What are your concerns

This post is to be a straight up response as to what are the concerns of the units as a whole, for the long term at the P.D. The way I see it we spend more time bashing one another than uniting for benefits. With that said what do you want to see most in the hopefully near future....

Salary increase
Take Home Car Plan
Insurance Benefits as they once were with 100% coverage
Or whatever else that is reasonable that you feel we should strive for


Each one of these are a battle of their own and I feel the Take Home Plan won't occur unless we may agree to take a small hit in the salary department. The agreement to take a small hit in salary .25-1.00 per hour, may allow the city to have a take home plan within county even a radius plan which would compensate for gas usage. Post away.

The take home plan should be first and foremost. If they want to be able to fill the spots that keep coming open it is something that the command staff/city needs to make happen. We down to the bottom in the benefits department county wide. This take home plan also needs to be a radius plan since a large number of officers live in Pasco. I know that I am willing to pay a reasonable amount for mileage, ie $25 a paycheck or something like that so that city doesn't feel screwed over. Another thing would be comp time. Why can this not happen. They won't lose any money in this deal. My guess is because of staffing.

The biggest thing in the immediate future is take homes. There are smaller agencies that do it, i.e Tarpon Springs, Pinellas Park. We need to implement some kind of policy other than just citywide. Wether it is a mile radius or county wide, something needs to be done.

We now have the computers, so noone can complain about that. Take homes have always been an issue. The city needs to realize that numerous studies have been done that confirm an agency will save money the fewer the people driving the cars. On average if one person has a car it lasts for an average of 7 years. If two people drive a car it cuts that average almost in half. Think of what we could do with that money!!!

How many people would take care of thier cars if they drove it all by themseleves and were responsible for it. I know that i would take care of mine and I know many people who would too!!

On another note...we need to add COLA to our retirement. This is a cost of living increase. Every other agency gets a 3% increase in their retirement each year, why can't we get this.....any suggestions on how?

A new take home car plan and salary increase should be the #1 priority. There is no reason why this agency can't do a county-wide/radius take home plan. Like the prior response stated, both Pinellas Park and Tarpon Springs have take homes and they are smaller than us.

Also a pay raise speaks for itself. Both are important to be competitive with the surrounding agencies with regards to hiring quality people and a reason for people to choose Largo over other agencies. We finally have computers and top of the line ones at that and its time to step it up to with everything else.

I agree we need at least a county wide plan put into place however I'll be damned if I'd be willing to give any money for it. The other agencies that have it may contribute to their but I've no seen much in the way of a raise recently especially with the rising costs of insurance. If we had a sufficient raise to offset the insurance costs, I would agree to contribute but until then, not a chance.

a take home plan would definitely keep the newer troops thinking about their long term commitment to the department (in a positive way). however, let's not give up the cash. it's already tough enough to survive on a po-po budget!

money + cars (x) better retention = mo' qualified candidates for future spots

Take home cars or a pay raise. I think that due to the rise of taxes and insurance this question is not hard to answer. Gas prices has steadied and tkae home cars will not retain Officers. If you want that car parked in front of your house so that your neighborhood can come pounding on your door because "I have a question" then have at it.

The reason that we lose Officers is because there is no opportunity to go into anything different. Detectives, Traffic or POP. Once a person gets into those positions your pretty much set. I would like to see a cap. 5 years in those postions then come back to the road and train the rookies what you have learned. This will give hope to the Officers that are killing themselves on the road so that when a position comes open they are known for giving it their all.

I vote down the Take home car plan even though it would be fun to speed to work when I am late, haha.

The city needs to think about both. Yes I know, Emporer Stanton does not care, we are just a number to him. The people who need to realize this are the brass. Until there are take homes and a decent pay raise to keep us competitive (we are behind in the county again) we will continue to lose decent prospective employees. Another thing, How about spending some cash on outside recruitment. We basically depend on the St. Pete and Tampa academies for recruitment. How about going outside the area or the state to recruit some people looking for some "sunshine".

I agree with the above about the specialty positions. Maybe open up a couple more spots up there for others. Ohh wait, we can't fill the spots on the road, that will never happen.

Let's face it. As long as Largo has a revolving door and the young officers keep leaving, I will be getting more money. As long as Officers are staying and staffing becomes steady then retention will not be a factor when it come to our contract renewal.

If the senior Officers havn't been doing their jobs and talking the younger Officers into leaving then, "whats going on". I remember when 89 and 94 use to drill me about going to the SO, now you don't hear it so much.

I see why. People stay we get hosed in our contract. If people are leaving then we get more stuff and money. Those senior guys are smart!

Ex-LPD guys how about helping us out.