be able to do on their days off, you should pay them for it.”

Detectives have had to leave Thanksgiving dinner, football games, graduations and Christmas family functions, said Sgt. Ed Motsinger.

Detectives have to plan all family events around on-call day, Motsinger said, which is an inconvenience.

“The worst part is the sleep,” Motsinger said. “You don’t get a lot of sleep some nights.”

Cellphones have given officers more mobility, said Kathy O’Kelley, police chief, but on-call officers still have to have a 20- to 30-minute response time. Officers aren’t allowed to drink while on call, Motsinger said.

The council approved on-call pay Jan. 14 for animal control officers, workers in the Information Technology Department and Public Works Signalization Division employees. The cost for those departments will be about $16,000 a year, said Wyman Morgan, city director of administration and financial services.

The extra pay covers being on call, Morgan said. Once an employee returns to work, standard pay rates begin, he said.

Fayetteville police don’t receive on-call pay, said Sgt. Craig Stout, Fayetteville public information officer. Rogers detectives receive two additional hours of pay per week for on-call duty, said Keith Foster, Rogers public information officer. Bentonville pays $15 per day to detectives on call, said Chief Jon Simpson.

Extending the pay to the Police Department would cost about $18,525, according to Capt. Richard Farris, Criminal Investigation Division supervisor. That total is about 0.2 percent of the department’s salary budget.

The division has a sergeant and a detective on call every day of the year, according to a memo from Farris. Ten detectives share the duty, on call one day each before rotating. Three sergeants rotate through the on-call duty as supervisors, a week at a time.

One detective had seven calls one Friday night in November, Kelley said. Sometimes the officer can answer questions over the phone, but many times they have to go to a crime scene, she said.

Cases that typically cause a detective or sergeant to go to work include violent crimes, larger property crimes or a crime where a lot of evidence must be collected and managed, O’Kelley said.

The department also has a narcotics detective on call every day, according to the memo. One sergeant, who can also work narcotics, serves double duty his week, with two narcotics detectives rotating the two weeks the sergeant isn’t on call.

The division also has a detective working with the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency who’s on call for a week every seven weeks. Similarly, a detective working with the 4th Judicial Drug Task Force is on call one week a month, according to the memo.

“I think employees should be compensated when they are not on the job and their activities are restricted,” said Mayor Doug Sprouse. “I think we will continue to look at departments where people are limited in what they can do on their time off.”

The restriction of activities is a major factor in receiving the pay, Sprouse said.

The police positions selected for extra pay can be easily justified, O’Kelley said. Additional officers can be called out, she said, but those don’t have off-duty restrictions.