FOP

Anyone thinking of switching over?

Is that up in Tally?

Yes...

http://www.floridastatefop.org

I worked 15 years at an S.O. with no Union, and 10 with FDLE. You know, I got better raises at the S.O.! What's wrong here, is it the Union???

The difference is that with a SO a sheriff has much more control over his budget and a much smaller group of people to go to for dollars. With FDLE we have a goveronor, a senate and a house of representatives to deal with; quite a daunitng task. A sheriff can go ask for money and county comissioners are much more accountable to the public when it comes to public safety. State legislators couldn't care less about the overall safety of Florida's citizens, only the fatcats in the areas that they represent. Take last year as an example, promises were made and we were looked in the eye and told that the raises were there. Lo and behold, when it came down to it, when all negotiations were over and nothing else could be done, they were cut out of the budget by the very people that promised that we had nothing to worry about. That is what we have to deal with. People that are only out to pad their own pockets and stay in office. They couldn't care less about public safety or the public for that matter, only themselves and those that can help them help themselves.

Hope that helps.

My humble opinion is that pba is part of the problem also. The leadership is only concerned with their own personal gains and could care less about the rank and file. They get their perks for being in the positions they're in and we're left with nothing. Maybe we should think about reorganizing under the fop....any other thoughts on the issue? I'm switching over regardless...no more money from my pocket to pba.

LimaUnit, that is one of the most ridiculous statements I have read. What perks do PBA leadership get? I would invite you to attend the next board meeting or better yet, come to the capitol when the session starts and see what really goes on. I can assure you that members of the board are there to help all members and fight tooth and nail to do just this. FOP is a fine organization and it does have it's benifits, one being the death benifits which are much better than those offered by the PBA. The problem with FOP is that they provide no lobbying efforts for members, none whatsoever, they do not even employ lobbyists. There are several FDLE agents that are members of both FOP and PBA and get the best of both worlds.

Sorry you feel it's a ridiculous statement, but like I said in the post, it's my humble two cent opinion and that's all. And the people I'm referring to who receive the perks are the ones running the whole organization, not the agency board members. Certain legislators, more importantly the speaker of the house and president of the senate, continue to be backed by the pba, yet the rank and file aren't getting anything from them. And this bs we're getting from them about the state not having money, is just that...a big pile of bs. This state doesn't and never has survived on the housing market, which is the crutch the legislators are using.

I've sat in board meetings and I understand the process, but sometimes a good shake up and change are needed to get the attention of those in power. Historically that's really the only way things have been accomplished in this country.

Be Safe

I forgot something. FOP represents a lot of PD's and look at the money they are receiving in salaries and raises, and they will continue to get better salaries even though amendment one passed. What have we gotten from good ole pba lately? Nice bonus last year....

I was a FOP guy for over 26 years and when I was active I knew we had a lobbyist. I think the guys last name was Ericks or something like that. As an FOP member I went up to Tallahassee on the FOP dime to met with our representatives to push bills that would help the our cause. I have been both FOP and PBA. It is all about how active the members are, to me that is the most important point. I know that we have to deal with legislators from across the state but state employees also live across the state and they can put pressure on them in there home districts.

I agree with you 100%. It's all about the members not the union. The union is only as strong as it's membership. Every union member needs to write and have all their family and friends write their state reps in the legislature and demand raises for State LEO's! If these people get enough pressure from citizens and their constituents it will help our cause. There are positive things we could do except ***** and moan because that will def not get us a raise.

Good point 68. To clarify, the FOP does lobby for local agencies in various parts of the state where they are strong but there is no lobbying mechanism whatsoever to lobby the state legislature on behalf of state law enforcement; it cannot happen. As I said, FOP is great, particularly it's death benifits. The legal protection is identical to PBA. The advantage of PBA is that it fights for state law enforcement and without the current budget woes, great gains have been made. Again, Lima, local PDs and SOs are a completely different animal. It is a much easier process to deal with local politicians that state legislators. And if you don't think the state is broke, I invite you to go to Tallahassee and sit in on some budget conferences as I did yesterday and then tell me what you think.

