Top earner at State Police made $431k last year (tax, law)

[recycled]

There was a recent scandal with overtime pay at MA state police:

https://www.wbur.org/news/2020/07/10...dal-discipline

I wonder if the state police contract pays them double time after a certain number of hours worked per week? If so, some might push their OT hours up in certain weeks to get into double time. I wonder how many of the top tier earners are in their last 5 years of work before retirement. Many public employee pensions are calculated using the last 5 work years of wages to determine the pension amount. Then, depending on years of service, they might receive an annual pension equal to 60 to 80 percent of the annual average of the last 5 work years.

[bostongymjunkie]

Originally Posted by recycled

There was a recent scandal with overtime pay at MA state police:

https://www.wbur.org/news/2020/07/10...dal-discipline

I wonder if the state police contract pays them double time after a certain number of hours worked per week? If so, some might push their OT hours up in certain weeks to get into double time. I wonder how many of the top tier earners are in their last 5 years of work before retirement. Many public employee pensions are calculated using the last 5 work years of wages to determine the pension amount. Then, depending on years of service, they might receive an annual pension equal to 60 to 80 percent of the annual average of the last 5 work years.

Have not sifted through their CBA but can almost guarantee that's not the case. As for state pensions, they are based on highest 3 years of base salary excluding OT. In short, promotions can help your retirement but how much OT you work has no bearing. But when your annual salary is 150-200K, your OT rate is not shabby. Add night shift differentials to some of the salaries, education bonuses etc. Some positions get 4 hours of OT to respond outside normal shift whether you work 4 hours or not. Doesn't take much to add up. I do believe their CBA places a cap of something like 80 total weekly hours.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by MtPleasantDream

In Massachusetts every construction site requires police monitoring, which generates a lot of work hours.

I'd be curious as to what the breakdown between privately funded details (private construction projects, movie/tv filming, concerts, sporting events, festivals, etc.) vs. taxpayer funded details (i.e. highway construction) is. I'm sure there are more public details, but I wouldn't be surprised if a significant chunk were private. The private ones are typically funded by the organization requiring the detail (i.e. the Patriots pay for details on game days, not the state/town) rather than via taxpayer dollars.

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by bostongymjunkie

The less cops you have, the more OT that's available.

I've always found that strange. Surely, paying some additional bodies base pay + benefits must cost less than paying all of these existing employees time and a half?

Are there people lining up to be policemen though? I'm sure not every office is earning $200K+ and it is a bit of a high risk job. Also, it seems like every single business is short staffed right now. I wouldn't be surprised if it's hard to find policemen too.

Originally Posted by newenglandgal123

As many as their creatively crafted time sheets desire.....https://www.masslive.com/police-fire...ng-guilty.html

One thing this article fails to mention is the current employment status of the officers involved. I would hope they've all been fired.

Originally Posted by simplexsimon

No idea what the standard is for hours per week nor what the OT multiplier is but assuming base pay is based on 40 hours every week and OT is 1.5x, it looks to be about 70 hours per week.

70 hours is certainly a long work week. That's almost like working two jobs. $400K/year is a pretty good income though.

Originally Posted by MtPleasantDream

In Massachusetts every construction site requires police monitoring, which generates a lot of work hours.

I've always thought this was totally ridiculous. I mean . . . how much skill does it take to direct traffic? Crossing guards do it every morning at schools all over the state and they're not policemen. Many other states just use low paid flagmen who are part of the construction crew and that should be fine here as well. Chances are the police union will never allow that to be changed though. It's too much of a cash cow for them. It's definitely a situation of swatting a fly with a sledgehammer though. You don't need someone who's paid that much or is as highly trained as a police officer performing that job.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by MikePRU

Are there people lining up to be policemen though? I'm sure not every office is earning $200K+ and it is a bit of a high risk job. Also, it seems like every single business is short staffed right now. I wouldn't be surprised if it's hard to find policemen too.

Some PD's retain folks who have retired to work details as they don't have enough officers to spare. I dunno if you've ever driven by a small town construction site and seen an officer well into his 60's working the detail, but they are likely this reserve force that gets offered details when regular full-time officers are not available.


I used to work in construction on state works for over 10 years. As a result, i got to witness a lot about how details works, and some of the corruption. For the record, it was not widespread, but it was certainly there. I've told a few stories on this board when the detail scandal news broke a few years back. I was actually surprised it took that long.


