KA> I can't think of a thing I would add to what you expect from the
 KA> Police, and I am not a LEO. Overall, our locals seem to do a good job,
 KA> and they are quite shorthanded due to low salaries, and the difficulty
 KA> of attracting young people into the career.
I have many mixed emotions about this. I certainly don't believe that public
servants should be getting rich, but they should be able to support a family
and have decent benefits. I think that many police departments are
shorthanded because of the pay and benefits offered by larger departments. I
usually tell someone who is thinking about a law enforcement career to look
at more than just pay and benefits. How many officers they have killed each
year is a statistic that should be considered heavily, higher pay and
benefits or not.
I prefer working for the medium sized departments for many reasons. First, I
am a real person, not just a badge number. Some of the larger departments
have officers who have never met each other, even after several years of
service. I know everyone on my department. I may have even met their wives
and children. We have 149 sworn officers and 50 civilian employees, just
enough for a large family type structure. Our last officer killed in the line
of duty was in 1947, and that was an accident on the part of the officer. We
lose a lot of good applicants to the larger departments because of better pay
and benefits, but the majority of our officers have their roots in our city.
As a result, we feel that we have some of the best officers in the state,
officers who really care about serving the community.
There are still some towns in my state that don't even furnish the basic
equipment to do the job, to include the car. It is hard to believe that
anyone would buy their own duty weapon, their uniforms, other equipment, and
supply their own car for an $800 a month salary, but this still happens in
some of the smaller towns in my state. Further, they expect them to be on
call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. My department at least has a decent
starting wage, good benefits, and pays for school and equipment.
If your city is really having a tough time hiring officers, check and see
what they have to offer a new recruit. If they make the recruit supply their
own uniforms and equipment, that may eliminate many good candidates. Basic
uniforms, leather, footwear, handgun, ballistic vest, and other basic
equipment is now over $2,000 per officer.
Tom Rightmer - A Victims' Rights Advocate
... Can't see it? It's there.  I'm using stealth technology.
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