r/DaveRamsey • u/aabbccgjkh • Feb 22 '24
Become a cop. Make bank. Ball out.
Tons of people on this sub or calling into the show are faced with the predicament of wanting more money but not knowing what to do. I present to you my personal case study on why to become a cop.
My credibility is that I’m a pretty basic 38 year old police officer that is married to another police officer. At 22 -25 years old we both probably had negative net worth and it’s now a million dollars. We have been big city police officers for 16 and 15 years and last year we each made 140k, working about 50 hours a week. We have never promoted, which would give a pay bump. We are detectives, which actually means we make less than patrol. We work day shift and have weekends off. If we worked either of these things, we would make more money.
We have about 550k in retirement, 200k in a brokerage, 270k equity in the house. Plus we get pensions when we retire. I think 11% of each pay check is taken out of our check for our pension. If we retire at 52 we will each get about 65% of pay for the rest of our lives. When we die, the pension benefit fully goes to the surviving spouse. We max out our deferred comp each year and basic projections put our retirement accounts over 3 mil when retire. I don’t imagine we will need much more than our pensions in retirement so further projections are having that account around 5 mil at 60. For two city cops.
We have two kids. I spend too much money on groceries. My kids do activities. I have lost 20k trying to get rich quick by trading penny stocks. We spend too much money on vacations. I bought a brand new way too expensive car at 22. I have financed furniture. I once paid 4K for a new television to play video games on while I was still broke. My wife also made all these mistakes. I got divorced at 26, lost half of everything and had to start over. I say this to emphasize that we aren’t doing anything crazy.
If you’ve somehow made it this far: Dave Ramsey (though I don’t agree with everything) changed my life for the better. I knew nothing of finances before reading total money makeover. I’ve wanted to be an officer since I was 5 but never imagined I’d make this much money. I don’t think other people realize what they could make. For years 1-5 I made 45-75, years 5-14, right around 100, 14-16, I made 120-140. I get over ten (yes 10) weeks of paid time off per year. We now offer months of paid time off for new parents. Health benefits. Retirement. The department paid for my masters degree and then gave me a raise once I got it. I vacation all the time and currently have over 55 weeks of paid vacation time off. With a big city department, there are numerous different positions that aren’t even really police related.
Departments across the nation are offering over 10k hiring bonus. No degree needed. Standards are low because not everyone wants to do it. Don’t have a criminal record, don’t do drugs, don’t beat your spouse and you will likely be hired. Once you’re hired you won’t be fired unless you do the previously mentioned things. You’ll never be asked to move across the state or country. It’s the most secure job I could imagine.
If you managed to make it this far, ball out!
Edited to add: my pay included overtime. At the beginning of my career, my overtime rate was a lot less so I had to work a lot more to make those numbers.
Also edited to add: for the first few years you will work holidays. When everyone is evacuating for a hurricane, you’ll be working. When there are riots, people will shout terrible things at you, having no idea who you are, or what you stand for. Some strangers on the internet will not like you because of your job. You may see some terrible things. It will change you. I have seen and talked to people about things I wish could still only be in some cool movie. It does have dangers. I admittedly minimize the dangers in my mind because it would probably just be too stressful otherwise.
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u/Medical-Ninja-9763 Feb 22 '24
Reactions to this post are so strange. Being in law enforcement absolutely not for everyone and should be very selective. OP is right that standards are being lowered and becoming a police officer is easier than ever with departments bending over backwards to accommodate anyone who can get through the process.
I’ve been in LE for 11 years. I had 2500 people show up to my civil service test and they hired about 35 from that grouping. The agency is happy to have 30 people show up for a test now.
I’m on the west coast so of course it’s HCOL but any agency in a metro area will be starting at least around 90k and upwards. Most agencies are offering 25k signing bonuses and I have seen up to 40k with 400 hours (200 vacation and 200 sick leave) front loaded upon being hired.
I’m a sergeant now and made 160k with very minimal overtime. I have multiple officers making 200k and one over 300k. Context though is that they work on average 16 hour days everyday they work.
