A question for police officers:

[FishingBuds]

Thought about going in the police force when I was 22, Was intrested in K-9 units, The only problem that I had to be honest about was the fighting situations, I believe I would eventually got burned out on this no matter how much they trained me for it in the head,  to go to a job that you physically have to fight most of the time with someone would've got to me.

I wouldn't have been fair to the dog, Let the dog get'em first ;D

[bassnleo]

I didn't understand Muddy's post until you replied BassnLeo. If I understand what is being said then let me add something. A topped out Deputy (no rank) is 86k a year but it takes I believe 16-18 yrs to get there. And that's only if he's in the Career Deputy path. Our retirement system is 25 yrs of service before you can retire and collect below the normal retirement age. However, you would be vested after six yrs. You just wouldn't be able to collect retirement if you quit after 6 yrs unless you're the right age.

Our retirement is based on 3% each year you work. So 25 yrs would be 75% of your salary.

That 75% is from your 5 highest paid years. So if you made 100k, 90k 120k, 95k and 100k in your 5 highest paid years then you would take that average which would be 101k. 75% of 101k is just over 75k a year retirement.

We CAN work overtime and have that money added into out top 5 highest years.

Health insurance is what's going to hurt after retirement unless you retire as a Captain or above. They get full medical benefits after retirement. Right now I pay $190 a month for family PPO medical insurance and $38 for family dental. I expect to pay about 1k a month for the same when I retire unless our bargaining unit works something out.

We also continue to get COLA (cost of living) after retirement. Our average COLA is 3% a year.

I could never in a 100 years complain about my benefits compared to most people in todays work force and for this I am extremely grateful.

Your pension plan is plain awesome. Ours is plainly stinky, but I knew that going in, I'm not complaining, I love my job and at least I have a pension plan when I do retire.

It has gotten a little better since I started 14 years ago. We just finally got awarded a COLA adjustment but we had to go to binding aribitration to get it.

We are allowed to accumulate 1000 hours of sick time BUT we only get paid for 1/3 of it when we retire, we loose the rest. Our vacation and comp time is a yealry thing, use it or loose it (except for the comp, we get paid for it at the end of each year, we can only have 40 hours accumulated)

Beside the 50% and the stuff I mentioned, that's it for our pension..... >

Next contract talks we will continue to try to make headway but with todays economy arbitrators are not going to be too generous plus arbitration is very costly and time consuming.

My point to Muddy post was to explain that what goes on in one dept/area/state does not necesarily go on everywhere. Maybe some places do try to bump a guys earnings so his pension increases, not here and not around here......

[Muddy]

Hey I am not a police officer, Elaine's son is, and I have 2 relatives on the force. It's all good in the Hood.Hey Leo: I have the utmost respect for you and I really enjoy your posts, since I am not a cop anyway lets leave this go. I don't want to create a sore spot with you , I apologize if this has already.

Dominick

[WIII-60]

ATX,

my situation is somewhat in the middle of bassnleo's and bassn blvd's. I cannot speak to anything other than an urban environment, state run, large city department.

My department is the second largest in the state, which usually is a large determining factor in your pay. Bigger cities usually means better pay taking into consideration geographical cost-of-living. It does, however, yield itself to a more stringent recruitment process because of various factors involving quotas.

Before I add anything else it's important to say that if you want big paychecks and exceptional benefits, federal is the way to go (ATF, CIA, SS, DEA etc.). The trade-off there is that you most likely will not get the "excitement" of being a street cop. Take that how you will. You'll also have to re-locate if need be.

I'll make about 48k this year with OT. Our OT is not seniority based. I have about 4 years of tenure.

I can potentially top-out at almost 70k after about 10 years as an officer.

To promote to sergeant you have to have 60 credit hours of college courses and 5 years of experience. You can top-out at about 74k. One of the sergeants in our unit cleared 106k this year with roughly 100 OT hours for operation 100's (SWAT-type stuff) and off-duty jobs.

Captains, Majors, Colonels all require an exponentially increasing amount of college education from bachelors to masters etc. The pay range will go from 105k to 150k-ish.

Our chief is going to cash in about 160k this year.

Retirement breaks down like this:

25 and out, with the option to stay on as a reserve until 30. We do not have comp time anymore, so you cannot earn anymore. You do retain what you earned as of last year. 100% payout.

sick time is a 5-1 payout.

Vacation is 100%. It expires at the first of the year however.

Your pension is 75% of the average of your three highest paid years. You are vested in your pension at 15 years.

The job is fun. Just the same as any other job, it has good days and bad days.

If you work in the city, you will get in fights, you will get hurt, and you probably will get in a wreck. I've been shot at, and I've used my gun. One of my colleagues has been in 6 shootings and killed two people. I believe that 8 of our people have been shot this year. Some guys go 30 without using their weapon, some guys are on six months before they do.

The down-side that you don't expect is the days you lose with the people you love. You might miss Christmas, birthdays, mothers day, etc. Those are the hardest things. It can be tough to be a good cop, a good father, husband, etc. all at once.

Good luck to you if you go that road.

[bassnleo]

Hey I am not a police officer, Elaine's son is, and I have 2 relatives on the force. It's all good in the Hood.Hey Leo: I have the utmost respect for you and I really enjoy your posts, since I am not a cop anyway lets leave this go. I don't want to create a sore spot with you , I apologize if this has already.

Dominick

Hey man, not sore at all. I know things are different from place to place. All I was trying to say was that what happens in Dept A is not the same as Dept B.

Your right, it's all good 8-)

[roadwarrior]

I wish all our threads had such direct,

specific and detailed responses.

Thank you, we appreciate your service, too.