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My neighbor is a Sargent in the local PD. Town of 300K. He made $140K last year ($40K of it OT). I think the notion that police are underpaid is not accurate, a
by greedo 6y ago
My neighbor is a Sargent in the local PD. Town of 300K. He made $140K last year ($40K of it OT). I think the notion that police are underpaid is not accurate, at least here.
- newacct583 6y agoThere's a lot of spread, but yeah: in general police work pays much better than jobs with similar qualifications. They're also almost universally union jobs with excellent job security and public benefits.
- giardini 6y agoIt isn't the union that makes the cost of police high, its that they're a select group: physically fit(when they're hired!) yet no criminal or antisocial record(surprisingly rare), and fairly intelligent. Add the expensive training that goes into policing and you get what you pay for.
- greedo 6y agoNone of what you said is factually accurate. We don't pay enlistees in the armed services high salaries, and they're usually physically fit. No criminal record? Depends on the department since each sets its own standards. Expensive training? Many departments have academy training that's 8 weeks. If a department uses a longer 6 month training cycle, the average tuition cost is around $7K.
- remote_phone 6y agoMy point is we should pay cops very high salaries, $300k+ to attract those that might go into other professions.
- corrys 6y agoYou seem to equate high salary with compassion. What is this notion based on?
- remote_phone 6y agoYour assumption is entirely wrong. I equate high pay to high expectations and higher quality applicants.
- WealthVsSurvive 6y agoWhy?
- 29083011397778 6y agoWe can assume x% of applicants are actually qualified, instead of "Good enough and we need bodies". If we increase pay, we increase total applicants - which, assuming x stays constant, means we end up with more actually qualified cops.
- ulisesrmzroche 6y agoWhy not?
- jadell 6y agoIt's less about compassion and more about risk. Risk in the sense of the physical danger an officer goes into, but also in the sense that we are removing protections for the officer and holding them to a higher standard.
- CameronNemo 6y agoThe most common cause of death for police officers is traffic fatalities. Should we pay highway construction crews 300K+?
- ulisesrmzroche 6y agoThat’s a terrible analogy. Obviously they’re more at risk of dying a violent death and that’s why they need to pay more
- catalogia 6y agoLike the 'Blackwater' PMC/merc type of guys?
- hkai 6y agoMaybe you are right, but it didn't seem to work in Hong Kong. Here a new recruit is paid nearly 6000 USD / month after tax, double that of a new software engineer. I think you've seen the outcome in the news.
- Consultant32452 6y agoHow about lawsuits against the police for bad behavior get paid out of their pension fund, instead of by the taxpayer?
- craftinator 6y agoI REALLY like this. Take it out of the pool of pensions for all cops in that department. Maybe they'll start to police themselves a little.
- toomuchtodo 6y agoThe problem with that is that impacts those who may have no influence on the situation (retirees receiving benefits from the pension plan). Alternatively, you could require insurance, similar to medical malpractice insurance, that pays out for law enforcement malfeasance. If you’re uninsurable due to your actions (egregious and/or chronic), you’re no longer a cop. The cost to your colleagues (premiums) also goes up because of your behavior. This takes the financial burden off taxpayers, but still uses economic incentives to encourage the behavior we expect from public servants.
- _bxg1 6y ago> that impacts those who may have no influence on the situation It puts a strong incentive on those to take responsibility for their coworkers. To cultivate a culture of integrity, through interactions, through hiring and firing, through setting an example for those you lead. Cops love to talk about having each other's backs; let's see them put those words into action where it counts.
- toomuchtodo 6y agoRetirees are not the coworkers, they are already out of the system. You’re shifting risk from current employees to past employees unless you pursue an insurance model, which is intended to do precisely what you describe: pool and price risk, both individually and collectively, among active law enforcement.