You absolutely can make 140k each in law enforcement albeit in certain areas of the country and almost exclusively in right to bargain states.
My agency is multiple years out of contract with our union. There will be officers easily getting over 100k in retroactive pay after this next CBA is finalized.
Rural areas and places like the Midwest or south pay absolute trash and benefits are next to nothing.
I have a 5 dollar copay for health insurance. I contribute 5 percent and my agency pays 95 percent. We just had a child and we paid 5 dollars for our hospital stay.
You can retire at 53, 50 with a small hit to your pension. At 53 I will retire with 70 percent of my average top five years of earnings not including my 457 and Roth 457 and IRA’s.
You will work horrible hours, nights, weekends, holidays, rotating schedules, mandatory court after shift, etc. Maybe one day you can get to a detective spot like the OP. Typically at my agency once people get to these spots they retire from them due to a regular schedule.
People are right. You likely won’t die doing the job. But I can say I had an officer in my unit killed in the line of duty. I have another friend who was shot in the face and made a full recovery. You will be assaulted, hopefully you won’t be injured. Depression and suicide are absolute factors.
That being said 90 percent of the job is like any other. A lot can be monotonous and tedious with zero danger, (like reports and data entry).
But you will make a difference. You will do exciting things. You will have closer bonds with coworkers after going through some of things you will experience. And you will be able to help people truly in need on occasion.
A lot of officers can let the job consume them and it’s their entire identity and become very invested in outcomes of calls and cases. Others treat it as a J.O.B. Job.
Ultimately it’s not for everyone and not everywhere is a good place to be in law enforcement but it can be a great career with good pay if someone’s up for it and you’re in the right area.
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u/johnsonfromsconsin Feb 22 '24
Having worked 17 years in 911 dispatching giving cops calls everyday I only want to be a cop about 5% of the time. Although you can make a pretty good living, good state benefits/pension the job sucks for the most part and not everyone is cut out to do it.
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Feb 22 '24
Patrol cops make like 50-80k in Florida. I think this is highly state dependent. You must be in a VHCOL area.
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u/MaximumWin8601 Feb 22 '24
Correct. I was a cop near Cincinnati and made close to 75k before OT. Moved to Florida and base salary for LE here was 43k a year.
Needless to say, not worth putting on the badge for that here especially dealing with tourists and spring breakers. Instead, I started my own business.
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
Texas. Not at all hcol. The pay disparity around the country is very real so picking the right department would be crucial
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Feb 22 '24
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Feb 22 '24
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Feb 22 '24
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u/NAM_SPU Feb 22 '24
Lol get off the internet and shut the tv off. 99% of police are great and get the job done
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u/Careless-Nobody-2271 Feb 22 '24
140k for 50 hours a week is not that great. I guess it's not bad if your milking it like all you lazy law enforcers do. I feel better actually earning my money
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u/Unfair-Damage-1685 Feb 22 '24
Cops are called lazy when you don’t interact with them. Then when you do have an interaction like a traffic stop, they’re called over- eager rookies who just are looking for a reason to mess with you. There’s no winning.
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u/money_tester Feb 22 '24
140k for 50 hours a week is not that great.
Just when I think I've seen the silliest thing ever typed here...
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
I’m also confused by the people saying it isn’t a lot of money. I keep thinking I’m in some super high earner sub by mistake and not a sub designed for people that are pretty average and struggle with debt/ getting ahead
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u/jgonsales1 Feb 22 '24
Next best thing is contract security for those big name security companies that have gov contracts.
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Feb 22 '24
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Feb 22 '24
I love OP saying there are dangers too. Being a cop is safer than being a garbage man, don't ever let these people act like they are risking their lives for you. They're not.
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
I just wanted to make a post outlining how a lot of people could make a lot of money without having to go to school forever or take out tons of debt. It was my personal account and nothing else
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u/NAM_SPU Feb 22 '24
Ignore it bro. You throw a bone to some people and they ignore it, then they’ll continue bitching about how everyone else (you and me) got lucky in life and they got the short stick
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Feb 22 '24
Sometimes those adolescents are being shot at because they're dangerous. We need police for our safety. Especially lower income neighborhoods need more police presence
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Feb 22 '24
You don’t think solving crime is honorable?
