Here I was thinking that the economy was getting better...
My department's town council announced today that the police department will be getting enormous budget cuts. There was a decent decrease in population, as the economy got better on the other side of the state people moved out. We lost about 9% of our population in the last 2 years. Adding to the mess is the town council/mayor are decently anti-police, they think our town of 30,000 people could be protected by 1 or 2 people on shift.
The cuts have everyone, including myself, freaked out. Here's some things that "could" be on the horizon:
-Everyone not salaried will be slashed down to our entry level officer pay. Regardless of position or experience. That means Corporals, Sergeants, even our Lieutenants will be paid as fresh academy graduates.
-There will be absolutely no over time or on call pay that's not through a grant.
-Our traffic unit, K9 unit, and investigations unit will basically be dismantled. They'll still exist, but basically only on their 40 hour work week.
-They assume the other agencies(State Police, County, and a nearby city) could "gladly" help with calls....Yeah right...
We sent a rebuttal to the mayor/town council explaining that if they do is, there will be a exodus of very disgruntled officers, and it's the public that will suffer for it. Calls will pend for hours, investigations will be lackluster, crime will thrive which will force even MORE people out of town. I love this department and this city, I've promoted here and gave this place tons of devotion and energy, but I couldn't survive on our base pay for very long.
The town's making efforts to advertise moving here, we're expecting a "result" with that in January.
So, jump now and watch the ship sink, or wait and play it out?
My department's town council announced today that the police department will be getting enormous budget cuts. There was a decent decrease in population, as the economy got better on the other side of the state people moved out. We lost about 9% of our population in the last 2 years. Adding to the mess is the town council/mayor are decently anti-police, they think our town of 30,000 people could be protected by 1 or 2 people on shift.
The cuts have everyone, including myself, freaked out. Here's some things that "could" be on the horizon:
-Everyone not salaried will be slashed down to our entry level officer pay. Regardless of position or experience. That means Corporals, Sergeants, even our Lieutenants will be paid as fresh academy graduates.
-There will be absolutely no over time or on call pay that's not through a grant.
-Our traffic unit, K9 unit, and investigations unit will basically be dismantled. They'll still exist, but basically only on their 40 hour work week.
-They assume the other agencies(State Police, County, and a nearby city) could "gladly" help with calls....Yeah right...
We sent a rebuttal to the mayor/town council explaining that if they do is, there will be a exodus of very disgruntled officers, and it's the public that will suffer for it. Calls will pend for hours, investigations will be lackluster, crime will thrive which will force even MORE people out of town. I love this department and this city, I've promoted here and gave this place tons of devotion and energy, but I couldn't survive on our base pay for very long.
The town's making efforts to advertise moving here, we're expecting a "result" with that in January.
So, jump now and watch the ship sink, or wait and play it out?
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