Tell me what u think - Cop pay

[SecTrainer]

Like I always say, you gotta take cost of living into account.

This is SO true that today I would never make a change in jobs that involved a change in location without first translating the great new salary into the cost-of-living equivalent with respect to my current salary and location. It's very hard to get people's eyes off the raw salary numbers, but if you've ever been burned by waking up to find that the fantastic new salary wasn't working out quite the way you thought it would, you'll never consider just "the numbers" again. It's what the numbers will buy you that matters.

[bpdblue]

Pay maybe relative, until you retire.

I know that some areas are cheaper to live in then the San Francisco bay area, so making more out here equates to making less some where else, BUT that all changes when you retire, if you live that long.

When I retired in 2006, my rate was $45+ per hour (with the incentives like 6% extra for working graveyard and 7% extra for having a P.O.S.T. advanced certificate.) I had been pulling in over $100,000 a year for several years prior to my retirement(which included overtime and such.) The going rate now is (approx) $48+ per hour for someone equal to my former rating (patrolman.).

When it came time for retirement, the formula used for my old department is 3% @ 50, meaning you get 3% of your highest year's salary, for each year you worked, which you could start collecting at 50 years old. Our contract maxed out at 90% of your salary (not including overtime.)

This meant I retired with a pension of nearly $80,000 per year, with up to 2% C.O.L.A. (cost of living adjustments) per year. That plus our contract included health insurance for life if you retired out.

So, you may think that adjustment for salaries based on the area you live in evens thing out, but if I moved into your area with a cheaper cost of living, I am still getting paid like I live the more expensive area.

The end run of all this, make the most that you can, so your pension will be higher, where ever it is, (if it's a good place to work that is) and you can move to that area where things are cheaper later.

[SpecialAgentKC]

Salaries up here aren't bad...mostly in the $30.00+/hr. range at a decently paying gig.... I'm employed in a security/law enforcement capacity and on paid standby 24/7 as a duty officer for at least half of the month and average about 20-30 hrs. O/T per week. Not bad overall. --K.

For comparison on the whole for the Evergreen State, here's a good link:

https://fortress.wa.gov/cjtc/www/employment/index.htm

[Here4th$]

Police Pay

When I left the Sheriff's Office (five years ago in Idaho), I was Chief Deputy/Undersheriff and had been there over ten years. At that time, my take home was about $1600 a month. Security paid much better. I'd say the starting pay you mentioned is not bad at all.

[SpecialAgentKC]

I won't cast aspersions on your perceived disdain of your nation's transit security personnel. The Transportation Security Administration, if you were to rely on pollsters, is easily as unpopular as the Internal Revenue Service as far as public perception and is amongst the lowest ranked internally as far as morale, pride and the like. --K.

P.S.: Disclaimer--no slight whatsoever is intended to any here working for the TSA.

[NRM_Oz]

The Transit Officers are a joke - inefficient revenue raisers who are just thugs in grey uniforms. Would not more Police be more effective than some wannabe's ?

No the TO's have done nothing to me as I was apart of this organisation for a major investigation of a serious matter through a government watchdog agency. Corruption, theft, brutality, dishonesty, fraud, bastardisation, assault, excessive force, victimisation of other T/O from other backgrounds, lack of customer service and the whole attitude of I AM BETTER THAN YOU is why our police hate them and the public hate them as well.

It's a government job - hard to be fired when the union is militant and protective of their members knowing they could shut down the state's public transport in a flash. In 2002 when TO's first came together, there was a rush to get bums (butts) into uniforms to fulfil government's promises. They did not care who was put into these uniforms provided they met the numbers and now the rot has set in as those that are left know it is a cushy job where you work 4-5 hours from every 8 and can be given jobs for the boys (just like any other government organisation).

A few US colleagues have visited here and commented about the need for a pure Transit Police division like most major cities have around the globe. Bring the police back onto the trains again and you will see a huge reduction in crime but sadly we are lacking in filling replacements in general duties before they can consider a move for another Transit Police division.

[privatecop625]

Cop Pay

I have always wanted to get into other areas once i am off my probation perioid. I would love to join S.W.A.T., Drug Unit, Gang Unit, ect. I know that pays extra money.

-Privatecop625-

[craig333]

short answer is yes, its a nice starting wage. Very livable. Need more you can always move into a nice dectective position.

[Black Caesar]

We only have state police in Australia - plus feds of course.

Pay for a 4 on 4 off roster with 6 weeks leave is only about $50k US a year plus any o/t offered (ie. NYE, etc). What upsets me is they work 12 hour days, but our railway wannabe transit officers earn the same money and work only 5 hours from 8 hour shifts on the same money. No-one works past 2230 (unless it is a sting or special event or weekend) and have little training.

With the shortfall of staff they earn about $70k US a year including penalties and o/t and some have hit $100k US in 12 months as Sergeant equivalents.

Cost of living should be a depending factor as it is no use going to move to a place with 50% higher living costs. Unless this is your first post as a LEO consider all facets.

Ok, I gotta know, what is it you have against RailCorp and it's Transit Officers. You've mentioned them before, did they do something to you or something?