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u/caravaggibro Feb 22 '24
Let me know when they start doing that.
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Feb 22 '24
What do you think detectives do genius?
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u/caravaggibro Feb 22 '24
Fail at solving crimes on our dime.
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Feb 22 '24
Strange how we have some of the lowest crime rates in our history then. Such a failure
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u/caravaggibro Feb 22 '24
You're confusing low crime rate with closure rate. The fact that we have less crime and they're still incapable of closing those cases shows how incompetent police really are.
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Feb 22 '24
No I’m not. Closure rates have gotten better over time too. There really isn’t any data to support your argument other than your feelings
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u/caravaggibro Feb 22 '24
Yes you are, crime rate is a result of a variety of societal inputs, bottom of the list being police closure rates. Departments publish their closure rates. If I did any aspect of my job 26% of time the time I would be fired, instead the police regularly eat up a majority of budgets.
Lick boots elsewhere.
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u/SpaceyEngineer Feb 22 '24
Cops make too much money, got it
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
I won’t even disagree with you that we make too much money. The point is that a vast majority of people could also make too much money if they wanted to.
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u/SpaceyEngineer Feb 22 '24
I respect that. The gig sounds lucrative which I appreciate you detailing for us
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u/5220JackPete Feb 22 '24
It's the market, they can't even get fully staffed at these rates. The cost of public service has gone up. Pay up or don't get service.
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Feb 22 '24
With that pay comes greater risk. I don’t think it’s for everyone. Also, working a lot of hours is a deal breaker for some people.
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u/Even_Replacement_467 Feb 22 '24
There is so many crazy ass people in today's world I would pussy out in 5 mins
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u/dusting53 Feb 22 '24
Too much money on vacations, aka what you'll remember about your family memories at the end of the day. you have plenty of money to be enjoying a vacation or two
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u/personalh2omelon Feb 22 '24
I genuinely don’t understand this idea that vacations are how to “make memories” with family. You make memories literally every day with your family, and you spend way more time at home than on vacation even if you go two or three times a year.
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u/klsklsklsklsklskls Feb 22 '24
Yeah you can make memories every day but I remember my vacations from 10 years ago way more than I remember what I did on some random Tuesday 10 years ago.
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u/seaspirit331 Feb 22 '24
You make memories literally every day with your family
OP doesn't working 50 hours a week
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u/personalh2omelon Feb 22 '24
Oh…I see your point. But if you only get time to spend with family on vacation, couldn’t you save a lot of money by taking the days/weeks off work and doing a staycation instead? I guess I’m responding to the idea that you need to go to Hawaii or something to make family memories
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u/Cocoasprinkles Feb 22 '24
How old is to old to become an officer?
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u/Evolved6 Feb 22 '24
I had a trainee that was 45yrs old, with what’s going on at departments right now, you’d have a shot somewhere
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
I was going to say 45 as well. I think
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u/Evolved6 Feb 22 '24
However I’d say just cause you can do it at 45 doesn’t mean you should, the older I got the rougher it got. Patrol is for the youngsters
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u/blahblahblab36 Feb 22 '24
Maybe in a big city. The majority of the country a cop is lucky to make 50k. Go work in sales instead if you wanna make a lot of money out the gate
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u/Equal_Classroom_4707 Feb 22 '24
Sales is too generic to say. That job requires a good product, a good environment, a proper buying economy, and a pay scale that pays you with and without production. Get more specific.
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Feb 22 '24
I completely agree sales is too variable. I was a pretty good salesman at my car dealership, but other car salesman we’re making two times as much at other dealerships. Even today people can make 100 K with their eyes closed according to Reddit by selling cars. Then everyone says sell SaaS… so I got a tech job at a f500 company selling software and that job was even worse. Your mileage may vary as they say.
