DQ'd from Atlanta PD

[ozymandias]

Well despite the fact that I run everyday and ride a bicycle two hundred miles a week, I've been DQ'd because of my health. It seems I have certain traits that may put me at risk for sudden caridiac arrest.

[pkagel]

Sorry to hear that. I'd go to a Dr and get it cleared up at the very least and keep trying.

[kcolg]

sorry to hear that you'd probably be hired in one of the smaller places. Unless you mean the medical you took to get into the academy, then I don't know what to tell you bro.

[FutureLE]

Well despite the fact that I run everyday and ride a bicycle two hundred miles a week, I've been DQ'd because of my health. It seems I have certain traits that may put me at risk for sudden caridiac arrest.

Sorry to hear that--

If you dont mind me asking, what are the traits you have that put you at risk for cardiac arrest?

[SEAL6770]

Yea, being far along in the process for APD id also appreciate any info you would feel comfortable disclosing. Even if you'd rather PM me I'd appreciate it. Hope you have good luck on future apps.

[SWH]

Do you mean that your EKG was abnormal?

[ozymandias]

Their doctor and then mine concurred that I have the traits of Marfan syndrome. I'm tall, thin, arm span greater than my height, slight petcus excavatum, and slight mpv. The Ekg I had with their doctor was ok, the one I had at my doctor was less so.

Basically with Marfan's your aorta can grow abnormally and then burst. I never heard of Marfan's before last week and now quite frankly I'm scared. I'm an active guy who is now being told, hey one day you may drop dead.

The kicker is my father dropped dead at 43 from an out of the blue heart attack. I always attributed it to his smoking and drinking but now I suspect he may have suffered from Marfans too.

So right now the doc says not to do squat until I get an echocardiogram and yeah, I'm pretty bummed.

I hope everyone else has smooth sailing in their application process.

[SEAL6770]

I'm very sorry to hear that, best of luck to you with your health and everything. I really appreciate the sharing of info.

[dcpolice]

sorry to hear about the marfans. two people in my family have it. one died at 25, the other is still alive and pushing 60.

I am interested in APD. Anyone have any thoughts on the process?
Do they use poly or cvsa? How many questions?
How many trips for an out of towner?
Any idea about availability of OT/extra jobs?
How are benefits?
Anyone understand the pension? Even the recruiter didn't really know.

[SEAL6770]

sorry to hear about the marfans. two people in my family have it. one died at 25, the other is still alive and pushing 60.

I am interested in APD. Anyone have any thoughts on the process?
Do they use poly or cvsa? How many questions?
How many trips for an out of towner?
Any idea about availability of OT/extra jobs?
How are benefits?
Anyone understand the pension? Even the recruiter didn't really know.

I just passed the BI and have to take the CVSA (no poly), medical, psych, and PAT in september. I live in PA and they came to Philly so I took the written there. I think it is 2 trips for an out of towner. From what I have been told the availability of OT and extra jobs is extremely high. There is a lot of off-duty work available. Can't comment intelligently on benefits and pension, sorry.

[Groundhog]

sorry to hear about the marfans. two people in my family have it. one died at 25, the other is still alive and pushing 60.

I am interested in APD. Anyone have any thoughts on the process?
Do they use poly or cvsa? How many questions?
How many trips for an out of towner?
Any idea about availability of OT/extra jobs?
How are benefits?
Anyone understand the pension? Even the recruiter didn't really know.

APD uses the CVSA as of a couple of years ago.

As to the number of trips to ATL during your background, I can't advise. The recruiter should have had an idea. Call them at 404-853-7650.

O/T is virtually non-existent right now, unless you're assigned to the airport section. Extra-jobs, however are readily available. In a 2 week pay-period, we are authorized to work up to 130 hours of combined on and off-duty.

Benefits are average - not the best under the sun, but not the worst by far.
Health insurance choices are Blue Cross - Blue Shield traditional (which is outrageously expensive, especially for a family), Blue Cross - Blue Shield POS/HMO, and Kaiser HMO. There's also life insurance, & dental options.

The pension is something we're working on. We are vested at 15 years, and we have a 7% contribution thanks to our sh*theel former mayor, thankfully under federal indictment and facing about 25 years in prison. We have a 3% multiplier per years of service with a cap of 80%, and a retirement age of 55. If you do the math, that means if you have 26.6666 years you can walk with a full pension if you're 55. If you're like me & started young, you end up hanging around several years extra because the age penalties will kill you. Under age 50, the the penalty is 3% per year, and 6% per year between 50-55. We do have mayor that is very sympathetic to this and is committed to helping us get it changed. We've got to get rid of some old-timers on the City Council who are resistant to improving our pension without doing the same for the firefighters and city correctional officers (they have a warped idea of the definition of "parity"). Realistically, we will get the retirement age reduced to 50 or even a magic number of "75" (age + years of service). We did just win a lawsuit against the city to take control of our pension fund from them and turn it over to a private company fro management.

[dcpolice]

Groundhog,
Just so I understand: if I retire at 51 my pension would be reduced 24%? If I go at 49 i lose 18% (6yr times 3%) or is it 33% (6x5 plus 3x1)? How likely is that to change? I have 6 years here, started at 22. I can walk with 65% at 47 or max at 80% at 52. Being a cop into my 50's just to avoid a pension penalty isnt real attractive.

