Good department?

Just curious, as a whole, is the ECSO a good place to work? What is the call volume like and how is morale?
Thanks in advance.

Well, you just opened up a can of worms. Let me run through things in a bulletted list, although I'm sure every point will be argued by somebody.

Good things...

Supervisors generally do not stand over your shoulder constantly. If you do your job and show you are trustworthy, you are left alone.

The pay isnt bad...starting almost 33k if you have a year of experience.

Equipment is fairly good. Cars are traded out around 100-130k miles, and officers with a couple years experience rarely keep their car past 60-70k miles before they are given a new one and theirs goes to a rookie. Sidearms are issued, although they are older Sigs. Most people who want a RADAR get one.

The department has lots of places to transfer to when you get tired of patrol...investigations, air unit observers, dive team, swat, traffic, FTOs, K9, etc.

We have FRS (Florida Retirement System) which is pretty good...you contribute nothing, and at 25 years, regardless of age, you retire with 75% of the average of your highest 3 years pay.


Now the bad things....

LOTS of politics. If you want to come here, know how to keep your mouth shut and stay out of the way of people who matter.

Although I mentioned the starting pay was ok, it doesnt progress very quickly. Your first raise (other than a yearly 3% cost of living) isnt until you hit 10 years. Then another at 15 and another at 20 years. If you are a decent officer (and stay on the brass's good side) you may make Sgt. in 5-10 years.

The city has a small, albeit vocal group of people who think everything is a conspiracy, every inmate who dies in the jail was murdered, every officer is corrupt, etc. Every place has those people, but here seems to e more than most, probably because the politics I mentioned earier has burnt more people than normal. Whiel this groups antics are annoying, they rarely amount to more than a blurp in the newspaper.


Overall, I feel the department is a 7 out of 10. Not as progressive as I would like (ideas seem to hit here about 3-5 years after they hit everywhere else) but lots of potential for an intelligent person who stays motivated.

Deputy, that has to be one of the best posts I've seen on the site in a long time. There are problems, but that will be true wherever you go. The job of a law enforcement officer is directed by the laws of the State and the US Constitution. If you stay true to both, you will have no problems. If you allow yourself to be drawn into the power plays and politics, you will be at the whim and mercy of those in power, and those looking to be in power. We do have a very vocal anti-cop minority around here. This is partially due to the area demagraphics and basic low economy, but it is mostly due to the above mentioned power plays. Being a cop is not and will never be a finacially upward carreer choice. You can make much more driving a truck, but if you really want it, it is the best job out there. Good luck....
***For all the disgruntled and burned out, don't bother slamming this post. You will not get a response from me***

An open honets view of the Sheriff's office. Very refreshing and very accurate.

Few wrong things:

1. You dont make 33k I have been here 10 years and still dont make that.
2. Transfer if you are on the fair haired list, if not you will die in patrol
3. New car, again I have been here 10 years and never gotten a new car, slightly used with 20k at best.

As much criticisim as there has been about the current administration, the response by "Deputy" to the original question is on target but could have been written 25 years ago. His/her response could have mimicked what was going on back then.

I don't write this in support of or to criticize the current admin. I'm only pointing out that things haven't changed much.

There will always be politics. There will always be disgruntled employees. The disgruntled employess remain the same, no matter who is in office; it never takes them long to hate the candidate that they supported during the last election.

This is the nature of the beast. Maybe someday we'll be able to do our jobs without the politics, without the jealousy, without the backstabbing to get ahead, without the need to control.

Should that ever happen, perhaps we'll be able to serve the public the way that most of us hoped we could when we started our law enforcement careers. Damn, wouldn't it be nice to be a rookie forever.

Don't know if the poster who wrote Few Wrong things is posting in the right forum or what but he is wrong. Minimum Pay for a Deputy Sheriff is 32,900. If you've been here for 10 years your base should be around 35-36,000 with your first carrer path step (5%) as well as 2 longevity steps (another 4%). So in reality you probably make about 40,000. I don't have a clue why you said you don't even make 33000. If that is true go to personnel immeadiately. I am sure its not.

Another good thing about our department is side jobs. They only pay $19.00 (it's supposed to go up soon :roll: )but you get it all. No fees to the Sheriff. And they are pretty much unlimited as many as we have. You're allowed to work up to 70 hours total a week so if you had the drive you could work 30 more hours of side jobs a week.

Quit smoking company pole; starting salary is not 32,900, its 28,800. The shurf abandoned the original 32,900 figure because he couldn't afford to pay deputies that salary AND his enormous admin pay raise budget. You see where the cut was made, don't you?

There are problems in every agency but usually there is growth in time and between different administrators. We actually went backwards...to roughly the mid 60's!

We do have a few progressive folks who want to shape the dept into a professional law enforcement agency but they're hamstrung by the redneck good old boys who have a death grip on everything. Anyone who challenges the stagnation is labeled a naysayer and troublemaker. Push too hard and you're left to languish until things change.

Keep your mouth shut, do as you're told no matter what/who you're told to do, look the other way and donate at strategic times and you're likely to succeed with the current regime. It's your choice, Mcnesby team player lemming or good person; you can't be both.

I love my job and expected some politics but its the worst its been in my 21 years. I can't, in good faith, recommend this dept to anyone.

Run, run, run to a dept where you will not be viewed as a parasite if you seek to uphold your oath and believe the law is to be applied equally to everyone no matter how much money they gave, which church they attend or where they hunt.

As I figured, the quabbling started right away, but regarding what our pay is, let me put this puppy to rest once and for all.

http://www.nwfpba.org/news1/article.nhtml?uid=10172

Deputies are "B23" on this scale. Granted, it is the "proposed" scale, but the proposed part is what the supervisors make. The deputy pay is the same.

