SUPPORT YOUR OFFICERS

Thank you Guest On The Inside for speaking the truth. If more people realized what the truth was, they would not be opposed to the idea of a possible merger of police services. The city does not have a problem paying Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue for fire services instead of having the Volunteer Fire Department that it used to have. So why should there be a problem with contracting with the Broward Sheriff's Office for police services.

All this coming from officers with no loyalty to the residents. The Drops boys get to start over, thats who started this whole thing. The few left over guys from the old school crew that are close to retiring. They are jealous of the double dippers and trying to find a new angle. The price for BSO will rise just not at first. They suck you in with a low price at first then jack it up and your stuck. Taxes will not get lower and these officers don't give a shit anyway. They already ***** and moan, let them leave if they dont like it. Funny thing is they wont or cant because if could they would have. This city is small, 2 square miles or so, the crime is not that bad. These officers know that, less work less danger more hang time. Remember the Delta unit who hungout and watched Idol. These officers ***** at every turn, contract negotiations, now this! If BSO comes in these same *****y officers will still be here and find something new to complain about. The real problem is the city manager has no balls and the HR broad sucks and is lazy. BSO wont fix that! BSO won't come in and magically, more patrol units, more officers. It does not work like that. uniforms change, car colors change, same officers still here doing the same amount of work they do now. DONT BE FOOLED OR BULLIED

Another bit of misinformation- Again from someone that obviously does not know the officers personally. The DROP boys as you call them are not the ones that got screwed in this last contract. It was the younger ones who now get NO STEPS. These are the ones you so badly want to keep. Check with them - these are the ones looking for other jobs. But being young and some even on probation they are not broadcasting their intentions as loudly- but be forewarned they will leave. Ask them when they are off duty and can talk about it. They are making 47-48K a year while the friends that graduated the police academy with them are at other agencies making 60-70K a year.
The drop boys know they have to leave and are staying till the end to build their Drop fund before they take advantage of the contacts they have made over the years and move on to other agencies. You also have the retired FLPD boys. These guys are coming close to the end also. They came to do 6 years for their second pension with FRS- well guess what their 6 years is coming close and they will be gone soon too. Then who will be left at WMPD???

As to the claim about no crime- Get real and get the facts. WM has a high crime rate per capita and per the number of officers compared to the rest of Broward County. Just because we aren't on the news every day doesn't meant there aren't numerous burglaries, robberies, batteries/agg batteries etc occurring every day.
Fortunately (or unfortunately if you look at that way) a lot of the stuff going on in our city is already handled by BSO. They already handle Traffic Homicide, they handle all deaths in the city (our DB is too small and too busy). They come in and do our DUI's.
Gang problems are handled by BSO Gang unit- you know- the guys that were at the Publix on Dixie the other day with hoods over their faces. Our drug issues (the big suppliers -not the locals caught in their cars every day with small amounts) are handled by a task force- again not WMPD officers. And you are crazy if you don't know there is a major drug problem in the city. You are paying a pretty penny in taxes now for your 2 to 3 officers on the street who go take the burglaries, deal with the domestic disturbances and the drunks on Wilton Drive every night.
BSO isn't perfect either but they will have more to offer the citizens for their dollar.

To all your points if we get all the BSO perks without the contract who needs them. Let the young guys go if they want there is more to fill there shoes. Why did the young guys come here to begin with? BSO and trash that it brings is not worth it. All the crime in the city is because we have slugs waiting to retire and get hired again. Go to BSO if you dont like it here. Oh I forgot they wont hire you. Why is that? Again the guys stay the same on the colors of uniforms and cars change. We are still suffering from the last chief and all the trash he brought. BSO trash is worse than FLPD trash. We should keep our own trash it's not broke. :cop:

Thats where you are mistaken- there are no new young officers to replace the younger officers that leave. Why do you think we have all the openings. Some of the young ones that are here now were hired while they still had STEPS in the contract. A couple others were LIED TO by HR and didn't find out that there were no steps until after they started the job. We have people contact us all the time about jobs- some even put in applications but withdraw them once they find out the steps are gone. Check with the PD members involved in the hiring process, they will tell you about the quality of current applicants. Except for one young man who wants to leave his $10.00 an hour security job the rest are failing the polygraphs and psychological exams. And the one guy in the process is friends with a current employee who is in the process of getting ready to leave (already got a conditional offer from another agency). This new guy is going to work here for a short period of time until he moves on too. So- the first four months he's here and a noncontributing officer (as a trainee going through FTO he will not count as manpower and you are paying him $47,000 a year while you train him) and by the time he can be used properly he will also be looking for another job.

