Lateral Recruiting - Contact

Hey guys and gals,

I'm a police officer in Central Florida. I used to live in Tallahassee, and I'm trying to convince my wife to move back. Does anyone have a contact email address for a recruiter? If you don't want to post it on here, I'll send you my email address. I looked on the website, and couldn't find anything directly on there. A couple questions for those of you that work for the department:

What is average take home for a patrol officer? What is the step plan like? I have three years full-time with my agency, so I believe I would be eligible for a step.

What is the shift schedule like? I work traffic right now, but I'd like to end up on permanent midnights regardless of assignment.

What is the hiring situation? Is the agency hiring and are there any talks of layoffs? I want to move back, but I don't want to lose my job shortly thereafter.

How long is FTO for laterals?

Thank you for your help. I like my agency, but it's getting to be family raising time, and this is not where I want to do it.

Contact Oscar Brannon, who is TPD's recruiting coordinator. I don't have his email or number, but call the main line (850) 891-4200, and ask for the recruiting department. If he isn't in, there are several others working in the office who can help you.

We do have a step program, which I believe is either 11 or 12 steps. With your experience, you should come in at a 3rd, or maybe even a 4th step. The starting pay is somewhere around 45k, but you will make more than that easily with overtime, and off-duty.

As far as shifts go, we currently work 4 days on, 3 days off. Their is dayshift 630-1430, afternoons, 1600-0200, and midnights 2100-0700. We do shift bid once a year, and it chosen by seniority. You can forget about dayshift unless you've got 10 plus years.

Our schedules just changed and are a little screwey. Afternoons work Tues-Fri, while the other rotation works Fri-Mon. You change rotations each month. Midnights work Mon-Thurs, and then Thurs-Sun. Midnights is becoming more popular since afternoon guys work every FrIday now. But with a few years of seniority, you shouldn't have much of a problem.

An FTO class just hit the streets this week, with somewhere around 20 new officers. They usually start an FTO class twice a year, May/June and December. We are not gaining any new positions, but always have openings due to retirements and officers leaving for new jobs. A lot will depend on your experience. If you come from a decent agency, they will put you on a dayshift FTO squad, and usually that is for less than a month. The purpose is to get familiar with the area, and the report writing program. Once you get solo, they put you whereever is needed, until the next shift allignment. So you might end up on dayshift when you go solo, until reallignment comes up.

Overall, I'm happy here right now. We have decent equipment that is all department issued. Have take home vehicles, which aren't the newest, but it is free. There is always lots of city overtime available, as well as off duty employment. The housing market is very stable up here, and we haven't seen the problems like the rest of Florida. So give the recruiter a call, I'm sure he can answer more than me!