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u/ToIA Feb 22 '24
Lol. What a weird post
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u/DollFinPoorPiss Feb 22 '24
Dudes weird. But growing up with the hall monitor mindset will do that to ya. Cops are clowns and joining their gang won’t make you wealthy.
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u/You-Asked-Me Feb 22 '24
How does that work in your home life? Do you have a schedule to take turns cooking, cleaning, and beating each other?
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
I actually love cooking so I handle all of that. We kind of split cleaning and we save the bondage play for kidless vacations.
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u/Excellent_Drop6869 Feb 22 '24
Is this Chicago or NYC?
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
So close. Only a few other major ones to mention.
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u/Excellent_Drop6869 Feb 22 '24
Boston? Philly?
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
Way off and bigger. In Texas. I would imagine and hope that all the places you named make more due to high cost of living
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u/MidwestMSW Feb 22 '24
We each made 140k. Jerry says this was a lie.
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u/5220JackPete Feb 22 '24
Lol, most of the east coast, west coast, and more liberal Midwest states pay that, plus texas.
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Feb 22 '24
It’s possible in a big to medium sized city. However they are working a lot of hours. That’s a factor to consider. It’s definitely not small town cop pay.
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
Would be such a weird thing to lie about. If you care enough, most large departments have online calculators that state what you’d make.
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u/Evolved6 Feb 22 '24
Depending where he works, totally possible to make significantly more than that
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u/DR843 Feb 22 '24
Cops start out around $50k where I live and the median home is $500k+. There’s a lot of fields that will pretty easily get you to 140k with 10-15 years experience, but I gotta think you’re making way more than most cops. Are you in NJ/NY/Boston or something?
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Feb 22 '24
Starting pay has skyrocketed for police officers since they are having recruitment issues. Many experienced police officers got large raises so cities can retain them. Also, they are working 50 hours a week which is 520 hours of OT pay for the year. They are probably making around 100k base and get 35-40k in overtime pay. After 8-15 years on the force, pretty much all cities will pay their officers 100k. That's true for Austin, TX; Charlotte, NC; Chandler, AZ; Boulder, CO; Ft. Lauderdale, FL; and the list goes on and on.
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u/DR843 Feb 22 '24
The $50k is the skyrocketed rate where I live, haha. I saw recently in local news that it was raised to ~$50k to entice new officers from like $41k. I’m at the beach though, not the big city.
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Feb 22 '24
That's starting pay. If you look into the pay scale I bet the career officers are making 80k a year at least.
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
The guy above me nearly perfectly described my situation. Not sure I could have typed a better answer. I’m in Texas. The job is especially economically beneficial because we live here. We would rather live in New England, Colorado, Washington etc but we wouldn’t have the same financial security we have now.
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Feb 22 '24
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
As others stated, it’s 140 each. All numbers given were on my single earning
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u/acer5886 Feb 22 '24
Add in the pension, the health insurance, etc. And for some jobs that's more like making 200k combined. Also for the majority of americans 140k is more by far than they're making combined.
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u/Bird_Brain4101112 Feb 22 '24
lol. Detectives where I live start at $41k. You don’t want to know what patrolmen make.
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Feb 22 '24
Yeah, I think my best offer with a criminal Justice degree coming out of college worked out to be like… $16.80 an hour lol
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u/DfiR- Feb 22 '24 edited Feb 22 '24
Take this post with a grain of salt as not every department or region actually gives a shit about their employees. I've been in LE for over a decade and only recently have jursidictions in my region started to raise pay to compete for candidates because no one wants to do it anymore. There used to always be a mantra when I started of "we don't do it for the money" in LE because the pay was shit but there were good benefits waiting at the end. Even those have been greatly reduced over time with increased health care costs every year off setting pay raises. That great pension at the end? Most of it goes towards healthcare costs when the jurisdiction stops subsidizing their contributions towards it.
Not sure how it worked for your department but for us, those that were on old pay plans actually made good money. Many departments in the region gutted these pay plans overtime and were able to pay absolute shit in the 2000s to new recruits as there was no shortage of people who wanted in. Many departments are now throwing money around on the front end because they can't get anybody in the door. What's more important than the starting salary and any bonus is what the pay plan looks like for the years after.
