What I learned from an unfortunate incident with the NYPD

Re:What I learned from an unfortunate incident with the NYPD by WildUtah on Sunday March 02, 2014 @10:52PM (#7331950)

"Perhaps it's resentment of the widening income gap between 20-30 somethings in the tech industry and those in the service industry?"

Maybe. Because of the billionaire big winner image, people outside the industry see techies as very well off.

In fact, cops make a lot more on average -- benefits included -- than techies or programmers or engineers. In big American cities, cops are paid similar total compensation to doctors. The usual breakdown is 125k or so salary plus gold plated health care, various fancy bonuses and discounts and a pension plan that's worth more actuarially than all of the salary. Totals above $400k are not uncommon.

NYPD, as mentioned in op, is considered much more stingy than suburban NY departments so the cops in question may not be making quite that much.

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Re:What I learned from an unfortunate incident with the NYPD by learc83 on Monday March 03, 2014 @12:01AM (#7332123)

Those numbers don't sound right at all.

Bureau of Labor Statistics says the median is 55k. http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes333051.htm

Since you said NY is stingy, I tried other big cities. Here's a list of Chicago PD salaries. https://data.cityofchicago.org/Administration-Finance/Police... The only people on that list with a salary of 125k are ranked captain and above.

Here's the LAPD salary schedule. http://per.lacity.org/psb/lapd_salary.htm Not even close to averaging 125k

Houston PD http://www.texastribune.org/library/data/government-employee... Again, much lower than what you're talking about.

If cops in the 4 biggest cities in America aren't making that much, who is?

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Re:What I learned from an unfortunate incident with the NYPD by WildUtah on Monday March 03, 2014 @12:15AM (#7332165)

Cops generally make a lot more than the official base pay. They get lots of routine highly compensated overtime even when working only 2000 hours a year. Published figures usually aren't representative. Seniority gives mid career cops lots of opportunities to pad overtime hours. Check the actual pay instead of salary schedules.

Also, retirement with nearly full pay at age 50 is common.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-17/highest-paid-califo...

http://www.sacbee.com/statepay/?name=&agency=CALIFORNIA+HIGH...

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Re:What I learned from an unfortunate incident with the NYPD by auctiontheory on Monday March 03, 2014 @02:15AM (#7332450)

This Menlo Park police officer makes $133K in base salary, i.e. before overtime: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_22382095/menlo-park-police-off...

That is significantly higher than the per-capita income in Menlo Park: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/0646870.html

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Re:What I learned from an unfortunate incident with the NYPD by throwaway344 on Sunday March 02, 2014 @11:14PM (#7332012)

Yeah, with my experiences with police officers who I know personally they seem to earn nothing like that.

Could you provide a source on those figures? I would be interested to learn about it.

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Re:What I learned from an unfortunate incident with the NYPD by balls187 on Monday March 03, 2014 @12:41AM (#7332225)

I don't have data to back up my refutes, but on the surface those numbers don't add up.

In the US, state, counties, city and other local governments are struggling with their budgets. A police force with $400k in compensation per officer is way out of wack, and no way that tax payers would go for it.

At that level of compensation, that puts police officers in the wealthiest 1% of Americans.

I know here in Seattle (and the richer suburbs of Bellevue, Redmond, etc), it's a common complaint that police officers can't afford to live in the communities they protect.

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