
San Francisco Police Department: Duties, Salary and Benefits - makeramen
http://www.sf-police.org/index.aspx?page=1655
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vosper
It's not just the salary that is high - the pension benefit (as is typical for
California) is astonishing: Up to 90% of salary at the very early retirement
age of 58. These kind of pensions schemes are the reason many states
(especially California) are experiencing budgetary crises.

~~~
rweba
(1) The California budget crisis was as much political gridlock as anything
else and appears to be currently resolved. Certain people used it as a an
opportunity to attack public services and public sector unions.

(2) These particular salaries (SF police department) are financed out of local
revenues and have nothing to do with the state budget anyway.

(3) The cost of living in SF is sky high as we all know, good for them for
paying appropriately if they want to get the best people.

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kqr2
For comparison, the NYPD starting salary is $44,744.

[http://www.nypdrecruit.com/benefits-
salary/overview](http://www.nypdrecruit.com/benefits-salary/overview)

~~~
scoggs
Could anyone speak on the difference between the day-to-day dealings with
serious and dangerous crimes/criminals in each city? In terms of cost of
living the cities are very comparable so I'm astonished to see the difference
in base salary. I'm sure the San Francisco PD doesn't take off Fridays like
most municipal offices in CA.

[http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-
living/city_result.jsp?country...](http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-
living/city_result.jsp?country=United+States&city=New+York%2C+NY)

[http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-
living/city_result.jsp?country...](http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-
living/city_result.jsp?country=United+States&city=San+Francisco%2C+CA)

Edit: Upon further thinking there are ~2,000 SFPD and ~35,000 NYPD. NYPD
Budget: ~3.6 Million. SFPD Budget: I cannot find.

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rjknight
It's worth paying for good, non-corrupt police officers. Better to pay them
well and hold them to high standards than to accept lower standards for lower
pay.

~~~
paulbaumgart
I have to agree: police bribery is so common across poorer countries and is so
harmful to the rule of law. Better to err on the side of overpaying.

~~~
nawitus
Western countries where police are paid average wages don't seem to have much
problem with corruption. Overpaying seems unnecessary.

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pyrrhotech
a police officer with 5 years experience typically makes over 200k total comp
between salary, overtime and retirement benefits. Some make as high as $600k+
a year. Feel free to look up the public records if you don't believe me.

It's a much better paying job on average than being a software engineer

Edit: and I'm not saying whether it should or shouldn't be a better paying job
than a SE, just noting the facts. Many are unaware. Sometimes I see guilt
threads from engineers who make 150k. They are really behind the times in this
area.

~~~
savvyraccoon
Plus most police officers retire after 20 years, so technically the police
office could retire at the age of 45.

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plg
These men and women are signing up to protect us, at great personal physical
(not to mention psychological) risk. They should absolutely earn a living wage
that enables them to live in the community in which they serve.

~~~
rayiner
So do members of the military and they get paid half as much.

~~~
whyenot
Well, then they should get a pay raise. It's about time anyways. You can
easily make $150k a year as a private contractor.

~~~
tptacek
Numbers like that are likely to represent gross pay. Military personnel
deployed to combat zones are meanwhile tax-exempt, and receive comprehensive
benefits.

The arithmetic for comparing deployed military and private contractors is
probably similar to the comparison between full-time employees and
freelancers.

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djb_hackernews
Looks to be a supply issue for new police officers. I hope the government will
create a new foreign worker visa to allow talented foreign peace keepers and
law men fast tracked entry in to the US to ensure the safety and prosperity of
our citizens and future generations.

~~~
spikels
If all the other Bay Area police departments offer similar compensation and
benefits, as seems to be the case, SF will have a hard time finding new
recruits at lower pay. So it's impossible to tell if it is a demand or supply
issue. The first thing you would want to look at is the number of applicants.

This is very similar to the issue with CEO compensation - high pay at
competitors just encourages even higher pay with little to contain it. I
wonder if they use the same consultants to justify ever increasing pay and
benefits.

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brohoolio
In contrast Detroit Police start at $30,137. Something tells me the San
Francisco police don't have to transport dead bodies in their cars or any of
the other horror stories I've heard from the DPD.