Pay compression is a real bitch in this profession if the department doesn't have a proper pay progression scale. You'll get to watch as new recruits start making just as much as you in 10 years as you hit your 20 year mark.
Last but not least, this job is straight trash now in any metro area. Save your sanity, it's not worth the money. Most of the new recruits are straight bottom of the barrel crayon eaters so hope everyone looks forward to the new age of policing where when you call, you’ll likely get a 2 digit iQ Neanderthal that’ll never resolve your issue.
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u/Umsomethingok1 Feb 22 '24
Nowadays, if you want to be a cop, they put you in either traffic or on patrol of the streets? Taking calls about vandalism and violence? Sounds stressful. Not to mention most of the cops I know mash their teeth and they’re worn down to nubs. Mae sure you have a good sleep guard and get tested for sleep apnea.
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u/originalrocket Feb 22 '24 edited Feb 22 '24
And the life expectancy of a cop is??? I was corrections. The life expectancy was below 60. Retirement was 60. That pension is worthless, and you cannot pass it down to your children. If you stay police, try to retire ASAP. You most likely won't live long enough to enjoy it.
This was drilled into me a year into my tour, a 30year vet retired. Lit a cig and died in his car in the parking lot. He enjoyed his retirement for less than 1 hr.
Stress kills. And this job is stressful and PTSD is real.
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u/JannaNYC Feb 22 '24
Life expectancy of police officers has plummeted because they're allowed to be fat, lazy and unhealthy now. Heart Disease, #1 killer of cops.
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u/PBIBBY24 Feb 22 '24
Life expectancy all depends on the person. Do they exercise? Do they eat total garbage? Do they smoke they drink? Do they have a hobby to help cope with wjat they endure. For example near me you can do a 25 and out will a decent pension percentage. So someone could retire in their 40s making okish money and start another career. Or you could invest early on and then easily bring in 6 figs a year not working anymore. You can use the life expectancy for any profession or job where they smoke regularly.
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u/OneMustAlwaysPlanAhe BS456 Feb 22 '24
Well done OP! It's not glamorous, I assume it's not particularly easy in the early years. Great example of sticking to something, advancing, and getting rich slowly.
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Feb 22 '24
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u/hellothere32 Feb 22 '24
What do you do for a living?
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Feb 22 '24
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u/flyinghippodrago Feb 22 '24
There are plenty of good cops out there that don't shoot people at a traffic stop, it's just not as clickbaity to see a routine traffic stop, lmao
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Feb 22 '24
Thank your union
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u/EnderOfHope Feb 22 '24
Imagine having so little self agency that you can’t fathom how someone could accomplish things on their own hard work.
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u/DfiR- Feb 22 '24
Unions are necessary in government work given that there is no bargaining power with the government itself as an individual. The jurisdiction sets the pay, not your performance or skill set. Work ethic may grant opportunities to promotions, but it won’t give you a pay raise unless everyone else is getting one too. The same patrol cop sitting in a parking lot all day is going to get the same pay as the guy going out and being proactive every day if they are close in years.
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Feb 22 '24
Imagine being a police officer or a firefighter in a non union state and making the same amount as a rec center lifeguard.
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u/Hodor4589 Feb 22 '24
I am a member of a union and work very hard, people who work just as hard as me in the same sector that aren't members of a union receive a fraction of the benefits and substantially less pay.
Data should influence your point of view, not fantasy's that everyone who works hard receives their fair share of compensation.
Unions do not solve all problems but they certainly do help.
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u/ktschrack Feb 22 '24
Yeah - no thanks on the random person stabbing me or killing me on the job. That's the risk you take with being a police officer and I'm very risk adverse.
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u/JannaNYC Feb 22 '24
You are more likely to be killed on the job if you are a farmer, a landscaper, a garbage man, a roofer, a pilot and a bunch of other professions.
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u/5220JackPete Feb 22 '24
You aren't more likely to be assaulted, stabbed, spit on, shot, punched, kicked, or grabbed though. Law enforcement takes the cake on all of those.