I worked with a S.O. before FDLE, so I know how that works too, and the only real difference in a Sheriff getting his budget request to that of state law enforcement, is that the local politicians, for the most part, actually care about their guys, where the state legislators are only thinking about their next step in the political arena, such as our wonderful speaker of the house. God help us if he gets his next dream...the big dawg's job.

And Guest, since you are so well versed in the whole world of politics and are ingraining yourself in the hallowed halls of the capitol complex, what is the pba proposing for state leo's? And I don't want the same retoric I can get from the pba website...how about proposing something that is workable, like a three to five year plan that can get us back on track.

PBA FDLEAA negotiations took place a few weeks ago. There were five openers, all dealing with salary/raises. Cost of living, retention bonuses, longevity bonuses, compression pay and performance based raises were all brought to the table for negotiation. Legislative negotiators refused to discuss all of them.

Imagine that. Sure is hard to stay motivated to work for the State knowing our bros/sis at the local level are getting paid.

Well Lima, everything is what you make of it. I myself am pretty happy with my job. In my region I'm making what a Lts. and some Capts. make with the locals. A Miami cop may make more than me but I'll gladly take my salary over his/hers for not living in that hellhole that is South Florida. Things will improve one day.

Guest
For those of us who do live in the miami region we dont make near what the locals make. I guess because you are happy with your pay in your area you will forgo any type of pay raise so they can add another 5 grand to the cad for those of us in the south. Some us do like living here but we need to make some more money. More than likely you send your kids to public school. I send mine to private. The cost for 2 in high school is 15K without fees. Now if the south florida area didn t have to send all our money to support north florida we could live on what we make. Schools in my area would still suck.

Well Lima, everything is what you make of it. I myself am pretty happy with my job. In my region I'm making what a Lts. and some Capts. make with the locals. A Miami cop may make more than me but I'll gladly take my salary over his/hers for not living in that hellhole that is South Florida. Things will improve one day.

Maybe you're one of the lucky ones who've been on awhile and received some or all of the step plan money that use to be around. Meanwhile, as for those of us who've only been around a few years....we will never see any of that at all...so go ahead and enjoy yourself, don't worry about the rest of us.

Well Lima, everything is what you make of it. I myself am pretty happy with my job. In my region I'm making what a Lts. and some Capts. make with the locals. A Miami cop may make more than me but I'll gladly take my salary over his/hers for not living in that hellhole that is South Florida. Things will improve one day.

That's only from about Gainesville north, everything south of that the locals are out running fdle in pay by miles. And some of us love the "hellhole" you refer to, it's always been home to alot of us.

Let's face it, FDLE could pull out of Miami all together and no one would ever notice. The agencies that FDLE was brought about to assist are the smaller counties and cities anyway. Hell FDLE doesn't even have a lab in MROC.

Answer this, way does MROC have agents doing jump outs? Stats?

There are several areas in the agency that could be eliminated, that would save a whole lot of money....fdle is still trying to figure out if we want to be a police agency or an administrative support police agency.

Why do we have a whole division with Inspectors, an SAS and an ASAC basically checking reports from around the state? Isn't that the job of the regionally SAS's and ASAC's?

Local agencies have their own "intelligence" squads now...ours is basically issuing/rewriting reports from the locals.

Computer crimes...talk about duplication since the AG's office is getting ahead of the game on this one....how did we lose that?

Did get me wrong, I love FDLE and worked my butt off at a local agency to get here, but it seems FDLE has gotten away from it's mission of being a police agency.

The problem as I see it, Moore finally left after destroying the LEO part of FDLE, and now little TIM is in OFFICE. When FDLE tells someone the agency won't hire them because they have expirence and FDLE wants clay they can molds scares the hell out of me!!!