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These are the minimum Qualifications for the NJ State Police Academy from the New Jersey State Police website.
Education
An applicant must have (1) a bachelor’s degree, signifying completion of the undergraduate curriculum and graduation from an accredited college or university or, (2) alternatively, an associate’s degree or have completed 60 college credits from an accredited college or university, plus at least two years of satisfactory employment or, (3) alternatively, have completed 30 college credits from an accredited college or university plus at least two years of active duty military service with an honorable discharge.
We are lucky enough to live in a free country that provides us with choices for what we do for a career. As a police officer it is pretty much accepted that when you to do your job people aren't going to like youvery much. Whether its a simple speeding ticket or a drug bust. I don't know to many engineers that are hated by half the people they work with. The decision to use deadly force or not, shouldn't be taken lightly. Personally I don't want to deal with drunk idiots, men beating their wives, rapists, and murderers. I would really hate dealing with small town jerks who think they are better than me, because I would taser his butt first, and lose my job.
Pulling over a car with the front windows tinted so you can't see inside would scare the crap out of me.
I like most people had a choice after high school, some of the reasons stated above shows why I wouldn't want to be any kind of cop, small town, Newark, or State.
Now that my rant is over, I can see where taxpayers of New Jersey are upset if police officers are making over $200,000.00 a year.
These are the minimum Qualifications for the NJ State Police Academy from the New Jersey State Police website.
Education
An applicant must have (1) a bachelor’s degree, signifying completion of the undergraduate curriculum and graduation from an accredited college or university or, (2) alternatively, an associate’s degree or have completed 60 college credits from an accredited college or university, plus at least two years of satisfactory employment or, (3) alternatively, have completed 30 college credits from an accredited college or university plus at least two years of active duty military service with an honorable discharge.
Kind of old topic but I have Ivy league education, always top of my class, very motivated, and my starting salary was $60k about 10 years ago. (Home prices were higher back then.) The cops I know graduated from local community collage and their starting salary was $125k and up... I am more physically fit than most of them too. Can I do their job? Well, it will be too easy and boring. Can they do my old job that paid $60k? No way. They won't last a day, or even an hour. And they get more than double my starting salary? Very ridiculous.
Quote:
We are lucky enough to live in a free country that provides us with choices for what we do for a career. As a police officer it is pretty much accepted that when you to do your job people aren't going to like youvery much. Whether its a simple speeding ticket or a drug bust. I don't know to many engineers that are hated by half the people they work with. The decision to use deadly force or not, shouldn't be taken lightly. Personally I don't want to deal with drunk idiots, men beating their wives, rapists, and murderers. I would really hate dealing with small town jerks who think they are better than me, because I would taser his butt first, and lose my job.
I don't think it's about free country, this is about a very corrupt system. About the job detail, I respect the garbage collectors far more than cops in my very boring town. They come to pick up the stuff we throw away in the rain or snow. Nobody likes the smell of others' garbage let alone touching them. Why shouldn't they make million bucks then? I had a chance to interact with a local detective recently and found that he had lots and lots of day offs, he almost operates at 3 work days/week. It was super hard to catch him, although he always texted back that he'd come back to me later. Is texting back counted as overtime? I later found his salary was "under" $200k, bit low compared to his peers in other town. Maybe that explains his lack of motivation to work. Maybe it's time for his raise now because he's hardly working at all.
Quote:
Pulling over a car with the front windows tinted so you can't see inside would scare the crap out of me.
I like most people had a choice after high school, some of the reasons stated above shows why I wouldn't want to be any kind of cop, small town, Newark, or State.
Now that my rant is over, I can see where taxpayers of New Jersey are upset if police officers are making over $200,000.00 a year.
We all have reasons to make $200k/year. But basically police job is a very easy, simple, and repetitive blue collar job where there are tons of people who qualify and happy to work at less than $100k/year. And police in most affluent towns don't even need to pull over the vehicle with tinted glasses any more than a guy pumping gas at the gas station in the same town. Talking about job hazard, guys pumping gas are exposed to harmful fumes all day, in addition to dealing with a mystery behind tinted glasses. Almost every blue collar work is dangerous some way or another.
Police officers that face dangerous working conditions (Newark, Camden, Trenton etc) should have higher salaries to compensate. Police officers in Morris and Somerset Counties (which has some of the highest salaries) shouldn't for literally sitting in a 7/11 and waiting for something minor to happen.
Kind of old topic but I have Ivy league education, always top of my class, very motivated, and my starting salary was $60k about 10 years ago. (Home prices were higher back then.) The cops I know graduated from local community collage and their starting salary was $125k and up... I am more physically fit than most of them too. Can I do their job? Well, it will be too easy and boring. Can they do my old job that paid $60k? No way. They won't last a day, or even an hour. And they get more than double my starting salary? Very ridiculous.
I call BS. Where exactly were cops starting at $125K+ 10 years ago?
So starting salary of $125k+ now is ok? For a rookie cop?
Let's start by establishing if the basis of your original statement is truthful, or a massive exaggeration. If you then want to provide evidence of today's starting salaries, please do...
I have some cop friends and none of them want to live near where they work. This whole 'vested interest' thing is a myth. Think about it. if your job was to collar criminals, would you really want to be doing it where you live? It's only a matter of time until someone has a vendetta against you and decides to hurt you by taking it out on you or even worse your family. On top of that, how awkward would it be for you to pull someone over for running a stop sign who ends up being your neighbor, your kids' teacher, or your kids' friend's parent?
If I was a cop, the last place I'd want to work is in the town I live in.
Let's start by establishing if the basis of your original statement is truthful, or a massive exaggeration. If you then want to provide evidence of today's starting salaries, please do...
Visit The Asbury Park Press NJ | New Jersey News | app.com and click "data universe" on the left, and click "N.J. Public Employees & Police". Just look for one of the big towns in north jersey, that's where my rookie friends work, and sort by salary. (police salary will be at the top portion). The total compensation there is not supposed to include overtime. They did not tell me their salaries in person. One of them proudly told me to look up app.com to find out. They did not start 10 years ago either, and they are very young, so I explained "home prices were higher 10 years ago" in my original post.
Visit The Asbury Park Press NJ | New Jersey News | app.com and click "data universe" on the left, and click "N.J. Public Employees & Police". Just look for one of the big towns in north jersey, that's where my rookie friends work, and sort by salary. (police salary will be at the top portion). The total compensation there is not supposed to include overtime. They did not tell me their salaries in person. One of them proudly told me to look up app.com to find out. They did not start 10 years ago either, and they are very young, so I explained "home prices were higher 10 years ago" in my original post.
OK, I looked up a pretty big north jersey town and found a cop that I know that has been on the force for 15-20 years and see a salary of $99K. I see some people paid more and see higher numbers in some towns, but no way can I tell what the "starting salary" is.
Yes they are paid too much. I think I read the avg salary for a police officer in NJ is in the low $80s. That is too much for unskilled labor and no, it tends not to be a dangerous job. And I have 3 or 4 cop friends and they all make much more than their base after ot, sick time and other nonsense is added up.
Don't get me wrong - I think it is a tough job just sitting in a car for a long period of time - dealing with a public that pretty much hates you and handing out summons....even working off hours is rough. I've done it.
There are also way too many cops in NJ - every little 12 block town has a police station with a chief, staff, admins etc.
If you drive around NJ a lot you see an amazing number of cars with badge stickers in the window and DUTY HONOR WHATEVER license plates.
NJ loves its big little gvmts and high taxes.
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