Should we pay our police more money? I’m asking this because of the rampant police corruption that makes the papers on a daily basis here in Southwest Louisiana. I also read how much cops make here (not sure if this is statewide, or just Lafayette Parish) : $6 and some change per hour of work. Can you imagine? Truck drivers are making $18/hour for driving around all day and they don’t even have to arrest anyone! Most of the cops take night jobs as private security guards just to make ends meet. Some even work at McDonald’s. It seems these guys wouldn’t be too alert for their shifts if they’d been flipping burgers until 11 the previous night.
Do you think raising their wages will cut down on corruption or will corrupt cops just have a couple extra dollars in their pockets?
I work for the State, at a crappy job that is not for everyone, but that needs to be done. We don’t get paid much, but we get paid more than $6 an hour. And my job is a piece of cake compared to a police job. Our employers are always complaining about the high turnover of employees, and some of the deadbeats we get working for us. Hell, if you have a pulse and pass the background check, you are hired. They need to get off their duffs and give us a major pay hike, but you know anything run by the government…if it makes sense and might be better, it’s the LAST thing they will consider.
I would imagine finding good, quality people for such a demanding and scary job as policework (at $6 an hour) is difficult. I think it’s impossible, actually. So you’ll get deadbeats and creeps, who will excuse their corruption because they are getting paid shit.
If they offered a decent wage, they’d attract more people, and could pick and choose. And afford to keep the good people, and dump the crappy people before they get out of hand. One of the things I see in my job is that they keep people that DESERVE to get fired, because they are so understaffed. They feel they need to look the other way when an employee proves to be a jerk or a deadbeat. If more people found the job I have desirable (because of decent wages) the bosses could afford to dump a deadbeat ASAP. Makes sense, doesn’t it?
Seems to make sense to me too, but this isn’t the most sensical state in the Union. Hell, one cop (who worked on the special victims unit, no less) was found to be a serial rapist! He used his job training to learn what the cops would look for at the scene of the crime and kept comitting his horrific crimes for 15 years.
Suppose you want a certain number of police and that you can fill the jobs at $10 an hour.
The problem is that you want those people to have certain qualities like diligence and honesty and that these qualities are not directly observable.
There are two basic screening routes you can go: offer less than $10 dollars and offer more than $10.
If you offer less than $10, you can attract those who are at least partly motivated by public service. You also run the risk, however, of attracting the corrupt.
If you offer more than $10 you will get more applicants for the job than you need and you can screeen them by demographic means. These are also imperfect.
I’m not sure that this is the major problem here: it seems to me that the problem is that the small number of actually corrupt cops are frequently protected by gnerally honest cops by the us v. them mentality prevalent in all teams.
When you combine low pay, dangerous work conditions, a little power, and a lot of money to be made via the drug trade, you end up with a fantastic recipe for corrution. Not only should police officers make a “livable” wage they should probably be paid a lot more. Considering the dangerous nature of their jobs as well as the toll it takes on the psyche.
Sure it would cut down. It migh also be cut down if we end the war on drugs. Even if an officer is making 35,000 a year how tempting is it to take some cash from a drug bust?
Here in sunny Los Angeles, the starting salary for police officer is over $35,000. We have one of, if not THE best paid police forces in the world. The starting pay for deputy sherrif is only slightly less. And our previous sherrif, Sherman Block, was the highest paid public official in the country! (that’s right kids, he made more than the President). And he ran for office WHEN HE WAS DEAD! http://kcbs-tv.com/news/stories/news-19991104-144159.html http://www.channel2000.com/news/stories/news-981030-175447.html
Is Los Angeles county free of police corruption? I wish.
The once highly touted CRASH anti-gang unit(community resources against street hoodlums) has been disbanded over charges of corruption, theft, drug dealing, excessive force, perjury and falsifying evidence. Over 60 convictions have been vacated and another 20 are expected to be. And of course, hundreds of rightous convictions will no doubt be challenged. Here’s a link to part of the story.
$35,000 in California is much less then $35,000 a year in Texas. It cost more to live in your neck of the woods then it does mine. But all that aside higher pay is but one aspect of the reasons for corruption.
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That’s understandable. You have officers making busts where thousands of dollars are found. Who’s going to miss a few hundred dollars here or there?