Sworn vs. Civilian personnel

[vc859]

I am currently looking for various full-time positions in law enforcement, both sworn officer and civilian positions. My questions are related to the civilian positions.

Are most civilian positions in your area livable, in therms of pay and benefits, or not really? Also, are civilians in your agency or area well treated, or is there still a "not sworn, never born" attitude towards them.

I know these questions are probably agency specific, but I am trying to get responses from all different areas

[Michigan]

I am currently looking for various full-time positions in law enforcement, both sworn officer and civilian positions. My questions are related to the civilian positions.

Are most civilian positions in your area livable, in therms of pay and benefits, or not really? Also, are civilians in your agency or area well treated, or is there still a "not sworn, never born" attitude towards them.

I know these questions are probably agency specific, but I am trying to get responses from all different areas

In the Michigan area you'd be considered a moron. But I base that soley on your idioc post. In therms of pay, most civilians get $1,000,000 an hour with a mandatory two hour minimum.

[Caballero1508]

I would venture to say that support personnel and non-sworn are treated better than sworn at my agency.

[CruiserClass]

Civilian personnel covers a lot of territory, even within individual departments. Crime Lab techs are not transcriptionists are not accident investigators are not city attorneys.

Basically you're asking "what's it like working for GE?" To get any sort of valid answer, you need to specify a particular job and a department, else its all just guessing.

[tanksoldier]

Are most civilian positions in your area livable, in therms of pay and benefits, or not really? Also, are civilians in your agency or area well treated, or is there still a "not sworn, never born" attitude towards them.

Our kitchen staff, who supervise inmate workers, are paid less but are treated as well as we are... not very . How well we get along depends on the staff member. In the past we've had some that posed a security risk because they saw the inmates as co-workers and not inmates. We're supposed to have 3, we only have 1 and she's working her butt off... but she rocks on toast. So that relationship is pretty good right now.

Our case manager used to be a deputy and the jail was built around her. She could probably tell just about anyone but the Sheriff himself to go fly a kite if she wanted and what she doesn't know about jail operations isn't worth knowing.

Medical staff is undermanned and morale is low at the moment. They are paid well for the area and given the department's pay rates, which are low for the state overall, but they have more work than they can do effectively. We catch the backlash when medical/ psych issues aren't adequately addressed, so we aren't getting along well with them right now.

On the SO side the department's business manager runs the show inside the building. She even tasks deputies without bothering to clear it with supervisors. She can't override operational requirements BUT if you don't have an operational reason not to comply, you'd best do as she asks.

Other front office staff are treated with high levels of respect. Party due to their impact on a deputy's life: pay, equipment, training, etc... partly because they're all female and we are in a rural and highly conservative part of the state.

The short version is this: we all know our pay sucks, we all work long hours, we ALL have to do our jobs to get the mission accomplished. There's no point in looking down on anyone on either side. I can't do most of their jobs, and most of them couldn't do mine.

[Zeitgeist]

In my agency they are treated better than sworn. As mentioned above, it's a large dept. so I'd have to know a specific work area that your looking at. Some make a VERY good income, others do not. It all depends on title, etc

[ftttu]

Our civilians aren't under our hard-fought contract so we're the ones with the money. I don't want to sound bad, but we are a law enforcement agency. That means we LEOs are the main show whereas the civilians are support.

I remind the clerks in my office every now and then they can can go through the same procedure as us if they want to be a part of the big show. I don't discount them in any way, and we realize their "value" is highly important to our mission. After all, we are a team which is only there to serve the community.

[Shush]

Work as a reserve for a year. After 12 months of being treated like nut butter, you'll appreciate either one.

[DeputySC]

I know it seems backwards, but the civilians in my dept get paid more then most of the Deputies.

[BNWS]

They're treated like the second string here. Unless you're a hot female.

[CCCSD]

Each has their own good points and bad points. It's what YOU make of it.

[Name Taken]

I would say ours are treated about as well as they treat others. A few of them do not like the officers because they feel they are over paid and under worked.

In general the non-sworn members make a few thousand more a year for their job in the private sector but get paid no where near what the officers do.

When you look at our officers salaries there are very few jobs in the entire county that pay more then what a 10 year officer makes.

[Rettroop]

All of our civilians from station cleaner to Majors secretary were treated with respect. Dispatchers on the other hand were treated with respect.