However, I hate living in DC area. Atl area residents I spoke to say living outside Atlanta is affordable with good quality of life. How well can you live on max lateral salary of 45k?

Also what type of schedule do you work?

How tough is advancing into specialized units?

In DC we hire from everywhere so very little bias against "outsiders". Is APD the same way? I'm a northener with a definite accent.

Thanks.

[FutureLE]

My buddy with APD says the give you comp-time instead of overtime...Is this true?

You said the Blue Cross/ Blue Shield coverage is expensive, what ballpark figure are we talking about here for say myself and 2 dependents?

How many extra jobs(total hours)do you generally do monthly? What is the average pay of extra jobs?

Sorry for all the questions, I am just moving along quickly in the APD process, so I am trying to get any additional info- I am also in the process with Gwinnett, what have your heard from their officers about the dept/benefits/etc?

Thanks for the great info on APD

APD uses the CVSA as of a couple of years ago.

As to the number of trips to ATL during your background, I can't advise. The recruiter should have had an idea. Call them at 404-853-7650.

O/T is virtually non-existent right now, unless you're assigned to the airport section. Extra-jobs, however are readily available. In a 2 week pay-period, we are authorized to work up to 130 hours of combined on and off-duty.

Benefits are average - not the best under the sun, but not the worst by far.
Health insurance choices are Blue Cross - Blue Shield traditional (which is outrageously expensive, especially for a family), Blue Cross - Blue Shield POS/HMO, and Kaiser HMO. There's also life insurance, & dental options.

The pension is something we're working on. We are vested at 15 years, and we have a 7% contribution thanks to our sh*theel former mayor, thankfully under federal indictment and facing about 25 years in prison. We have a 3% multiplier per years of service with a cap of 80%, and a retirement age of 55. If you do the math, that means if you have 26.6666 years you can walk with a full pension if you're 55. If you're like me & started young, you end up hanging around several years extra because the age penalties will kill you. Under age 50, the the penalty is 3% per year, and 6% per year between 50-55. We do have mayor that is very sympathetic to this and is committed to helping us get it changed. We've got to get rid of some old-timers on the City Council who are resistant to improving our pension without doing the same for the firefighters and city correctional officers (they have a warped idea of the definition of "parity"). Realistically, we will get the retirement age reduced to 50 or even a magic number of "75" (age + years of service). We did just win a lawsuit against the city to take control of our pension fund from them and turn it over to a private company fro management.

[Groundhog]

Groundhog,
Just so I understand: if I retire at 51 my pension would be reduced 24%? If I go at 49 i lose 18% (6yr times 3%) or is it 33% (6x5 plus 3x1)? How likely is that to change? I have 6 years here, started at 22. I can walk with 65% at 47 or max at 80% at 52. Being a cop into my 50's just to avoid a pension penalty isnt real attractive.

However, I hate living in DC area. Atl area residents I spoke to say living outside Atlanta is affordable with good quality of life. How well can you live on max lateral salary of 45k?

Also what type of schedule do you work?

Thanks.

One thing I left out is that your accumulated sick leave counts toward your retirement up until you reach that magic 26.7 years. Most people have a year or so in the bank at that point.

If you were 49 and had say, 21 years on, you'd start off with 63% of your highest 3 years average salary. Then they deduct 6% per year between 50-55, then 3% per year under 50. So you'd be penalized 33% of that 63% of your base. Ouch.

On the other hand, people at your age when hired get the best deal on paper because your working here the exact # of years reqired to get the full 80% with no penalty. The downside as you described is that you're already a veteran officer, so you will have been big-city cop for 33 years when you pull the plug. I don't have to tell you about the stats on life expectancy after that.

Your quality of life will be pretty good. From reading others posts on the cost of living in the DC area, I can tell you your money goes a whole lot further here.

We work 5 8's, with 2 set off-days. Rookies of course have Tu/Wed or Wed/Thu . We experimented with 4x10 in one precinct for a few months, but it proved to be unworkable....not enough people & cars. The officers generally liked it though. I guess DC works that schedule because our Asst. Chief is from DC, and was real big on it. You probably know of him.

[Groundhog]

My buddy with APD says the give you comp-time instead of overtime...Is this true?

You said the Blue Cross/ Blue Shield coverage is expensive, what ballpark figure are we talking about here for say myself and 2 dependents?

How many extra jobs(total hours)do you generally do monthly? What is the average pay of extra jobs?

Sorry for all the questions, I am just moving along quickly in the APD process, so I am trying to get any additional info- I am also in the process with Gwinnett, what have your heard from their officers about the dept/benefits/etc?

Thanks for the great info on APD

Yes. C/T is the norm unless there's a special event. Recently, off-days & leave were canceled for 4 days for 2 big music festivals going on the same weekend. Everybody got O/T for everything over 8 and all hours worked on their off-day. Even Lts. & Majors got straight time, and they're FLSA exempt.

The traditional BC BS is around $400+ for officer & family. Most use the BCBS HMO/POS or Kaiser HMO. They are substantially cheaper. I don't have my packet handy or else I could quote exact figures. I'll look them up later.

As far as EJ's, some people work a ton, and others work very few. I work one regular job for about 30 hours total per month.

I don't know much about Gwinnett's benefits. Their salaries are about the same as ours, but they have take-homes and we don't.