$516,000/year for a cop???

[Apple Of Sodom]

I just don't understand. Someone should look at the amount of overtime that the police are working, make a determination as to whether it is justified, and do something about it:

Not justified: the cops are fleecing their employer (the taxpayers, really) and should be fired.
Justified: cops are overworked (and overpaid) and they need to hire additional cops.

This is how it works in most businesses. Paying overtime is for suckers and if you routinely use X amount of overtime then you hire another person.

 

[Vette73]

and by 1 small agency 1 guy he means the one he applied to.

They obviously didn't "do" to the fact he was too smart.

No it isn't me. Nothing wrong with being a cop, but the fact is that you need to be smart enough to do the job, but not so smart you get bored with it. It isn't a policy for all police departments,and not all police departments give I.Q. tests, but it is nevertheless the case. Unfortunately "intelligence" isn't a protected class.

The rationale is that they train you, spend a lot of money on you, and it takes a long time to work your way up. Highly intelligent people will get bored with sitting in their car all day, driving around and writing tickets for parking illegally.

http://nyletterpress.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/police-reject-candidate-for-being-too-intelligent/

(more on that same story and the idea of not hiring intelligent people to begin with)
http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/employee-development/568635-1.html

And again... 1 small agency...

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/09/n...lice-can-bar-high-iq-scores.html?pagewanted=1

NOT all police forces and many of the larger city ones came out to say they do not do IQ test and take the best they get.

 

[Vette73]

I just don't understand. Someone should look at the amount of overtime that the police are working, make a determination as to whether it is justified, and do something about it:

Not justified: the cops are fleecing their employer (the taxpayers, really) and should be fired.
Justified: cops are overworked (and overpaid) and they need to hire additional cops.

This is how it works in most businesses. Paying overtime is for suckers and if you routinely use X amount of overtime then you hire another person.

You REALLY do not know anything about business/hiring do you?

It much cheaper to pay overtime then hire more people that will get benifits and have employment rights. Let alone in the police force they have to train them, get certified, etc... so they can;t just get a rent a cop and hope he does not F-up and cost the city millions in a lawsuit.

 

[ric1287]

I just don't understand. Someone should look at the amount of overtime that the police are working, make a determination as to whether it is justified, and do something about it:

Not justified: the cops are fleecing their employer (the taxpayers, really) and should be fired.
Justified: cops are overworked (and overpaid) and they need to hire additional cops.

This is how it works in most businesses. Paying overtime is for suckers and if you routinely use X amount of overtime then you hire another person.

+ calculate if it would be cheaper to hire 10 more officers or just pay out the OT. Its not just justified or unjustified, and its not like they can really scam the system. The OT is paid out for the bullshit policies the local government enforces and the time waste that is the justice system.

 

[ric1287]

Yeah, police unions.

Yeah either that or the massive incompetence of most local governments (who all make in the 6 figures if you're looking for a real money waste) to "manage" things. One of them for sure

 

[alkemyst]

We have this same kind of OT abuse here in Palm Beach County and all the time you hear of cops working with a scheduler and that 'time' is actually not covered by any LEO yet they collect on it. That's the really sad part.

Our cops entry salary is $67500...average OT was about $42k.

The biggest problem is most cops aren't going after 'robberies' nor gangs...they aren't even supposed to be patrolling due to budgets. Ours are pretty much always on speed-trap or DUI detail. All revenue generation. The ones that do get hurt are the ones responding to domestic disputes or pulling over the occasional 'wanted' felon.

Its a freaking gravy train. Like the 9/11 cops/firefighters that took their pensions right after all the OT they were working...for the rest of their lives many will be paid on a pension as if they always worked at 4x their normal hours.

 

[Soccerman06]

We have this same kind of OT abuse here in Palm Beach County and all the time you hear of cops working with a scheduler and that 'time' is actually not covered by any LEO yet they collect on it. That's the really sad part.

Our cops entry salary is $67500...average OT was about $42k.

The biggest problem is most cops aren't going after 'robberies' nor gangs...they aren't even supposed to be patrolling due to budgets. Ours are pretty much always on speed-trap or DUI detail. All revenue generation. The ones that do get hurt are the ones responding to domestic disputes or pulling over the occasional 'wanted' felon.

Its a freaking gravy train. Like the 9/11 cops/firefighters that took their pensions right after all the OT they were working...for the rest of their lives many will be paid on a pension as if they always worked at 4x their normal hours.

lol in Palm Beach it costs like 500k for 1000sqft house, inflation is super high there, esp in wpb. Police make enough to live comfortably no matter where they live, so if it was in a small town in Iowa, they would make 40k. Besides its not like they sit in random drug stores waiting for it to get robbed, there is no where near enough manpower to have a cop on every street of every city to prevent this.

As to OP, the guy getting 500k is the Police Chief, he probably works 100hr weeks directing EVERYTHING. The next few down are all his assistants/underlings that he has and probably has them work whenever he works. These arent the typical cops either, they dont drive the car around and give people tickets, they sit in an office and direct bs doing who knows what. The ones that drive around make 60-70k in large cities with overtime they would hit maybe 85k (including the time they sit in a court room).

 

[JD50]

No it isn't me. Nothing wrong with being a cop, but the fact is that you need to be smart enough to do the job, but not so smart you get bored with it. It isn't a policy for all police departments,and not all police departments give I.Q. tests, but it is nevertheless the case. Unfortunately "intelligence" isn't a protected class.

The rationale is that they train you, spend a lot of money on you, and it takes a long time to work your way up. Highly intelligent people will get bored with sitting in their car all day, driving around and writing tickets for parking illegally.

http://nyletterpress.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/police-reject-candidate-for-being-too-intelligent/

(more on that same story and the idea of not hiring intelligent people to begin with)
http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/employee-development/568635-1.html

You're full of shit. Like Marlin said, you're going to find a couple of very rare cases and use that to generalize police departments across the country. With regards to the bold, you have no idea what you're talking about, the "highly intelligent" cops don't do that.

 

[alkemyst]

lol in Palm Beach it costs like 500k for 1000sqft house, inflation is super high there, esp in wpb. Police make enough to live comfortably no matter where they live, so if it was in a small town in Iowa, they would make 40k. Besides its not like they sit in random drug stores waiting for it to get robbed, there is no where near enough manpower to have a cop on every street of every city to prevent this.

As to OP, the guy getting 500k is the Police Chief, he probably works 100hr weeks directing EVERYTHING. The next few down are all his assistants/underlings that he has and probably has them work whenever he works. These arent the typical cops either, they dont drive the car around and give people tickets, they sit in an office and direct bs doing who knows what. The ones that drive around make 60-70k in large cities with overtime they would hit maybe 85k (including the time they sit in a court room).

I live in Palm Beach County...1000 sq ft was never $500k or more. Probably not even on the island of Palm Beach.

 

[Lithium381]

i agree with the OP, it's not just the police either, it's firemen too. I'm not saying i don't appreciate them, but why pay SOOO MUCH OVERTIME, just hire another one at a regular rate. these people make about 150k base.....yet their year-end salary is close to 300/400...... WHY?! and this is just salary, take home....not benifits and perks

 

[JD50]

i agree with the OP, it's not just the police either, it's firemen too. I'm not saying i don't appreciate them, but why pay SOOO MUCH OVERTIME, just hire another one at a regular rate. these people make about 150k base.....yet their year-end salary is close to 300/400...... WHY?! and this is just salary, take home....not benifits and perks

This has all been addressed, why post without reading the thread?

 

[boomhower]

No it isn't me. Nothing wrong with being a cop, but the fact is that you need to be smart enough to do the job, but not so smart you get bored with it. It isn't a policy for all police departments,and not all police departments give I.Q. tests, but it is nevertheless the case. Unfortunately "intelligence" isn't a protected class.

