Well there is a paradox at work here. You need to pay any sort official enough that they aren't desperate for bribes, but not so much that you attract people into the job motivated by personal enrichment. Read "Systems of Survival" by Jane Jacobs for a good study of this.

I agree. In return for the higher pay, I'm in favour of much stronger selection, screening and higher penalties for wrong-doing.

Which is better motivation for a police officer? Personal enrichment, or the chance to use weapons, violence, and deception for advantage--once common delights now so rare!

Being a policeman can be a tough, dangerous job. But I don't think they are underpaid, at least not in Massachusetts - Police Trooper, 1st class can make $130K-$180K. They also get generous pensions (state employees).

Yea, top ones. This sounds like the same old argument: "A handful of top programmers at Google make $300k! Therefore programmers in general make a lot."

There are ~1800 police officers (out of 3185 listed in the DB) in MA alone who make > $100K [1]. Not too shabby either.

Also, to make $300K at Google you have to be a genius, to make $200K as a State Trooper, no college degree is required, only some seniority and overtime.

[1] http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/03/massachus...

This does not look underpaid at all to me:

http://www.sjpd.org/joinsjpdblue/SalaryBenefits.html