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Just venting, but my agency is just about to get started w/ contract negotiations. Our City Manager has already come out and said he thinks we need to pay our entire contribution to pers (currently we pay about 3.5). We're also pretty certain to get a second tier which will kill off any quality lateral officers coming over. To top it off, our Chief has said to some that we should be paying the full 9 as well. Talk about NOT having our backs!
Oh, and to top it off, the Chief has decided to change the way our entire patrol schedule is done. Our current schedule is the envy of most other agency members I've talked to, but now all flexibility is being removed and we're going from a flexible twelve hour shift to a fixed 10 hour shift. All this to the "benefit of the organization" regardless of the detriment to the officers. A poll showed 78% of the officers wanted to keep our current schedule, so as you can imagine there's been quite an uproar about it.
To make matters worse, to meet the staff numbers required to make their proposed schedule work, they've eliminated about 20 specialty assignments w/ the complete elimination of some departments. Those bodies have been put back in patrol to bolster numbers. I know that there are cutbacks nation-wide, but they are not eliminating positions to eliminate people; they're just re-slicing the pie. The downside to those eliminations is that our recruiting poster really should only show a patrol cop. Hard to attract candidates when there's not much career development to be had.
I know there are a lot of guys out there w/ more serious problems at their departments, but ours has long been a desirable place to work due to the strong local economy and support from our citizens. Our city council now finds it "philosophically" difficult to pay us more than other agencies or increase our benefits because those cities are struggling.
Anyway, I'm just venting. I'm sure I'll get flamed but just wanted to share what one agency is going through. Honestly if someone was looking to lateral to my agency I'd tell them to think long and hard before coming over. It's going to get worse before it gets better.
Oh, and to top it off, the Chief has decided to change the way our entire patrol schedule is done. Our current schedule is the envy of most other agency members I've talked to, but now all flexibility is being removed and we're going from a flexible twelve hour shift to a fixed 10 hour shift. All this to the "benefit of the organization" regardless of the detriment to the officers. A poll showed 78% of the officers wanted to keep our current schedule, so as you can imagine there's been quite an uproar about it.
To make matters worse, to meet the staff numbers required to make their proposed schedule work, they've eliminated about 20 specialty assignments w/ the complete elimination of some departments. Those bodies have been put back in patrol to bolster numbers. I know that there are cutbacks nation-wide, but they are not eliminating positions to eliminate people; they're just re-slicing the pie. The downside to those eliminations is that our recruiting poster really should only show a patrol cop. Hard to attract candidates when there's not much career development to be had.
I know there are a lot of guys out there w/ more serious problems at their departments, but ours has long been a desirable place to work due to the strong local economy and support from our citizens. Our city council now finds it "philosophically" difficult to pay us more than other agencies or increase our benefits because those cities are struggling.
Anyway, I'm just venting. I'm sure I'll get flamed but just wanted to share what one agency is going through. Honestly if someone was looking to lateral to my agency I'd tell them to think long and hard before coming over. It's going to get worse before it gets better.
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