~~~
dllthomas
At the same time, $30k buys you more in MI.

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alexnewman
112k seems pretty high for entry level work, considering they most likely
don't have a college education, but maybe it makes it possible for them to
live here

~~~
antonius
You don't need any form of education (besides high school) to become a police
officer? If true, that's pretty surprising to me.

~~~
morganvachon
It's true in most jurisdictions, as far as I know. Having a college degree of
some sort can help get you on the fast track to promotions and/or
investigative positions. At the sheriff's office where I worked in the past,
you didn't get beyond Captain without some college (with certain exceptions
for under-the-table nepotism of course).

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brianmcconnell
Twenty year San Francisco resident here. $110,000/year is decent pay, but its
not enough to afford to pay a mortgage for a small home in the city. It's a
good idea to have your first responders living in the city they serve, you
know, in case of an emergency (i.e. earthquake).

I'm glad to hear they pay well, and if that's the base pay, hopefully the more
senior officers make enough that they can buy a middle class home and settle
down in the city they serve.

Also, good pay = less corruption. SF is the only place I've lived where I
trusted the cops.

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ForHackernews
That seems reasonable. Being a police officer is a tough job, and San
Francisco is a very high cost-of-living area.

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aaronapple
This should be heavily publicized. Hopefully, by letting people know that they
can earn a good living by being a police officer, the quality of candidates
will continue to increase. Entering the police force still carries a stigma,
IMO, particularly around not being highly intelligent or thinking for oneself.
Those are likely the people we want as our police officers; I'm more than
happy to have my taxes support such pay levels if we do attract those people
to the force.

~~~
Zigurd
It's the culture, not the pay. Want to get horrified? Go read cop boards like
officer.com.

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ukj
I get paid to be a software engineer and volunteer as a police reservist in my
spare time. Maybe I am doing this the wrong way around :/

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Axsuul
I think it's fair considering how much it costs to live in SF these days. They
also risk their lives everyday serving and protecting. You shouldn't be
complaining if a police officer makes more than you. Their potential of making
money is actually peanuts compared to civilians. Do you know any police
officer billionaires?

~~~
clavalle
I do know a police officer multi-millionaire.

And another that is a co-founder of a company he is doing on the side and
seems to be finding some success. There are very few intellectual property
clauses in their contract and it is a job that they can leave at the station
door when they go home in terms of creative energy.

Those two are admittedly outliers but when I was running events I had to
(well, it was strongly suggested by the police themselves) hire off-duty
police officers for $80/hour for security. Not to mention overtime which is
fairly common.

In short, yes they risk their lives, but these folks have more opportunity to
pad their bottom line than you seem to imagine.

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naveenspark
The base compensation is reasonable given the high cost of living in SF and
the personal risk associated with the job. The pension is tougher to justify.
Up to 90% of your salary at age 58 until EOL is likely unsustainable for the
city. Cue epic battle between those who support public pensions and those who
don't.

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prot
I think the only way we could to tell if this is too much or too little is if
we had a free market for protection services. Since we don't, we can only
speculate. Maybe, it's actually not enough. I can't object anyone receiving a
high salary, but if this salary is paid out of my own pocket with no consent
of mine and with the police force regularly abusing their powers, then yes, I
believe this is not just too much - this is outrageous.

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kleiba
Only 10 days of paid vacation? That's really a bit low IMO.

~~~
pyrrhotech
really 22 days---sick days are separate. Plus more holidays than typical in
private work

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nawitus
Sick days are not vacation.

~~~
nilkn
Tell that to companies that take your sick leave out of your vacation time.

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jrockway
Seems reasonable to me. Do you want police walking around that _aren 't_ well-
paid?

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pyrrhotech
higher than I made my first year out with a masters a few years ago