I dont see it the same way. The are officers to be hired. They made be openning but Fort Lauderdale as of Friday had 6. Its hard to find clean cut folks and many paly grades these days. Are you saying that you rate the same as a $10..00 dollar an hour job with no heath insurance, no FRS, no sick time, no vacatiuon time, no take home car and alot more. Lets be real here. OK yes many places pay more but thats a choice. If one leaves you hire another like any PD. If its so bad then why are not even those with time here going to sign up with BSO or PBSO? Same FRS but they dont. This is a CHICK game and the city can same lots of money with keeping its force. Lets see how many really leave and how many wont take it. You may also want to know most cites get only 1% of folks that even make it to the poly. Nice BS again Chuck

Thats where you are mistaken- there are no new young officers to replace the younger officers that leave. Why do you think we have all the openings. Some of the young ones that are here now were hired while they still had STEPS in the contract. A couple others were LIED TO by HR and didn't find out that there were no steps until after they started the job. We have people contact us all the time about jobs- some even put in applications but withdraw them once they find out the steps are gone. Check with the PD members involved in the hiring process, they will tell you about the quality of current applicants. Except for one young man who wants to leave his $10.00 an hour security job the rest are failing the polygraphs and psychological exams. And the one guy in the process is friends with a current employee who is in the process of getting ready to leave (already got a conditional offer from another agency). This new guy is going to work here for a short period of time until he moves on too. So- the first four months he's here and a noncontributing officer (as a trainee going through FTO he will not count as manpower and you are paying him $47,000 a year while you train him) and by the time he can be used properly he will also be looking for another job.

All you guys waiting to retire go to BSO. They have the same FRS. Oh you cant pass their poly or phsyc! The truth hurts. GO then else where then, NO loss here. You cant though. I will agree that HR is a big problem. She really sucks.

Since I know I wont get anywhere on the BSO thing with a few of you, I have another idea.

1.Get the Commission to renegotiate the contract in good faith and put the steps back in.

2.Hire and fill the 5 or 6 empty sworn positions.

3. Hire and fill the Accredidation manager position.

4.Hire and fill the Administrative manager position.

5. Restart the traffic unit- You know hire extra guys for those position and devote them to it. Buy some motorcycles- they're cheaper than cars too.(so you can save some money there) Remember when the PD had motors and a traffic unit. Now all that income from all those tickets they wrote is gone too.

5.Plan ahead and start the process early to fill the positions for the officers that will be leaving due to the drop, plus the one turning 65 years old.

6 Find the $250,000 to $300,000 that is needed for dispatch that the city says they don't have and do it without cutting it from other parts of the PD budget.

Sounds like you want to keep your PD so plan on paying up. You've been saving hundreds of thousands of dollars running the PD short. Oh I forgot just like BSO fees will go up so will the cost of running a city PD without cutting everything to the bone the way the city has been doing lately.

You seem to think it's not broke- well it is- so fix it.

WOW, Einstein has a great idea. Why didn't anyone else think of this. People don't know that its all a planned event by the City Officials to bank $$$ at the expense of the citizens safety and at the expense of officer safety. BSO would never let this happen. More COPS from the GLBT community would be hired and also a better rapport with the community.

How about those 12 hours shifts and every other weekend off. That will never happen. Is there a Sgt opening? Anyone looking fwd to that? Not anytime soon I hope. What happens with the city when the ONLY 2 COPS are tied up on a car crash or an alarm. That rights, those COPS are eager to take the next call and next call, because they are so short handed. Keep stacking those calls. Can't wait till 11/28. Its good to be a resident in WM and good to be a WM cop.