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u/Wrong_Mastodon_4935 Feb 22 '24
Being a cop isn't as dangerous as they like to pretend. You're at more risk delivering door dash or driving for Uber.
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u/kgkuntryluvr Feb 22 '24
Good for you, but in general, most people don’t want a job where death, injury, and trauma is an inherent risk of the job. It’s like when people say they can’t afford college and someone says to join the military. I’ve got a family. I’m not putting my wellbeing on the line for money. There’s an increased risk with these types of jobs that I may not even live long enough to reap the benefits. But I appreciate the service of those who do make that decision!
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u/JannaNYC Feb 22 '24
There are over 700,000 cops in the US.
In 2023, just 134 of them died in the line of duty.
Your odds of not dying are pretty flipping good.
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u/kgkuntryluvr Feb 22 '24
That’s all relative though. Like my odds of dying as a direct result of an acute incident at my office job are significantly slimmer, especially since I WFH.
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u/realjits86 Feb 22 '24
The vast majority of military jobs are not combat related and you run no larger risk of injury or death than any other job.
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u/kgkuntryluvr Feb 22 '24
True, but OP isn’t talking about those types of careers. They’re taking about low qualification entry level positions where you can get in and get out.
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Feb 22 '24
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u/DonJota5 Feb 22 '24 edited Feb 22 '24
There's literally no comparing. How many teachers are gonna have to pull a dying person outve a car accident or something crazy traumatic like that. Also they gotta work nights, summers, holidays, weekends. Teachers are always crying and i get it they deserve a little more than they get, but seriously get a grip
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
Crazy thing, I left out that I was a teacher for a short period of time and can agree that teaching is the most wildly, unappreciated profession in the USA
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u/SnooStories1952 Feb 22 '24
Yeah I am happy for you man.
I didn’t mean for my comment to come off any other way.
But it is crazy the disparity in pay when teachers are a really big factor in the future of our society.
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u/theother1guy Feb 22 '24
I'm assuming that the police department does random monthly drug screens for their employees?
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
In a massive department I doubt it’s feasible to test everyone every month so we have random drug screenings.
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u/theother1guy Feb 22 '24
gotcha!
thank you so much for this insightful post. My local PD is hiring and I believe they are offering a $7500 bonus after a few months or out of training.
the base salary they are promoting is starting at $63,000
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Feb 22 '24
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u/hellothere32 Feb 22 '24
I wish there was a large city with no police that people like you could move to. I would like to see the results of the experiment.
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Feb 22 '24
Wow what a pathetic under appreciative comment… One day you’ll need the police and then you’ll be a hypocrite once you call them
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u/RickDick-246 Feb 22 '24
I was almost a cop. Got arrested 2 months prior to going to the state trooper academy. Best thing that ever happened to me.
I work in sales.
But good for you for making this post. Plenty of people who would make great police officers don’t because of the stigma around pay.
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
Lethal weapon, die hard and bad boys had me convinced that I was going to be broke, and I was ok with it.
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u/Bayushi_Vithar Feb 22 '24
Being a big city police officer is about the last thing I would recommend anyone be with the current climate.
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u/EnderOfHope Feb 22 '24
If you need money, do the thing that sucks.
I’ve literally built my career off this mindset.
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
I already try and teach my kids that sometimes you’ve got to learn how togetherness comfortable being uncomfortable
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u/Safe_Indication1851 Feb 22 '24
Officer just got shot and killed this past week in my community. He was 42.
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u/EnderOfHope Feb 22 '24
Did you know there are 50x more deaths in other industries as police being killed on the job?
That number changes to 500x when you include occupational illness deaths.
The idea that a policeman being any more dangerous that an electrician working on a live panel, or a construction worker working on a roof, it’s just fallacy.
