We keep loosing them

hey, we just lost two more agents this week , one from TCO and one from Tampa. We did pick up one in Miami (Onay came back from Medicaid Fraud ). Lost two gain one , thats not good. Chuck is belive going to a South Florida PD paying over $70,000 for his services, does anyone know why newcomer Denise at Tampa left.

hey, we just lost two more agents this week , one from TCO and one from Tampa. We did pick up one in Miami (Onay came back from Medicaid Fraud ). Lost two gain one , thats not good. Chuck is belive going to a South Florida PD paying over $70,000 for his services, does anyone know why newcomer Denise at Tampa left.

Losing agents from state agencies aint new partner. The state agencies is hard to compete with the pay. That is why I cannot understand why folks in Maimi, Margate, WPB, Tampa & Ft. Myers stay. Of course, our pay aint bad for the part-time hours we work I guess it equates. $40,000.00 @ 20 hrs per week.

Are you kidding me, the turn over rate is unheard of. As long as the pay stinks, and the morale keeps going down hill the turn over will continue. Younger agents are lured by higher paying jobs in real Police Agencies, and the fact that the new administration is shying away from real police work doesn't help the situation much either. I know for a fact that South Fla. will be loosing 5 agents and 1 Lt. soon. So here we go again, FTO, training, getting them in a position to handle cases then poof they are gone.

I agree completely with the fact that the pay here sucks with no chance of improvement.

I disagree that's the main reason people leave for better paying jobs. I know that sounds like a contradiction but hear me out.

1. Everyone knew the salary and the non-existent pay raises when they started.

2. People would stay here if they liked the job and could make extra money on the side working details. This job would be great with 40 hours of ABT plus 10 hours of details a week. Then the salary would be competive and you still would not have a stressful road job.

3. We do have some young (and not so young) agents who like to work on more complicated cases than minors. Doing away with the Task Force involvement will only limit our ability to pull in new applicants who will see this job as limited and boring.

Answer: We need to expand our role w/in the ABT framework which means investigating any crimes w/in a licensed premises. Next, we need to make all football games paid details along with other events.

I have been here for almost 5 years after being on the road at an police dept and this place really isn't that bad. This is a ship that can be righted and we will all be happy.

I agree with the previous post. I have been with ABT for a long time and there are a lot of agents in this agency that are doing great things with these task forces and it would be a crying shame to shut them down. From what it sounds like, the chief and director read these posts so let me say this - do not believe the posts you read on here. They are from the minority of people and should not be taken for anything more than an anonymous forum where people who know nothing of what they talk about post to try and prevent others from helping the agency to improve. I know there are several agents looking for other jobs right now because it feels as though every time a new door opens up for them, it gets shut by the administration. The director and chief came in promising change, and I was on there side, but I think it is irresponsible to cut off these young (and old) agents who are involved in these task forces from doing their jobs. If you take them away or do not let them get strated, I am sure the quality agents that are working these things are going to leave our agency, and to have that happen would be a shame. Review them - look at them - but dont remove all of them just because. They are important to our mission just as all our other responsibilities and losing them means losing allies.

You keep on losing them but you also do not hire them. A friend and I went to Tall. and interviewed, we were told by the local LT. that we ranked 1st and 3rd amongst six applicants. I have 9 years and my friend has 11 years as city officers. We both have BAs and many hours of in service training. We were told by the LT. that both our files were approved all the way up ranks, except for the Chief. She did not like the fact that we had IAs (minor BS), 3 total for both. We have worked with you agents and like the job you guys do. We were not making the change for the money, I would have taken a 23K dollar cut. Even the LT. was surprised by the reason she gave, he hold us to reapply but we decided not too.

You keep on losing them but you also do not hire them. A friend and I went to Tall. and interviewed, we were told by the local LT. that we ranked 1st and 3rd amongst six applicants. I have 9 years and my friend has 11 years as city officers. We both have BAs and many hours of in service training. We were told by the LT. that both our files were approved all the way up ranks, except for the Chief. She did not like the fact that we had IAs (minor BS), 3 total for both. We have worked with you agents and like the job you guys do. We were not making the change for the money, I would have taken a 23K dollar cut. Even the LT. was surprised by the reason she gave, he hold us to reapply but we decided not too.

Truly unfortunate - for you and ABT. I know of at least one person who also applied - 12 years experience, masters degree, highly decorated, detective type, 1,000 hours of specialized training - passed over for a person with none of the above - good luck in trying to figure that out.

I would also give the same advice - reapply - If you don't though, who could blame you? FDLE pays better anyway. Good Luck.