The rationale is that they train you, spend a lot of money on you, and it takes a long time to work your way up. Highly intelligent people will get bored with sitting in their car all day, driving around and writing tickets for parking illegally.

http://nyletterpress.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/police-reject-candidate-for-being-too-intelligent/

(more on that same story and the idea of not hiring intelligent people to begin with)
http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/employee-development/568635-1.html

You are a complete and utter moron.

 

[Soccerman06]

I live in Palm Beach County...1000 sq ft was never $500k or more. Probably not even on the island of Palm Beach.

ok more like 150k now, but it use to be 350k back in 2007

 

[Chaotic42]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/04/13/SFPay2009.DTL&appSession=550151186965571

this really irritates me. i live in san francisco, which has major financial problems.

I've heard there's lots of ice cream thievery in the city. Probably a loss of restaurant tax revenue

if you ask me, no cop anywhere should be allowed to make more than 70000. if you need more cops, hire them, but dont let them rape the taxpayer with overtime. that job just doesnt require the brains or education to deserve hundreds of thousands in pay under any circumstances.

No brains to be a cop? You're kidding, right? Isn't $70K a very modest income in SF?

 

[JMapleton]

Not that I condone it, but OP is missing something, these are not "on the beat" officers but deputy cheifs and captains.

But the mayor of SF also made $250k, wow. Mayor of my city makes like $75k.

 

[alkemyst]

I've heard there's lots of ice cream thievery in the city. Probably a loss of restaurant tax revenue



No brains to be a cop? You're kidding, right? Isn't $70K a very modest income in SF?

No one is required to live where they patrol.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

I've heard there's lots of ice cream thievery in the city. Probably a loss of restaurant tax revenue

no here the ice cream is FREE (legally and legitimately)

No brains to be a cop? You're kidding, right? Isn't $70K a very modest income in SF?

no here the ice cream is FREE (legally and legitimately)

you dont even have to be a high school, let alone a college graduate:
http://sf-police.org/index.aspx?page=1646

apparently you dont even have to have a clean criminal record!


yes $70000 isnt very much if youre actually living in the city but that isnt a requirement to be a cop. you can survive on that if you live in a suburb

 

[Mike]

You sir, are a complete douche

 

[JMapleton]

no here the ice cream is FREE (legally and legitimately)

They got free ice cream in SF?

 

[Jadow]

these numbers don't even include graft and corruption!

 

[holden j caufield]

I respect cops but a cop who works the system for over 1/2 a million is unscrupulous and this person should never have the authority and possession of a firearm. You simply can't trust this type of person to do the right thing.

 

[BoberFett]

Its called unions. They artificially prop up wages. Yes, cops are important, but why pay a cop 100k when there are plenty good cops willing to work for 40k? You can hire 2 and a half cops for 40k each or 1 cop for 100k. I'll choose 2.5 cops over 1 cop any day.

It's San Francisco. They should just get illegals to do it for $3.00hr.

 

[Chaotic42]

No one is required to live where they patrol.

Around here they are, or were the last time I talked about it with a cop a few years ago. Also, wouldn't you want your police officers to live in your neighborhood? That way they have that little bit extra vested interest in the community.

you dont even have to be a high school, let alone a college graduate:
http://sf-police.org/index.aspx?page=1646

Education and intelligence don't always go hand in hand. I'm not saying that you have to have a 140 IQ to be a traffic cop, but it's not a job for dummies.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

I respect cops but a cop who works the system for over 1/2 a million is unscrupulous and this person should never have the authority and possession of a firearm. You simply can't trust this type of person to do the right thing.

you didn't even read the thread did you.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

seriously, who is the far bigger danger to society: the black man who robs a liquor store and makes off with $200 or the cops who figure out how to scam $500000 a year out of the taxpayer