More stress or less pay?

[Bing_Oh]

What is this "pursuit" thing you speak of?

[Bing_Oh]

You were given an answer to a question. You made it clear that you didn't like or agree with the answer. Some 3+ months later, you come back to say that you talked to another officer whom you consider an "expert" and that he disagreed and you believe him. Yea, that sounds a little bit like...

[Bing_Oh]

Not it's not about officer discretion. It's about the wording of the state law or local ordinance and, more importantly, the circumstances of the incident.

We deal with people all the time who don't like the answers that they're given and go to ask another officer in the hopes of getting...

[Bing_Oh]

Let me see if I've got this straight...

Your current department will pay you CO pay to go through the academy, but that pay isn't high enough. And you don't want to test at other agencies because you don't want to wait. So you want to know if you can pay your own way through the academy...

[Bing_Oh]

Early retirement would be a huge hit for me...at this point, I'm vested in my retirement system and COULD take an early "retirement," but it would be a paltry 30% of my top 5 years (60% if I held out until I was 62 before I collected, but that's almost 20 years either without a paycheck...yea,...

[Bing_Oh]

MAYBE the hiring process, but almost certainly not FTO and probation...

If you doubt your maturity and readiness to do the job, it's much better to drop out of the process than it is to get terminated on FTO or probation....

[Bing_Oh]

I'd call my options limited. I work in a very small, sparsely-populated county...only three full-time LE agencies in the entire county (mine, the agency I'm considering, and the sheriff's office). I'm also limited because of my age, civil service age restrictions in my state, and the pension system...

[Bing_Oh]

There are various LE-restricted criminal databases that we use that track criminal arrests and convictions. Those outside of LE don't need to know the specifics.

Just FYI, you can't "run a background check on yourself" through LE-restricted systems like that (and if someone with...

[Bing_Oh]

Interesting that you would suggest that. I was a union steward for several years (two contract negotiations under my belt). My lack of popularity with the administration actually stems, at least in part, from my time as a union steward. It’s complicated, but it has to do with an unsuccessful criminal...

[Bing_Oh]

This isn't about "the job." I've been around the block enough times to know how to deal with that...the job doesn't even phase me anymore. This is personal. I have an admin who has made it clear that they're willing to headhunt (they already took a serious try and were not happy when they...

[Bing_Oh]

That sounds like a mirror-image of me right now...

[Bing_Oh]

I can survive the pay cut, but the extra pay at my current agency has afforded my wife and I the ability to do things that we have been putting off for some time (home repairs, larger vacations, etc). It's a tough pill to swallow when you've put a significant amount of time and effort into an agency...

[Bing_Oh]

When I hit retirement age, I fully intend to do just that!

[Bing_Oh]

Just wanted to know if anyone had ever taken a pay cut to move from a "bad" department.

Without getting into too much detail, I'm under an extreme amount of stress at my current department...pretty much all of it related to internal issues and much of it focused directly on me...

[Bing_Oh]

Moved to Squad Room.

[Bing_Oh]

If Game Wardens in IL are anything like they are here in Ohio, then you're also looking at a big difference in chances of getting hired. While Border Patrol seems to always be looking for warm bodies (right now...obviously that could change tomorrow depending on politics), Game Warden positions are...

[Bing_Oh]

Haha...no. My city can't even plan for more likely disaster scenarios, let alone something as catastrophic as widespread civil unrest or a full-blown civil war. As much as I dislike saying it, I suspect that most local governments would probably fly by the seats of their respective pants in such a scenario...too...

[Bing_Oh]

If the poster's profile info is correct, OPOTA standards to graduate the academy under age 29 is 11:58 for males or 14:15 for females for the mile and a half. When a department in Ohio has fitness standards, they generally mirror OPOTA's standards (easier to defend in the event of a discrimination lawsuit),...

[Bing_Oh]

It's not particularly difficult to sew a fabric loop onto your carriers and uniform shirts and it's a very secure way to hold your mic. If you don't want to do that, I suppose you could sew a button into your carrier and use one of those mic straps that would normally attach to the epaulet button. Any...

[Bing_Oh]

These stress tests are usually just for the pension and/or insurance to make sure you're not going to die of a massive heart attack if you run half a block on duty. It's not even close to any kind of PT test.