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How much should cops be paid?

How much should cops make in a year, on average?

  • Less than 50K starting

    Votes: 17 47.2%

  • 50-60K starting

    Votes: 11 30.6%

  • 60-80K starting

    Votes: 8 22.2%

  • 80K-100K starting

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 100K and up

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    36
Hoplite said:
How the **** did you figure that out?


Considering recent events here, I'd be happy paying cops 500k a year if the budget allowed.
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Radical..
Reform again..
Rather than overpaying, lets try to look at this in an intelligent manner.
Simply observe, be the fly on the wall.
Things can be done better.
Those who do not wish for improvement should be swept aside....
There is something wrong here, so much unemployment, yet we can over pay the cops...
Do we have too many people?
Or, do we have too many hopeless cases?
 
MaggieD said:
Entire budgets don't tell the tale. Administrators have long been obfuscating individual salaries for very good reasons. The taxpayers would be up in arms if they knew what police, firefighters, teachers earn. If taxpayers knew the golden pensions these people received, they would be amazed -- and not amused AT all.
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Maggie, I don't know where you live, but PM me so I can move there and put in for a Deputy Sheriff job. :mrgreen:


According to this site, most SC State Troopers (the elite of uniformed-LE departments) make 25k to 35k a year. According to the graph, the top one-quarter of state troopers make 35k to 55k.... the other three-quarters make 25-35k.

State Trooper Salary in South Carolina - Free Salary Data


According to the SC Highway Patrol website, Troopers undergo 19 weeks of training at SCCJA, then recieve a salary of 31k as a trained trooper. When they make Lance Corporal (says 5 years, but I know it can take longer sometimes) their salary is 39k.

http://www.schp.org/pdf/Trooper%20Requirements.pdf

I spent some time looking at the Wall of Fame at the SCCJA when I was attending the Academy. About half the officers killed in the line of duty were Troopers, just FYI.

The unwritten rule is you either have serious military experience or a college degree, or extensive other-LE experience, or you probably won't get hired as a Trooper, or even Deputy Sheriff in one of the larger counties. If a new Trooper makes 31k, I guarantee you that most Deputies in most counties don't start at more than 25-28k, and a small-town cop might make 18-24k.

Hardly excessive pay, given what cops put up with every day. Nobody joins LE to make big bucks.
 
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OscarB63 said:
dude, not to accuse you of being incorrect again but....I find it hard to believe that a traffic cop anywhere makes 123K
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The old police chief from Colorado State University before he was forced to resign (turned out he ran that police station like a tyrant and would go so far as to have other cops falsify reports such as damage to his police cruiser which he caused when he hit a boulder on campus trying to make it to the class he taught on time. Chicago cop....go figure) was one of the highest paid public servants in the State.

As it relates to the topic, 50-60/year seems reasonable to me.
 
Goshin said:
According to this site, most SC State Troopers (the elite of uniformed-LE departments) make 25k to 35k a year. According to the graph, the top one-quarter of state troopers make 35k to 55k.... the other three-quarters make 25-35k.
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That's starting salary right? I don't find starting salary tells me anything these days. Nearly every non-degreed or 4 year degree entry level job pays $20-$60K. Job stability, benefits, pensions, raises, career advancements, risk, etc., all factor in too. I have seen some outrageous salary postings. Remember that cop working overtime that was making a small fortune in the news not too long ago?

To MaggieD, you so busted Summerwind on the privacy remark. You get a field promotion for that :)
 
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Ikari said:
As it relates to the topic, 50-60/year seems reasonable to me.
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It really depends on where you live. I'm perfectly okay with paying a guy working in Compton more than 50k a year. In colorado, however, that's a reasonable salary, and pretty close to what the average detective makes there.
 
How did you find that salary out Elijah, and did it include overtime?
 
Elijah lives in SoCal. Everyone there makes 3 times what people in Texas make, yet we end up with more money in our wallets. Funny how that cost of living thing works.
 
Mickey Shane said:
Elijah lives in SoCal. Everyone there makes 3 times what people in Texas make, yet we end up with more money in our wallets. Funny how that cost of living thing works.
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you know it. my wife's sister and famlily live in CA. Her husband makes almost triple what I do and we have almost identical standards of living. I have a ~3K sq ft house, a 500 sq ft workshop, an 800 sq ft barn and a 30K gallon pool on 9 acres. Their house is perhaps 500 sq ft bigger and they only have ~3 acres but their mortgage is nearly triple what I pay, not to mention property tax. Gasoline is almost always 50-75 cents a gallon more there than here. cost of electricity per kilowatt hour is lower here.

I'd rather live on $60K in north alabama than $150K in CA any day.
 
