NOW WHAT?

We are receiving the same raise everyone else in the city is which is not enough.
Our health insurance payments are going up.
We are operating with too few Officers.
We are constantly losing Officers to other better paying agencies.

What do we do now? How can this department improve?

The answer is clear, and does not even need to be stated... :evil:

The answer is clear, and does not even need to be stated... :evil:

You didn't answer the question.
Do we need a Union? New Police Administration? New Mayor? New City Council?

There has to be a defining answer. The property tax cut just went into effect and we have been struggling with the above questions for years. This city has not raised taxes in 20 years meaning the property tax cut should not effect us at all.

The answer is clear, and does not even need to be stated... :evil:

You didn't answer the question.
Do we need a Union? New Police Administration? New Mayor? New City Council?

There has to be a defining answer. The property tax cut just went into effect and we have been struggling with the above questions for years. This city has not raised taxes in 20 years meaning the property tax cut should not effect us at all.

The answer is clear, and does not even need to be stated... :evil:

You didn't answer the question.
Do we need a Union? New Police Administration? New Mayor? New City Council?

There has to be a defining answer. The property tax cut just went into effect and we have been struggling with the above questions for years. This city has not raised taxes in 20 years meaning the property tax cut should not effect us at all.

Scratch the part about a new mayor

I guess it's not as clear as I thought. I do believe a union is in the best interest of the officers. Do I think a union is the "Save All"? No I do not. However, the city has no individual concern about it's employees as a whole, more importantly to us, they have no concern for it's officers. Can you come up with a better way for us to get the treatment we deserve? Is anyone else going to stand up for us the way that we deserve? Who is going to make things better for us unless we do it ourselves? Think about that for a while....

who says we are getting the same. The letter in our paychecks stated it would be attempted to get 5% for all city employees. Usually Police and Fire are provided with a little additional.

who says we are getting the same. The letter in our paychecks stated it would be attempted to get 5% for all city employees. Usually Police and Fire are provided with a little additional.

That was true some years. I have been here a long time though, and have seen more years where we got the same.

As far as how much we will receive, you can believe it on 1 October.

Grow up Little brother.....All dept's have the same problems.

Grow up Little brother.....All dept's have the same problems.

Your response lacks depth and does not indicate a knowledge of the issues involving this particular department.

First, all police departments have similiar issues. They are either resolved, a compromise is reached, or ignored.

This department has made great strides involving technological issues. We are on par or ahead of many agencies our size and larger.

Chief McDaniel is a big improvement over Chief Surrency. I'll leave it at that.

We are lagging when it comes to taking care of our employees. Our take home pay is below many of the law enforcement departments in the area. Minor items we have asked for years ago are only now being considered. Anything requiring an effort on the part of the administration is still being ignored. We still have supervisors who don't take care of the officers under them. We have officers leaving for these and other reasons. There is little effort made to retain them and we are always undermanned considering the growth of Plant City. We need every officer authorized by budget and then an additional 20+.

Many issues can be resolved within the police department itself with the exception of budget and additional authorized strength. Those have to be authorized by the city council. The city council has little compelling reason to either give us a substantial raise or increase the number of officers.

How many councilmen/councilwomen know who the police officers are on our department? How many have approached you and asked your opinion on the operation of the police department and city government? How many have asked what your issues are? Do any of them know how many officers we have hired and had leave in just the past 10 years?

Considering how expensive it is and time consuming to properly train a police officer to adequately function on his own, why is it the city doesn't require an exit poll from all officers who leave? Shouldn't a poll like this be reviewed by the city manager, mayor, and council? It would seem information like this would at least be a factor in the yearly evaluation of the Chief and City Manager. If Bartow had a system in place like this, the City Manager may not have been terminated. He would have had adequate warning of the issues and could have taken steps to deal with them.

PCPD LEO2,
First of all, I know your issues!!! I worked under both Chiefs and Mac. is BIG improvement over the other one ( Surrency ).
What do you mean the Supervisors don't take care of their men???
As far as the salaries...does ANY police officer make what their worth??? Most officer's have to work several off duty gig's to make ends meet? Did you not know the salary when you were hired? I left PCPD FOR A LARGER DEPT. and my raise increase over the past 5 yrs. has been 1-3 %. Don't want to hear about raise issues or about being short officers...we're currently down OVER 100 PLUS. All dept. have experienced an increase with health care costs.
City council members knowing their officers and their problems are you kidding me???? In a perfect world, Yes it would be nice to sit down with each council member and let them know what's wrong with OUR City, Chief, Beat Partner, wife...etc.

PCPD LEO2,
First of all, I know your issues!!! I worked under both Chiefs and Mac. is BIG improvement over the other one ( Surrency ).
What do you mean the Supervisors don't take care of their men???
As far as the salaries...does ANY police officer make what their worth??? Most officer's have to work several off duty gig's to make ends meet? Did you not know the salary when you were hired? I left PCPD FOR A LARGER DEPT. and my raise increase over the past 5 yrs. has been 1-3 %. Don't want to hear about raise issues or about being short officers...we're currently down OVER 100 PLUS. All dept. have experienced an increase with health care costs.
City council members knowing their officers and their problems are you kidding me???? In a perfect world, Yes it would be nice to sit down with each council member and let them know what's wrong with OUR City, Chief, Beat Partner, wife...etc.

Big Agency, according to your post it sounds like you made a BIG mistake leaving here. The conditions must be horrible where you are. That must be tough since according to your post, you knew what the pay and conditions were when you were hired at PCPD and when you left for BIG AGENCY. WE ARE HIRING, call now.

Except for 2 officers who joined FHP, almost all of our officers who left here for a LEO job joined TPD or HCSO. I'm sure you didn't go to FHP since everyone knew that was mistake from the beginning.

As a bright officer, you must have gone with TPD or HCSO. You stated your pay has increased 1-3% over the past 5 years. Doesn't sound like HCSO since according to their recruiter, their pay with raises exceeds ours (not to mention they don't contribute to their retirement and they pay significantly less for health benefits). They also aren't down over 100 deputies.

Doesn't sound like TPD, they have shift differentials and step plans that exceed 1-3 % a year (not to mention a newly hired officer with experience starts at step 3 and makes about the same as I do). According to TPDs website, a step 8 officer makes $60,569 before differentials, extra duty etc. This is more than our LTs make. A master officer makes over $72,000 which is more than our Cpts make. (They pay a smaller percentage for retirement (we pay 13.75%) and they pay less for health benefits.

Looking at the above facts, you have me stumped. I can't figure out what agency you went to where your conditions are worse than here.

It is one thing to say I know what your issues are because I was there. It is another thing to say, I know what your issues are and I don't want to hear it (since I am doing so much better than you now).

HE WENT TO POLK COUNTY CAUSE HE COULD NOT BE A SGT IN TWO YEARS..MMMMMMMMMMMM :twisted:

NOT POLK COUNTY...SAID HE WORKED UNDER SURRENCY

He does not work at Polk County. We have been getting good raises, We don't pay for insurance and our people stand behind us. DON'T bring us in your problems.......................................... .... :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: