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Seattle's police department is capitalizing on the NYPD's current budget and recruiting woes by giving potential recruits less of a reason to sign up to join the force in New York. Seattle is paying for a huge billboard along the West Side Highway advertising for recruits. The billboard and bus stop ads link to a site that details much higher rookie pay and faster wage increases. Per the Daily News,
Seattle pays its police recruits $47,334 a year and the annual salary rises to a maximum base pay of $67,045 in just six years.The Seattle PD is also willing to kick in an extra $5,000 to cover any New Yorker's moving expenses. In addition, Seattle recruits can sit for that city's entrance exam here in NYC, which more than 20 members of the NYPD have already done.NYPD recruits get a paltry $25,100 annual salary while they are in the academy. Their pay jumps to $32,800 after graduation and tops out at $59,588 after seven years.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has been critical of low starting salaries and faulted them for a drop in the number of people willing to sit for the department's entrance exam and high drop-out rate at the academy.
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Not only does Seattle pay almost twice NYPD's starting salary, $47,334 goes a lot farther in Seattle being that the cost of living is substantially lower. The only thing thats going for NY over Seattle is... who the fuck wants to live in Seattle in the first place?
NYPD's starting salary should be at LEAST 45k-50k.
No one's going to want to pay for that, #1.
#1
I'm considering it.
Kojak,
"who the fuck wants to live in Seattle in the first place?"
I have to disagree with you on that. Seattle's a pretty great city.
Kojak -
Have you ever been to Seattle? It's a really nice city, excellent quality of life.
I don't see the big deal with the NYPD's recruiting shortfall. The NYPD is overstaffed to begin with. Los Angeles has about half the number of cops per capita that New York does and their crime rate is only slightly higher.
Why the pay cuts for Police? Bill Clinton pumped millions into putting more Police on the streets (another campaign promise that he kept). David Dinkins went after that funding and did hire more Police as well as making sure that they got raises. Yeah, yeah... I know that Rudy 911 claims that it was he who did that, but ask any cops who you know who have been on the job for at least 10 years and they'll tell you. George W. Dumbf___ cut off that money almost as soon as he got into the White House. Tax cuts for Paris Hilton and Ron Lauder are more important than paying police a living wage if you're a republican't.
The cost of living in Seattle is lower, but not *substantially* lower. Real estate prices are still high in the Northwest.
Also, that billboard was specifically directed towards recent graduates of John Jay College. I doubt that they're interested in the old style cops with GEDs.
Anyway, cops in NYC on average make a lot of money from overtime--for instance, all those street fairs in the summer.
The cost of living in Seattle is lower, but not substantially lower. Real estate prices are still high in the Northwest.
That billboard is specifically directed towards recent graduates of John Jay College. The Seattle police department doesn't have much interest in the old style cops with only GEDs.
Anyway, the cops in NYC make a lot of money above that salary ceiling by working overtime (see the NYC police recruitment website). Among other things, overtime includes their presence at all those street fairs in NYC during the summer.
LOL. that's a big SLAP on the face for nypd
NYPD's starting salary should be at LEAST 45k-50k.
How many times are we going to have to go over this? The rookie salaries are low because that's what the union decides in the contract negotiations. There is only so much money to go around so the union fights to get higher salaries for the veterans at the expense of the rookies. And they get away with it because by definition the future rookies are not yet hired and thus not in the union and therefore they can't vote.
If the city came back and said they found an extra billion dollars a year for police salaries you can bet that the veterans would scoop up about 99.99 percent of it and boost rookie salaries about $1000 a year.
I had no effin clue that Seattle only has 580,000 people. I know the metro area has a lot more, but that really struck me.
is it true that the size of the NYPD is larger than some armies? is there any research done on the why such a large force or when did it start escalating?
The pitiful amount we pay our police is shameful, and certainly doesn't convey a message that we actually believe they're "The Finest".
If that's how we treat our finest, then how do we treat "New York's Shabbiest"?
Oh, right, 50 bullets.
Yes, I understand Seattle is a great city to live in, but me thinks NYC > Seattle. I guess it depends on your perspective. I guess its also a lot safer to walk the beat? All the SPD has to worry about are coffee drinking yuppies running a muck.
Understood EastRiver, but its still a shame and something has to be done.
The city of Seattle is quite small geographically, hence the low population. The metro area, which is not terribly sprawled out has a population in excess of 3 million. I've lived in both NYC and Seattle and I'll say that I like NYC better. That being said, in the Seattle area it rarely drops below 30 degrees in the winter and is nearly always in the 70s and 80s with low humidity in the summer. Beats the hell out of New York weather wise!
Seattle has most of the good food that NY has, but you can't find a bagel out here that doesn't make you cry just a little bit...
A lot of people join NYPD for the adventure. Not all, but many do. This changes as they get older and dream about a nice desk job. Seattle PD just doesn't have the same cache as NYPD for the rookies.
That's pretty pathetic of the Seattle PD.
I'm sure this isn't the best use of their time or money to be starting a pissing match with a Police Department on the opposite side of the country.
Quite the contrary, it IS the best use of their money. The Seattle PD doesn't have to train their recruits since that was already done for them by the NYPD.
I find it odd that gov't officials can find the money to screw whores in DC and safe trips to the Hamptons to screw their girlfriends while wifey is at home but not enough to pay cops a viable wage. My opinion is that cops deserve heaps more money if not to keep them honest. 70K is a start. Cops are stressed and get greedy out of entitlement thinkng because they earn so little at base. WHy should a cop or any worker have to work OVERTIME To make a decent living? I am an RN and I make a heck of a lot more than a rookie cop. I don't even risk my life. WTF?
But lets all pay 100 bucks to see a baseball, or football or basketball game and pay these athletes millions to pleasure our need for entertainment while our teachers suffer cutbacks-those that teach OUR children, people. WAKE UP Our priority set is a mess. Lets see good, honest well paid cops on our streets or an asshole, steroid junkie pitcher making 8 million? DUH!!!
Stop blaming the officials who set pay for these people and take some yourself for obviously caring more about sports than safety.
"Anyway, the cops in NYC make a lot of money above that salary ceiling by working overtime (see the NYC police recruitment website). Among other things, overtime includes their presence at all those street fairs in NYC during the summer."
This is a joke right?
A precinct has a street fair once a year and the 150$ for 12 hours a cop earns constitutes "A lot of OT money"?
Do you think NYPD brass is just itching to hand out overtime details?
I never understood why people don't just use a tiny bit of logic in their thought process. Especially when it's about something in which you are completely lost.
What they don't say is that new recruits in Seattle are cautioned against bending over in the vicinity of their more "seasoned" brethren.So, if you join the SPD, bring plenty of lubricant.