Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

California Highway Patrol salaries

sacbee.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 182 posts

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#121

Post by eru »

dpatru wrote: post #110
Osiris wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, the skill level is fairly high. The CHP academy is around 7 months long. Training is similar to boot camp. They train physically, high speed and safe driving techniques, weapons training, and of course they have to learn the vehicle code (it's a LOT bigger than you might think), and how to write reports. Getting into the academy is fairly difficult, and many cadets washout before finishing. There are so man…

> of course they have to learn the vehicle code Of course this is the code that the law presumes that every driver knows. It would be unfair to punish someone for doing what they didn't know is illegal.

I guess there's a subset of legal behaviour that easy to describe and remember. It's just when you are pushing the limits that the edges get fuzzy.

Also each driver only has to know the vehicle code as it pertains to them. E.g. if you are not a lorry driver, you don't care about lorry rules.

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#122

Post by krschultz »

metamemetics wrote: post #96
Osiris wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, the skill level is fairly high. The CHP academy is around 7 months long. Training is similar to boot camp. They train physically, high speed and safe driving techniques, weapons training, and of course they have to learn the vehicle code (it's a LOT bigger than you might think), and how to write reports. Getting into the academy is fairly difficult, and many cadets washout before finishing. There are so man…

> Training is similar to boot camp I somehow doubt it's harder than real boot camp in the marines, and their base pay is at least 5 times less!

True, though not sure about California, in my home state pretty much all state troopers are ex-military anyway so it doesn't matter.

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#123

Post by sedachv »

metamemetics wrote: post #96
Osiris wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, the skill level is fairly high. The CHP academy is around 7 months long. Training is similar to boot camp. They train physically, high speed and safe driving techniques, weapons training, and of course they have to learn the vehicle code (it's a LOT bigger than you might think), and how to write reports. Getting into the academy is fairly difficult, and many cadets washout before finishing. There are so man…

> Training is similar to boot camp I somehow doubt it's harder than real boot camp in the marines, and their base pay is at least 5 times less!

Not to mention that for all the "elite this" and "chosen that," infantry training is designed exactly for the average man.

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#124

Post by eru »

kprobst wrote: post #54
jamesaguilar wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The theory is that the football coach, via increased advertising dollars from a successful football program, is bringing a lot of value. Say what you will, but big college football programs pay for themselves, and then all the other sports at the college too. At least, this is what my brother, a college sports nut, tells me.

I don't doubt that could be true, and if it's true then it certainly makes sense to spend $ to generate $$. Hopefully not a parallel to overpaid CEOs whose primary responsibility is to generate wealth for the stock holders rather than take care of the employees.

You have it backwards. A CEOs responsibility is to generate shareholder value. If they work to line senior managements' pockets, that's the pathology.

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#125

Post by krschultz »

yardie wrote: post #115
asmithmd1 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one wants to hear this -- but why does everyone involved with college football make money except for the players? The schools have colluded to fix the players pay at 1 full scholarship. College football is treated like a business in all areas except for players pay, why shouldn't there be a free market for their services?

Shhh!!! No one is supposed to talk about the plantation system in the ivory tower. Some of them do get compensation like, tuition, room & board, tutoring and free jerseys. The ones that don't are supposed to do it for the love of the game! But life-altering injuries and head trauma are totally worth it. /s

Especially relevant after one of the Rutgers football players was paralyzed for life from the neck down this weekend. Ugh.

It probably would be worth it if the graduation rate for players was higher, but when it is in the 50-75% range for a lot of schools, most people just bumped up their education level from "high school" to "some college" while saddlying themselves with healthcare problems for life.

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#126

Post by krschultz »

jerf wrote: post #50
waterlesscloud wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also includes being a first responder to accidents. And watching over the cleanup of said accidents. People burned alive in cars. Children strewn across highways. And knowing every violation stop is a potential end to your life. Who knows who that driver is and what they're going to do? Do I want the job? No thanks. They're more than welcome to those salaries for what they deal with.

Pay is not determined by the difficulty or unpleasantness of the job, or at least, not directly. It is determined by the balance of supply and demand. How many people are ready and willing to be police officers at some level of pay, and how many police officers are needed? Policing isn't trivial, but you know what? Neither are most other jobs. There are many, many people with the capability of being police officers;…

I don't think this pay is rooted in the laws of economics. The number of people applying for police officer jobs is huge - but that doesn't mean the pay gets lowered for anyone. The contracts are negotiated by the veterans in the force, and the people with criminal justice degrees waiting in the wings who would gladly take less money are not stake holders in contract negotiations.

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#127

Post by Retric »

jerf wrote: post #50
waterlesscloud wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also includes being a first responder to accidents. And watching over the cleanup of said accidents. People burned alive in cars. Children strewn across highways. And knowing every violation stop is a potential end to your life. Who knows who that driver is and what they're going to do? Do I want the job? No thanks. They're more than welcome to those salaries for what they deal with.

Pay is not determined by the difficulty or unpleasantness of the job, or at least, not directly. It is determined by the balance of supply and demand. How many people are ready and willing to be police officers at some level of pay, and how many police officers are needed? Policing isn't trivial, but you know what? Neither are most other jobs. There are many, many people with the capability of being police officers;…

Nothing stops people from being paid more than they are worth. Doctors in the US are a classic example of an industry that captures regulations which enables them to artificially limit supply and over charge for their services.

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#129

Post by hga »

jacoblyles wrote: post #94
patio11 wrote: post #83

It is difficult to resist the conclusion that unions exercise total capture of the Californian budgetmaking process. (100% payraises in the face of the financial collapse? For line officers? In only two years? After they're the best paid in the nation? Before you consider the pensions?!)

Popular wisdom in California is that the budget problem is happening because it's too hard to raise taxes.

There is no amount of tax revenue that politicians can't spend (and if they can borrow, use as leverage for more borrowing).

There's a thesis expressed in this recent book (look for discussions of it) http://www.amazon.com/Never-Enough-Americas-Limitless-Welfar... that a or the fatal flaw (my term) of liberalism is that it has no limiting principle. I find it very hard to look at California and not agree.

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#130

Post by stevenbedrick »

metamemetics wrote: post #97
poet wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, police have to deal with a wider range of psychological issues than jobs in rescue. Not only are police exposed to most things that rescue jobs are exposed to, they also have to deal with domestic violence, hostage situations, exploitation of minors and other disadvantaged groups, threats from organized crime, and sometimes actually pulling the trigger themselves. Hell, just the fact that police officers…

> police have to deal with a wider range of psychological issues Not nearly as much as those serving in the military whose salary is vastly less (closer to the population median income).

True, but is that a problem with police salaries, or with military ones? I have a number of acquaintances in the military, many of whom have served multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as a taxpayer and (putative) beneficiary of their service, I'm personally embarrassed by how little they get paid.
Post reply on HN