I dont want to sound like a cry baby but in South Florida money is an important issue specialy with younger agents. Our car insurance rate, home tax rate, home rental rate, home purchase price are all way above what the the central and north agents pay even with the cad. The local PDs are paying top dollar for officers and are getting with the state retirement system in order for state officers to transfer keeping the retirement years in tack. Miami will soon be loosing another good agent to a local PD and other good ABT candidates have turned their sites on the local PD with base pay of 10 to 30 thousand over what ABT pays LEI IIs. We (ABT) are not in this boat alone FHP will be loosing more than 15 troopers at the begining of the year to South Florida PDs. For now our Director cant do much since agents pay may not be under her control. There are no easy solutions for South Florida specialy in Miami and I dont see a bright light at the end of the tunnel. I hope next years legislative session may fix the problem but I am not counting on it.

I dont want to sound like a cry baby but in South Florida money is an important issue specialy with younger agents. Our car insurance rate, home tax rate, home rental rate, home purchase price are all way above what the the central and north agents pay even with the cad. The local PDs are paying top dollar for officers and are getting with the state retirement system in order for state officers to transfer keeping the retirement years in tack. Miami will soon be loosing another good agent to a local PD and other good ABT candidates have turned their sites on the local PD with base pay of 10 to 30 thousand over what ABT pays LEI IIs. We (ABT) are not in this boat alone FHP will be loosing more than 15 troopers at the begining of the year to South Florida PDs. For now our Director cant do much since agents pay may not be under her control. There are no easy solutions for South Florida specialy in Miami and I dont see a bright light at the end of the tunnel. I hope next years legislative session may fix the problem but I am not counting on it.

I do hope the pay issue will be fixed soon, but, I dont think it will happen. When the legislature and governor go out and talk to citizens they dont get much political "hugs" by citizens when they say "Hey, I fought hard to give the 4,000 state law enforcement officers a great raise". Why do people really care a lot about state LEO, when really what affects them on a daily basis are the local law enforcement oficers. Think about it, how many voting/politically connected citizens come into contact with ABT or DEP or Medcaid Fraud, or FDLE or FWC, I can go on and on. Come on guys wake up, not much is going to change with pay so we need to forget about it. About the only thing we can do is look at the many perks we have in ABT and take that as they are. We have flexible shifts, take home car, wear civilian clothes (no uniform), don't work midnights a lot, no holidays, off most weekends. The locals dont have our perks. No to mention ABT puts up with a whole lot of BS from us. Locals would not put up with this a bit.

I'm another one of the recent applicants to ABT that decided to cancel the process. Your agency sounds good, looks good doing what you do, and has all the perks a cop wants.....except the pay. I work for one of the worst(compensation and equipment wise) departments there is. But brothers and sisters, I just cleared 85k, and I dont have rank, or am in a specialized unit, or do I steal. Now from my 85 to your 39 after losing the 5 to incentives, it's quite a leap. To those of you who are presently calling me a whatever because of my monetary complaints, concentrate on the facts.
1. Cost of a home anywhere in Florida
2. Cost of gas
3. Insurance, whether health, home or auto.
4. Groceries

Shall I go on. Many props to those of you who risk life and limb for 39k after several years of service in today's economy. Believe it or not you do risk, no matter how cushy your job.

You are going to keep losing them to - what does the director and cheif say? We have no money - bear with us it will get better - but dont you all make over 80000 dollars a year? Life aint bad for you - just us grunts - all the promises when you took over, none followed through on - at least we knew what we had with the PHD...

I really have to agree a lot of agents came here well aware of the pay. But once here they start working all these details, adjusting shifts and working side by side with the locals who are making overtime on all these details. This coupled with the shitty morale is what lures the agents away. True South Florida is unique, it's very expensive and an average PO on a local Dept. can earn 80 to 100+ a year easily. So the turnover rate here is outrageous, and will continue to be so. I perdict and this is from a reliable survey that within the next 90 days Southern District will loose seven to ten agents.

You are going to keep losing them to - what does the director and cheif say? We have no money - bear with us it will get better - but dont you all make over 80000 dollars a year? Life aint bad for you - just us grunts - all the promises when you took over, none followed through on - at least we knew what we had with the PHD...

Speaking of the PHD we hear he has been promoted at FWC....

Just lost another one in Miami and one in Palm Beach is in the process as well as one in Margate - the money has a lot to do with it but when you look around, there is no leadership in the offices - a bunch of backstabbing and people too busy worrying about appearance and what the "industry" will think and covering their own butts - follow the Majors lead - get over yourselves