Comments on Advance Indiana™: Nothing Has Really Changed At IMPD

All this and the Mayor slinks away without comment...

2009-06-29T21:37:57.315-05:00

All this and the Mayor slinks away without comment again. Mayor McCheese would be more quotable and qualified.

I have no problem with take home cars for our police officers. The one that sits across the street from my house deters crime, I believe. Plus, I would hate to deny our public safety officers this perk. It's a pretty thankless job protecting us. The least we can do is pay for this benefit. Just my opinion.

Simple solution? Leave the car at the station. The...

2009-06-29T08:36:43.866-05:00

Simple solution? Leave the car at the station. The majority of citizens drive their own vehicle to and from work. I don't think it's to much to ask our public servants to do the same.

Are we going to increase their pay anymore? If I were a younger officer just starting out at IMPD, and I was willing to move, I would be looking at Columbus, OH PD. Why work for $55K/year and no take home vehicle when you can end up making $64K/year and no take home vehicle by moving three hours east on I-70?

#2: The idea of take home cars is something that c...

2009-06-28T23:13:26.764-05:00

#2: The idea of take home cars is something that could be dealt with by doing a month long study of just how much gas an officer needs on their shift and then driving too and from work. Cap the monthly allowance on the gas cards and officers will be required to pay for gas after that. Not being able to work because you used up all your gas allowance and it is only the 21st of the month wouldn't be an acceptable excuse.

I don't agree with your idea here. How can you determine how much gas a police car uses? What if a high speed chase occurs? What if an officer is detailed to escorting a prisoner back from a municipality outside of Marion Co.? There are to many variables in play here. Simple solution? Leave the car at the station. The majority of citizens drive their own vehicle to and from work. I don't think it's to much to ask our public servants to do the same.

Incidentally, NIFS paid $50 an hour for off-duty c...

2009-06-28T15:37:38.616-05:00

Incidentally, NIFS paid $50 an hour for off-duty cops.

That is the highest off-duty pay I have ever heard of. Yes, some of the race details pay $100, and you may only work two hours, but then again depending on your intersection, you might work four hours.

If NIFS was paying that much, they only have themselves to blame. They should have been revoking memberships and stopping the pay-per-day fee where they allowed non-members to come in to use the facilities.

Incidentally, NIFS paid $50 an hour for off-duty c...

2009-06-28T13:46:11.753-05:00

Incidentally, NIFS paid $50 an hour for off-duty cops.

I noticed the story mentioned nothing about the NI...

2009-06-28T09:40:46.577-05:00

I noticed the story mentioned nothing about the NIFS' case, which the City quietly settled to avoid damaging disclosures from discovery in that case. Curiously, IMPD didn't want to give up information about who was working off-duty at NIFS and which officers were working undercover at NIFS. Note that officers were also given free memberships at NIFS, which I'm sure they didn't declare as income.

They pretend to believe that police officers will ...

2009-06-28T09:10:13.265-05:00

They pretend to believe that police officers will lose their off-duty work if the additional fee is imposed, something that hasn't happened in other major cities that have done it.

IMPD will lose some off-duty gigs. There are other LE agencies that can be used that won't bill the extra costs to the companies. Secondly, a good % of these companies will likely stop hiring off-duty officers. I don't think it will be because of the pay issue, but more of who they get working for them. If your getting a different officer every weekend in Broad Ripple, some employers may not like that and just decide it isn't worth the hassle.

All I know is that if the downtown and Broad Ripple bar associations (or whoever is doing the hiring) stops hiring those officers, the districts are going to have to cover the incidents with on-duty beat officers. Those areas usually have heavy run volume Fri night into Sat. and then Sat. into Sunday. When I lived in Broad Ripple, I used to see at least six off-duty police working the area. I was happy that private companies (or maybe associations) were footing the bill instead of taxpayers.

To me, the city should already have rules in place to limit their expense.

#1: They give the officers a uniform allowance. If an officer is working so much, that they burn through their uniform allowance within a short time, it should be up to the officer to pay for additional needs out of their own pocket. If they don't, and they are wearing dirty, torn, etc. type clothing and equipment to work, they should face discipline charges.

#2: The idea of take home cars is something that could be dealt with by doing a month long study of just how much gas an officer needs on their shift and then driving too and from work. Cap the monthly allowance on the gas cards and officers will be required to pay for gas after that. Not being able to work because you used up all your gas allowance and it is only the 21st of the month wouldn't be an acceptable excuse.

I would like to see the liability waivers, if any, these other cities use. I know a lot of businesses are going to really look at these things. They may feel that the city is trying to put all the liability on the business, and thus they will just use 911 when they need something instead of hiring an officer to be right there for x number of hours on the weekend.

Lastly, some officers won't want to work certain over-time assignments. As it stands now, an IMPD officer is making $55K/year+take home care (worth $5K/year)+over-time here and there (court, special details, etc). So say they are walking out the roll call door making $65K/year. If your an individual making that kind of money and you still need a part-time job, you are living way above your means. Maybe if the officer had a family of a non-working wife and two kids, yea that kind of money wouldn't be that great, but I know officers who are married to spouses making anywhere from $35K-$70K. So depending on the lifestyle of these officers working off-duty, we could see a good portion just refuse to take the work.

It would be interesting to see what comes of this. The off-duty gigs that I know of pay anywhere from $20-$35/hour. Sometimes the officer gets the full amount paid for via a check from the company, sometimes they are working as independent contractors and the person who owns the security business takes a cut per hour. Given that, I don't know of any company paying over $35/hour for off-duty. If you go with the over-time + fee plan, the costs will be $49.66/hour (this is over-time rate for a 1st class officer plus the $10 hour fee). So businesses could see costs go up significantly...most likely will just pass on hiring off-duty and just use 911 and on-duty cars for any issues that arise.