My understanding is many (most?) cop pension plan payouts are based on the highest paid year. So every cop does something called spiking, they do a ton of hour

My understanding is many (most?) cop pension plan payouts are based on the highest paid year. So every cop does something called spiking, they do a ton of hours and turn their $100K/year job into a $200K/year job and get retirement based on the $200K/year. Or they get promoted to a higher paying job just before they retire so the pension is based on the higher pay. That makes for a pretty pleasant life style, 20 years and you retire to a sweet, sweet pension. Social Security offers a much better model, what you get back is based on what you put in, you can't spike it. Here's just one article, you can find lots with the google: http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=35211 http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=35211