this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2024
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This may not apply everywhere in the US, but my understanding is that most cops aren't paid terribly well. Perhaps it's ok if compared to a standard job, but when you account for the danger, required over time, and work schedule it becomes very not worth it.
A buddy of mine is a true believer type, he signed up to be a cop, went through a year of training and another year paired with another cop. PreCovid starting pay was $40k, 12 hr work schedule and every 28 days it flipped (so 28 days day shift followed by 28 days of night shift). One day he gets a call and his boss had switched him to a different district with 3x the commute without any communication. Finally a buddy of his caught a bullet in the head (and lived) from some guy who was on drugs and stole a car. He said he thought about it and for the money it wasn't worth the emotional cost.
Strangely the problem with underfunding cops is who the fuck wants to be a cop? Yeah, after 25 years and multiple promotions you might make an ok or even good salary, but being a new cop is absolutely shit. In a system where the pay isn't good, the hours are shit, and the risk to your life is high, who wants to be a cop?
The answer is either self sacrificing good guys or people who get a power trip on carrying a gun and using it. Add to it that this system is perpetuated by the type of people who pursue the job you end up with a whole department full of the type who hire these types.
So while you can defund the police, you can send them through training, you can institute new policy, but if you don't attract a better quality of person then you're gonna have the same problem over and over again.
Theoretically you could make the hours better (but that will require hiring more police to cover the same amount), you could reduce the danger (similar to London banning guns so beat cops don't carry them either), or you can pay them more.
Pay is definitely not the problem and there's plenty of places in the US where I'd argue they're overpaid, in fact.
Care to elaborate? I won't argue that funding for the department isn't a problem, but at least in my own anecdotal relation of an individual experience that seems to be the problem.
There's lots of places in the US where cops are paid significantly above median wages for the region as their base pay and then they're also eligible to earn time and a half in nearly as much overtime as they could possibly want on top of being allowed to work extra side jobs in uniform for third parties.
They're also typically one of the largest parts of most major cities' budgets.
Fuck cops. They are overpaid if anything for what little they fucking do.
I took some time in thinking about your response, I want you to know that. That said, "There’s lots of places in the US where cops are paid significantly above median wages for the region as their base pay," doesn't mean much in the context of my original statement. My original statement said very much the same in fact. Cops, on paper, get paid above average and have tons of opportunity for overtime. What your response misses is the danger associated and the expectation of overtime.
It's one thing when you can have unlimited overtime and another when you are expected to take unlimited overtime. There is also a disconnect when that overtime comes with an expectation of being shot and killed. With those expectations it's no surprise that police are the largest portion of a city government. If you have a group of people that you expect to work long hours, work extra overtime, meet the municipality's needs, and potentially die in their duty, then they should command a large portion of the budget.
If you don't want to pay people to do these things then you can't be upset that they don't do those things. You get the cops that you pay for. I'll be the first to say Fuck the Police, but I'll also be the first to say we get the Police we pay for.
I disagree that the overtime is expected. It's a benefit available to them that isn't available to the general public.
I also strongly disagree about the relative "danger" of their job.
My dad was a firefighter for 30 years. He got paid less than most cops and faced significantly more danger on every shift than most cops.
Fuck the police. They were shitty since their inception.
Full stop