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California Highway Patrol salaries

sacbee.com

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Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#61

Post by Osiris »

SamAtt wrote: post #23
modeless wrote: post #6

Wow this is weird, I went to elementary school with one of these guys and now I can look up his salary on the Internet. His 2009 pay is more than my base salary this year at Google, though I will probably make more with my bonus. However, he's on a very steep upward trend so his 2010 pay will probably be more than mine again. I don't think I'd trade jobs, though, police work isn't for me. (Edit: also just noticed tha…

I wouldn't trade jobs with a CHP officer either but I do have to wonder about the skill level. I'm sure it's harder than I think but the job still boils down to parking on the side of the freeway, spotting violators, chasing them for about a minute and then writing them a ticket. Is that really worth $48+ an hour? Because that seems to be around the average pay (The CHP has a very powerful union so their base pay hou…

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 many laws about what police can and cannot do and how they have to do things, that it's actually quite complicated and has a steep learning curve. They also work long hours (12 hour shifts).

I'm a bit biased since I have brothers in the CHP, but it's definitely a tough job.

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#63

Post by anigbrowl »

jamesaguilar wrote: post #44
kprobst wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's quite simple. If I'm a taxpayer in California, I want to know how my tax dollars are being spent. Specifically, I'd like to know why a football coach is pulling in $2M a year while state employees are being threatened with furloughs and we're running the biggest deficit ever.

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.

Well, it's important the USA stay competitive in the global ball relocation industry.

I know, that's harsh, lots of people love sports and donate to their colleges on that basis, sports are good for character development and leadership skills as well as physical development and so on. But I have a really hard time seeing this kind of thing as anything other than an indirect subsidy to the sports industry.

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#64

Post by [deleted] »

modeless wrote: post #6

Wow this is weird, I went to elementary school with one of these guys and now I can look up his salary on the Internet. His 2009 pay is more than my base salary this year at Google, though I will probably make more with my bonus. However, he's on a very steep upward trend so his 2010 pay will probably be more than mine again. I don't think I'd trade jobs, though, police work isn't for me. (Edit: also just noticed tha…

[deleted]

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#66

Post by _delirium »

Elcho wrote: post #40
SamAtt wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't trade jobs with a CHP officer either but I do have to wonder about the skill level. I'm sure it's harder than I think but the job still boils down to parking on the side of the freeway, spotting violators, chasing them for about a minute and then writing them a ticket. Is that really worth $48+ an hour? Because that seems to be around the average pay (The CHP has a very powerful union so their base pay hou…

It obviously can be dangerous at times but considering how many people want to be police officers this pay level seems corrupt. This is just anecdotal but I've met far more people who want to be police officers / fireman than engineers or doctors; surely there is a large supply of eligible candidates, I can't believe that there is any shortage of capable labor to justify this almost CEO level of pay.

Are there any numbers on that? Sure, there are lots of people who want to be police officers, but that's not the same as being qualified. As far as I can find, unemployment rates among officers are extremely low, there are many unfilled positions, and officers who moved have little difficulty finding new jobs. That all usually indicates a tight labor market.

It's possible police academy is unnecessarily hard or something, but I suppose you could say that in any field (perhaps Google's hiring standards are too high, or med school is too hard).

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#67

Post by icey »

dotBen wrote: post #4
mikerhoads wrote: post #2

Interesting. I dug down into one of the actual officers close to the last page. In 2008 he made a total of $156,703.56 and it breaks down like this - Base pay: $75,782.22, Overtime: $2,572.98, Other:$78,348.3 Does anyone have an idea what they mean by "other"? http://www.sacbee.com/statepay/salary-details/?firstname=Gra...

And the same with this guy, who looks like the highest paid officer (ie not chief/sergent/etc): http://www.sacbee.com/statepay/salary-details/?firstname=Wil... Base pay: $103,819.29, Overtime: $3,954.89, Other:$127,385.25 Total pay: $235,159.43 I'd love to know what OTHER includes. I'm guessing pension contribution but what else?

Is it possible that it OTHER reflects off-duty work? I know some cities allow their officers to work off-duty but in uniform, and the places that want to use them have to pay the city directly instead of the officer.

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#69

Post by barrkel »

kprobst wrote: post #42
jister wrote: post #15

Isn't this sort of thing supposed to be confidential?

I think it's quite simple. If I'm a taxpayer in California, I want to know how my tax dollars are being spent. Specifically, I'd like to know why a football coach is pulling in $2M a year while state employees are being threatened with furloughs and we're running the biggest deficit ever.

If you own a share of a company, does that entitle you to know the salaries of all its employees?

Re: California Highway Patrol salaries

#70

Post by radioactive21 »

I know the local chief of police for a UC school, I will try to ask him about "other" pay.

I know that University of California, police get paid very well. But i've been told that you need to be recommended into the selection process and it's also a very small group, about a dozen officers covering 20K-30K campus. Most I know are 10-15 year vets. These salaries have always been public, and they get criticized all the time. The Chief has told me that they have to make a case for having each one of these officers every single year.

On an interesting note, UC police have jurisdiction for the entire state of California.

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