Pros
The schedule is great! Especially for Middle School SROs. There is a ton of overtime opportunity.
Cons
Abysmal hiring standards! Background investigators have little to no discretion when it comes to disqualifying candidates. Were told, "We’re scraping the bottom of the barrel". The FTO process is too easy. They continue to hire incompetent rookies or washouts from other departments. FTOs that hold rookies to the standards and refuse to simply push them through aren't assigned trainees again. TCOLE might recognize us as police officers but most can't even do a traffic stop. Hell every year at the range at least one person has a negligent discharge or loads the wrong Ammo in their magazines. The turn over rate is massive! Morale is so low that we loose about ten officers a year, in a department of less than 70 officers. Its so bad that often you don’t even bother to learn a rookies name because they are most likely going to quit as soon as they get a new job. You literally have to get a sergeants permission to 95 someone. If the suspects are from an influential family or a staff member with seniority they're probably not going to approve it unless it's major and there is no way to get out of it. During the summer we spend some time at the range and two weeks doing ridiculously easy training. The rest of the summer is spent on patrol driving around in dangerously old dodge charges. No MDCs, No dash cams, no weapon racks. Your lucky if you make it the entire shift without breaking down. The pay and retirement suck! They won't tell you that until after your hired. The retirement is part of the teacher’s retirement so it's the rule of 90, your age and experience must equal 90. The insurance goes up every year and co pays are outrageous. THERE IS NO PAY STEP... they pay you whatever they feel like. We have had rookie officers start at 55,000 a year making more than their FTOs who have been with this dept for 15+ years. OT after 40? Think again… Its time and a half after 86 hours in a two week period. This means that if you work a 14 hour day but get off in time every other day in a two week period you get nothing extra… They also make you flex it out all the time. Most likely because the supervisors want to keep the OT budget to themselves. This dept is NOT female friendly!!!! Recently an officer who became pregnant was "reclassified" as a secretary/dispatcher... her salary dropped significantly! Trust me I know it seems too crazy to be true but it is. When you question the incompetence, selfishness, or general unprofessionalism of the dept's leadership you will be retaliated against. Placed under IA for sneezing the wrong direction, sent too the worst school or a campus as far away from your residence as possible. The leadership has no backbone, they will not have your back if you receive any complaints especially if its from a teacher or staff member. There is currently a civil war in the department over leadership after the previous Chief jumped ship. The leadership is so divided amongst themselves in support of one candidate or another that they are asleep at the wheel. If an internal candidate is hired it will only get worse. They need to hire someone who will hold everyone to the standard, without bias or selfish motivations and can restore this department’s pride. Right now most officers are ashamed to admit who they work for. This list could go on forever. If your motivated and want to actually be a cop... DO NOT apply here. If you have a family and want to spend time with them, and your independently wealthy, and you can accept just being a pretend cop then this is the place for you!