And by the way, I've been here 4 years and after checking my goldenrod copy of my last pay increase, the one where the study gave us 5%, I make the listed 32,9K

With 4 sheriffs under my belt(Seely, Johnson, Lowman and Mcnesby) I've know a little about this department but obviously not as much as the deputy with 4 years experience who wasn't even employed at the time Mcnesby was first elected. Its what this agency has become, filled with rookies who know all the solutions and none of the history.

Must be a PBA board member. :roll:

First, I should point out that if you have any intelligence at all, you would know I am not a board member, nor am I a supervisor, because none of them have only 4 years here.

Second, you illustrate my points perfectly. The burnt out deputy who is simply too set in his ways to know it is time to be put out to pasture.

New here? Obviously, with only 4 years, I am newer than some. But my time here alone does not tell what I have to offer, and have already given. We "rookies" as you put it, may not have "4 sheriff's under our belt", but we know the history, and instead of dwelling on it, we look to the FUTURE to see what we can make of it. This is not your department anymore. The days of sitting back and *****ing are on the way out the door, right along with you. This is OUR department now, and we will accept the good with the bad, and make it the best we can with what we have.

And someone needs to pat you down and seize your crackpipe. Mcnesby has done nothing but cause hate and discontent for this department. He has continually screwed people out of pay raises and has driven well qualified people from this agency. Of course no one would expect someone with four years on to be unhappy. You are making decent money for your time served. What you need to understand is you are making about the same as someone who has put in 10+ years with the department and that is wrong no matter how you slice it. The pay scale does look nice on paper but unless you are friends with the sheriff and merit one of his special yearly raises I don't see how anyone can ever hope to even make mid grade pay. The department is what it is, a training ground for deputies to get their feet wet and then move on. The sheriff has ruined this place. Is Morgan the man to turn this around? I hope not especially after seeing who his main supporters are but I hope someone else will present themselves for the job.

Question for 4 year man/woman? McNesby has packed the office with almost two millions dollars (that’s a 2 with 6 zeros) worth of his political hatchet men and women after running a campaign promising that he was going to get rid of a million dollars worth of Lowmans appointees. Since you seem to be leaning on being a vocal “company man” and being a “stand up guy” for all that you have experienced in your long 4 year career, how can you be supportive of an administration that is wasting two million dollars that could be put to better use by providing more completive salaries?

Morale.....depends if you are worker bee or @$$ kisser. Worker bees are not entitled to have morale. Ass Kissers think the place couldnt be better and are hoping for 4 more years of this same crap.

I worked for Vince Seely for 7 years, Charlie Johnson 4 years, Jim Lowman 8 years, Ronnie McNebsy 6 years. The following list is my rankings of the Administrations in order from worst to best:
(1) Charlie Johnson
(2) Vince Seely second 4-year term
(3) Ronnie McNesby last 5 years and counting
(4) Jim Lowman second 4-year term
(5) Vince Seely first 4-year term
(6) Jim Lowman first 4-year term

From my perspective things are not getting better in this agency nor do I believe the current administration can solve the problems. I used to believe that things were what you made of them. I no longer think this way today after the past years of the McNesby adminstration.

I have stayed with ECSO only because I have lived in Escambia County all my life and I am almost ready to retire. The days cant come soon enough for me to depart from the agency.

If you have the opportunity to obtain employment elsewhere, I would highly recommend doing so. If this is the only place you can get your foot in the door, do so. Get you a year or two of experience and move on. While you are here, remember these words:
LOTS of politics. If you want to come here, know how to keep your mouth shut and stay out of the way of people who matter.
They will be very handy.

Rather perceptive ranking. However, in my opinion based on my years of experience, (about the same as yours), McNesby should be moved to the number 1 position and Bullet head to the number 2 spot. Charlie was just a “good old boy” who was in over his head and most of his mistakes and errors were due to ignorance. McNesby on the other hand goes out of his way to screw with the personnel just to show them how much power he has over them. The other reason is none of the others can come close comparing with the waste of resources and tax payers money that McNesby has a record of.

First, I should point out that if you have any intelligence at all, you would know I am not a board member, nor am I a supervisor, because none of them have only 4 years here.

Second, you illustrate my points perfectly. The burnt out deputy who is simply too set in his ways to know it is time to be put out to pasture.

New here? Obviously, with only 4 years, I am newer than some. But my time here alone does not tell what I have to offer, and have already given. We "rookies" as you put it, may not have "4 sheriff's under our belt", but we know the history, and instead of dwelling on it, we look to the FUTURE to see what we can make of it. This is not your department anymore. The days of sitting back and *****ing are on the way out the door, right along with you. This is OUR department now, and we will accept the good with the bad, and make it the best we can with what we have.

Oh Really???? What about Andy?????? Board member.HAS NOT BEEN HERE FOR 4 years... Get your sh*t together. PBA sucks!!!!!!!!!!!! what have they done for us?? Just wait.... they are kissing butt!!!!!!!!! You people that have been there for 20 years and could never make sgt. Your fixing to get yours. If Mcnesby has his way ( which PBA is going to give in) you'll be getting a WELL DESERVED 10% instead of 5% raise. You all make me puke!!!!!!!!!!

Then you are an idiot for not being involved yourself. Maybe if the 15+ year deputies would've stepped up and maintained the status quo instead of being lazy the 4 year deputies wouldn't be left holding the ball. You pose an excellent question. Why are you letting a 4 year deputy take a slot that you, with all your "experience", could fill?

Im still trying to figure out who had the great idea on paper that a 10 year deputy (DFC) makes $40,000 a year????? Im at 13 years and im just at 36,000?????? It always looks good on paper but what is a merit raise????? I guess thats why we have these yearly evaluations, too see the merit increase we never get.