Hiring Freeze

So no new hires for a few months at least, PCSO is saying past October. When is 99 going back to the road?

Put yourself in the position of the person in charge of the chessboard. Would you let 99 go back to the road? Little eye candy for the office. Say what you will about the chief, he's not blind.

eye candy? not really. Nice but not all that........

Whatever impression she makes, the recruiter position is not necessary at this time.

Whatever. The word is we're losing 5 officers to attrition? She should be back on the road, along with the Poptarts. If we get to hire again, she can do that 1 day a week. The road shouldn't have to have the same numbers streeted as years ago when we are so fat in other places. Officer safety should be our priority. We shouldn't proudly say, we've got minimum staffing.

The city will use amendment 1 as an excuse to cut more and more from our budget. They have absolutely NO understanding of what we actually do or how serious our shortage of officers really is. They just do not care. Look at the city commission agendas...they have absolutely nothing to with with Police or Fire. The truth of the matter is that having a police department is very very expensive. If you want to be taken as a real city and be looked at seriously...its going to cost.

point in fact...on midnights the average number of officers copying calls is what...6?..SIX. They count K9 and Sgt's in the staffing numbers but those two groups do not take paper calls. So if you have SIX officers watching out for a community of 80 thousand....just think about that for a minute. That means that you can handle a whopping 3 calls a night if they are routine. Less if its a serious call involving more. God forbid you have 2 or more emergencies at the same time. Its sad when you get broke from a physical domestic to go to a person with a weapon call...the second you calm the situation down you get called to another physical fight only to get broke for something more serious.

I heard some citizens on a call say that they read the LEO affairs boards and it seems like all pinellas county departments do is complain about staffing, equipment, and our pay....hmm. If you have the majority of the law enforcement all say the same thing...could it be that it might just be a problem? We have officers risk their lives and their futures for people that will not even waste spit on us. We do it for low pay that the majority of us live paycheck to paycheck on. We do it because we love the job and have a decent retirement. Then you hear people say "the private sector does not have........" Well the private sector does not do what we do every day. PCSO, CPD, SPPD, PPPD, LPD...we all complain about the same things....why doesnt someone in charge listen?

Exactly. And 99 should go back to the road.

Exactly. And 99 should go back to the road.

Moving 99 won't help very much. 99 is just one officer. We need about 20 more on the road, and probably another 5-10 in ISD.

And no, I'm not talking about moving people around from POP or wherever. I'm talking about actual positions.