BUT, putting that corruption aside, i knew many young troopers who really soaked up as much OT as they can. They would work an 8 hour shift, then immediately come to our job site and work another true 8 hours on a detail. Rinse and repeat for the entire working week, plus they would usually pick up at least 1-2 details on the weekend. 100+ hour weeks on paper easy.... Granted, the details weren't hard, but you had to do something so sleeping in the cruiser wasn't an option most of the time (although it did happen). But if you had a cake detail, officers would line up and battle to claim them.

It's been a while since i've been in the trade so i'm not priivy to how it is now. For the record, not every officer was corrupt. It's a few bad apples that spoil the bunch. Vast majority I worked with were putting in the hours, but there were a few that definitely gamed the system. No idea what current hourly salaries are for troopers these days, but I could see how some could pull off hours like that.

Then there were the small towns that essentially extorted us into useless paid details...but we won't go there.

[Beachcomber4]

Originally Posted by MikePRU

I've always found that strange. Surely, paying some additional bodies base pay + benefits must cost less than paying all of these existing employees time and a half?

Are there people lining up to be policemen though? I'm sure not every office is earning $200K+ and it is a bit of a high risk job. Also, it seems like every single business is short staffed right now. I wouldn't be surprised if it's hard to find policemen too.




I've always thought this was totally ridiculous. I mean . . . how much skill does it take to direct traffic? Crossing guards do it every morning at schools all over the state and they're not policemen. Many other states just use low paid flagmen who are part of the construction crew and that should be fine here as well. Chances are the police union will never allow that to be changed though. It's too much of a cash cow for them. It's definitely a situation of swatting a fly with a sledgehammer though. You don't need someone who's paid that much or is as highly trained as a police officer performing that job.

Police shortages are a thing.

Details are paid by the company who hires the services of that agency. This is not a cash cow for the unions. Many of those jobs are taxpayer funded which means the vendor is paid prevailing wage- aka big $. Let's face it, if police details were dumped in favor of lower priced flagpersons (assuming you can even get someone to take that job) prevailing wage laws would be next to go. So it is not just police unions who have a vested interest in this.

And without details and the ability to make that extra money, it would be even more difficult to find cops to fill those uniforms.

[msRB311]

I think before whoever the highest paid cop was it was due to a settlement or backpay. Not sure if that's the case here but it isn't necessarily because someone worked their ass off for OT or stole either.

[bostongymjunkie]

Originally Posted by MikePRU

I've always found that strange. Surely, paying some additional bodies base pay + benefits must cost less than paying all of these existing employees time and a half?

Are there people lining up to be policemen though? I'm sure not every office is earning $200K+ and it is a bit of a high risk job. Also, it seems like every single business is short staffed right now. I wouldn't be surprised if it's hard to find policemen too.

Even at close to full staffing it is generally less costly to do OT than have surplus sworn personnel on the books, however as most people are aware PD's are not anywhere near full staffing these days. No, people are not lining up to be cops, hence the dire shortage. The command staffers are into the hundreds of thousands per year, which is who was referenced along with a SGT. A trooper with more than 5 years can easily be at or around 100+ which also adds up at the OT rate plus other cash perks.

[msRB311]

This argument happens every year (sometimes a few times a year) on this forum. Hiring more cops is more expensive than having the ones already there just work more and do more OT. You have to give them base pay, insurance and other benefits and a pension.

Same thing happens in corporate offices with people just collecting more work instead of creating new positions for extra work.

[bostongymjunkie]

Originally Posted by msRB311

This argument happens every year (sometimes a few times a year) on this forum. Hiring more cops is more expensive than having the ones already there just work more and do more OT. You have to give them base pay, insurance and other benefits and a pension.

Same thing happens in corporate offices with people just collecting more work instead of creating new positions for extra work.

It's less costly and more practical because unlike most private sector positions, public safety agencies must run 24/7 at all times and with a completely unpredictable mission. That means sick calls, unexpected emergencies, special events etc, all of which increase and decrease at unexpected intervals. That means OT will usually be the best option to address those irregular situations or stack the deck with costly full time personnel who could potentially ave little to do at certain times. Not to mention that they can't even recruit to regular staffing right now.