[Black Caesar]

Heh... Pittsfield is about 25mi from Albany, NY, so that's probably not an accurrate gauge.

Kenosha (basically a suburb) is located between 2 major cities (Chicago and Milwaukee, about 30-40 miles from both if I got the location right). I don't know where Curtis worked, his pay might not have been that good for his area, it all depends of where you're at.

The point is (in this particular thread) to compare like sized cities in a similar location (ie near major metropolitan areas). It doesn't matter how good that money would be out in the country side, the original poster lists his location as Kenosha, so the relevant comparison is another suburb, which is why I compared the KPD pay to Richardson (Texas) PD.

[darkenna]

According to CNN Money"s cost of living calculator, 65,000 in the Boston Area is the same as 47,000 in the Kenosha Area (I use Kenosha as an example because that's where the original poster is talking about), ie, the same that Kenosha PD pays (that 65k in Boston worth 44k here in Dallas) and you get pretty much the same numbers from the other areas of Mass listed on there site (where the hell is Pittsfield anyway, never head of it).

Like I always say, you gotta take cost of living into account. My wife's ex worked for a University PD in California that starts it's officers at 65k, souds good till you plug in the numbers and find that 65K in Cali (San Francisco area) is "worth" less than the 38k Campus Police Officers start at on my job here in Dallas Texas....

Heh... Pittsfield is about 25mi from Albany, NY, so that's probably not an accurrate gauge. Of the others listed that you can choose from, they're some of the wealthier areas in the commonwealth; a small 2-bedroom apartment (say, 650 sq. ft.) in Natick or Pittsfield will run $1200-$1400/month, a little under $1100/mo in Fitchburg, and $2000+/month in the Boston area. Contrast that with Haverhill or Lawrence ($800-$900/mo), or Southern NH ($700-800/mo.)... Gas prices, too: $3.30/gal, $3.25/gal, $3.40/gal, $3.15/gal, & $3/gal, respectively. $65k is a high salary in most of the state... and that's just the start base with no experience and no education.

(This doesn't make me very confident in that site's system, btw. Worcester has a completely different economy level than either Boston--eastern end of the state--or the Berkshires--western end.)

[Black Caesar]

Unless you join the Mass. State Police; $65k/yr to start, during probationary period. And goes way up from there. Plus OT, details, Quinn Bill percentages. Of course, you'd have to make it through their academy first, which is usually ranked 1 step more brutal than Paris Island... so there's a trade-off.

Nashua, NH just posted for 17 patrol officers, starting at $45k ($51k after 1 yr), plus OT, details, etc. This is high for the area, but the cost of living is high enough that there's no way you could support a family off it. (There's one local PD that has to pay its officers a rate of about $14/hr, because that's all the funding they have. It's sad.)

According to CNN Money"s cost of living calculator, 65,000 in the Boston Area is the same as 47,000 in the Kenosha Area (I use Kenosha as an example because that's where the original poster is talking about), ie, the same that Kenosha PD pays (that 65k in Boston worth 44k here in Dallas) and you get pretty much the same numbers from the other areas of Mass listed on there site (where the hell is Pittsfield anyway, never head of it).

Like I always say, you gotta take cost of living into account. My wife's ex worked for a University PD in California that starts it's officers at 65k, souds good till you plug in the numbers and find that 65K in Cali (San Francisco area) is "worth" less than the 38k Campus Police Officers start at on my job here in Dallas Texas....

[darkenna]

OK - My first job in LE (1972), fresh out of the academy, I was paid $850/month. In todays figures that amounts to $42,855/year. I was able to support a wife and a child on that salary. It's all relative. If you get into LE for the money aspect - you will go broke.

Unless you join the Mass. State Police; $65k/yr to start, during probationary period. And goes way up from there. Plus OT, details, Quinn Bill percentages. Of course, you'd have to make it through their academy first, which is usually ranked 1 step more brutal than Paris Island... so there's a trade-off.

Nashua, NH just posted for 17 patrol officers, starting at $45k ($51k after 1 yr), plus OT, details, etc. This is high for the area, but the cost of living is high enough that there's no way you could support a family off it. (There's one local PD that has to pay its officers a rate of about $14/hr, because that's all the funding they have. It's sad.)

[Curtis Baillie]

OK - My first job in LE (1972), fresh out of the academy, I was paid $850/month. In todays figures that amounts to $42,855/year. I was able to support a wife and a child on that salary. It's all relative. If you get into LE for the money aspect - you will go broke.

[NRM_Oz]

We only have state police in Australia - plus feds of course.

Pay for a 4 on 4 off roster with 6 weeks leave is only about $50k US a year plus any o/t offered (ie. NYE, etc). What upsets me is they work 12 hour days, but our railway wannabe transit officers earn the same money and work only 5 hours from 8 hour shifts on the same money. No-one works past 2230 (unless it is a sting or special event or weekend) and have little training.

With the shortfall of staff they earn about $70k US a year including penalties and o/t and some have hit $100k US in 12 months as Sergeant equivalents.

Cost of living should be a depending factor as it is no use going to move to a place with 50% higher living costs. Unless this is your first post as a LEO consider all facets.