OscarB63 said:
you know it. my wife's sister and famlily live in CA. Her husband makes almost triple what I do and we have almost identical standards of living. I have a ~3K sq ft house, a 500 sq ft workshop, an 800 sq ft barn and a 30K gallon pool on 9 acres. Their house is perhaps 500 sq ft bigger and they only have ~3 acres but their mortgage is nearly triple what I pay, not to mention property tax. Gasoline is almost always 50-75 cents a gallon more there than here. cost of electricity per kilowatt hour is lower here.

I'd rather live on $60K in north alabama than $150K in CA any day.
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Yeah, but they get to rub elbows with the beautiful people. ;)

.
 
TOJ said:
Yeah, but they get to rub elbows with the beautiful people. ;)

.
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Miss Alabama 2009

missAL.jpg

need I say more?
 
:lamo ........
 
I would say it depends on the city they are serving in. The cost of living and the crime rate for that city should be taken into account when considering police salary.
 
TheGirlNextDoor said:
It's funny to me that people think the cops are the 'bad guys' until they are being robbed at gunpoint, get into an auto accident or your house has been burgled, then suddenly, everyone wants the cops to show up.

It's amazing.

Any public servant that puts their lives on the line or who save lives without question, should be paid a lot more than they are.
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The government, and its law enforcement agencies, are there to HELP you protect yourself and your family. Ultimately, your own health and safety is your own responsibiliy. The duties of the courts are to litigate concerns, provide just compensation, and ensure justice. The police are there to ASSIST you in your own self-protection. Being a cop is an admirable profession, but only to a certain degree. Ultimately, they are there to write the report. When homicides occur, the officer is there to draw a chalk line of your dead body, not to actually save you. The best way to protect yourself from other people is to firstly make good social decisions (which is sometimes a subjective matter), and secondly to arm yourself and to be trained in some sort of combat, martial arts, or gun training.

The cop will be there to help you if he's fast enough, but I think when it comes down to life-or-death scenarios, people would rather have a gun than a telephone.
 
CaptainCourtesy said:
Cops, firemen, and teachers should be the best paid workers, IMO. To me, these are the folks who are the foundation of civilized society.
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why-its a job that is easy to fill. go to any big university and look at the test scores and HS GPA's of the various majors and pre-professoinal schools. those studying to be teachers are generally the bottom of the groups.

the entry cost to be a cop are very low compared to say engineers, doctors, lawyers (as an attorney I note there are way too many attorneys in the USA and way too many law schools). that is why those occupations don't pay all that highly.
 
I feel they should start around 50-60K and depending on the state they live in? It should go up from there. I mean these cops working in big crime infested city and states? Should get more. Their pay should somewhat reflect the dangers of their jobs even thought it is a job they made a personal choice to do.

Example: copper working the streets of NY city should make more than some cop working in small low rate crime city.
 
Laila said:
Lol. 'Less than 50K starting'

Absolutely. No police officer is worth 50k.

If anyone should have their wages bumped up, it is Nurses and Teachers.
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And Pizza Delivery and Store Clerks. I feel when there is danger involved? You should make a lot more.
 
Hatuey said:
I'd say that teaching in an American classroom today posses about as much of a threat as running down a dark alley after a guy with guns.
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This is very true in inner city
 
OscarB63 said:
I'd rather live on $60K in north alabama than $150K in CA any day.
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That is the curse of good weather mixed in with mountains, beaches and deserts all within about a 2 hour, at most, drive.
 
CaptainCourtesy said:
Cops, firemen, and teachers should be the best paid workers, IMO. To me, these are the folks who are the foundation of civilized society.
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There are HUGE waiting lists for these jobs. People very much want to have these jobs because they arent very difficult (except the poice in high crime areas) and they pay a lot. Plus its VERy difficult to get fired from these positions. They are way over paid currently especially the teachers and especially the firemen. We've been on this topic before. Now... the military are underpaid. But to say that those jobs are the FOUNDATION of society is just not even close to true. They are doing a job. Thats it. Its a job. YOu have your job and these guys have their job. Right now they are the foundation of sucking up all our tax money.
 
The Giant Noodle said:
There are HUGE waiting lists for these jobs. People very much want to have these jobs because they arent very difficult (except the poice in high crime areas) and they pay a lot. Plus its VERy difficult to get fired from these positions. They are way over paid currently especially the teachers and especially the firemen. We've been on this topic before. Now... the military are underpaid. But to say that those jobs are the FOUNDATION of society is just not even close to true. They are doing a job. Thats it. Its a job. YOu have your job and these guys have their job. Right now they are the foundation of sucking up all our tax money.
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No. Without people doing these jobs, society breaks down. Imagine your life without the police (anarchy), firemen (urban destruction), and teachers (illiteracy). Perhaps these jobs are sought after because there is some personal prestige that goes with them. So, yes, these jobs are the foundations of society. I would agree, that the military would be included in that group, also.
 
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