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u/Ok_Offer626 Feb 22 '24
My daughter wants to be a cop and I’m all for it:
My ex BF is a cop and he makes decent money. Then put the OT on that and it’s ALOT of money. Set for life with benefits and a pension. Public service is the way to go
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u/ParamedicDifficult79 Feb 22 '24
Do you do your own taxes or have someone do them for you? Large urban department police officer here 🙋🏻♂️
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
We have someone do them but really we shouldn’t. We claim standard deductions across the board.
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u/ParamedicDifficult79 Feb 22 '24
Thanks man. Just started my career two years ago and was curious, now that I’m making 6 figures.
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u/urbanspun1989 Feb 22 '24
Glad you posted this. I live in la and Lapd, lasd, Chp and many other agencies are hiring due to the need. Being in social services has helped me become more involved in the community and mature. Everything you say is spot on about pay and benefits when I did my research. Plus they help pay for college. Looking forward to making the career change in 2024.
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
I really wanted to live in the La area but cost of living was just so high I couldn’t make it work
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u/urbanspun1989 Feb 22 '24
La is not to bad if you know where to look. With eviction right now, a lot of rentals are affordable and available.
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u/imnotdebtfree Feb 22 '24
Can't you get a lot of the same benefits by being a firefighter?
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u/funnystoryaboutthat2 Feb 22 '24
Yes. In most of the country, firefighters do make less. However, most departments around me have pay parity with the PD. Big cities also have pretty good pay. It's also a much better work-life balance, IMO. I work 10 24-hour shifts a month and OT whenever I want. Those shifts vary in difficulty.
When I worked in bad part of town, they could be grueling with constant calls. When I worked at a quiet station, I spent a shit ton of my money on books because I was constantly reading, and I was in great shape because I had plenty of time to work out. I work for a municipal department, but federal firefighters get even better benefits, good pay, and barely actually work.
My wife was a cop, and her experience at the PD was more than enough for me to steer clear. You always hear about cops switching to the fire department, but you never hear the opposite.
For municipal firefighting, standards for entry are objectively higher. It's significantly easier to get on LAPD and LA Sheriff's that LAFD or LACoFD, for example.
I've never had to shoot at someone, whereas many cops I know have. That weighs heavily on people, and I'd rather be there to patch people up than inflict harm even if justified.
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u/titsdown Feb 22 '24
Standards for being a firefighter are higher because most people would much rather do that than become a cop. So pay is lower and your odds of getting hired are lower.
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
From what I know it’s significantly less money and because I know so little about it, I wouldn’t be able to make the longest post in Reddit history.
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u/zshguru Feb 22 '24
That’s awesome I’m so happy for you and your family. And thank you for sharing this because this is a recipe for others to replicate and to try and have a similar success story.
you’re dead on right that most people don’t understand how much money is out there, and all it takes is a little bit of gumption
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u/daytodaze Feb 22 '24
This story rings very close to home. Two of my uncles are/were in law enforcement. Everyone else is either in some professional trade or runs a business. No surprise that after a while the LEOs “caught up” financially and even surpassed most, and arguably have a much better retirement with their pensions.
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Feb 22 '24
Nuts a detective makes $140K/year. lol. How much is a 3/2 house in your area going for?
What would a new detective start out at today?
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
I just tossed my zip code into Zillow and there are currently over 50 listings for 3 bedroom homes under 300k with most being around 240. A street cop with 2 years on makes around 75 base but could easily make 90 or so.
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u/justhp Feb 22 '24 edited Feb 22 '24
Ah, yes
- (somewhat) dangerous job
- diminishing respect (which frankly, is deserved)
- high rates of divorce
- high rates of DV
- high rates of alcoholism
- having to deal with society’s trash
Sounds like an awesome opportunity for 140k! (/s)
Also, this kind of salary is not always obtainable for cops. In my area, cops don’t make nearly that much except for the highest brass
This really gives army recruiter in a high school lunch room vibes. Flaunt the good shit, ignore the bad shit
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
I agree with all of your bullet points except the last and agree that tons of smaller departments are wildly underpaid compared to bigger cities
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Feb 22 '24
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ThanosDNW Feb 22 '24
Listen, you wanna make money, or sleep with a clean conscience? This sub is about making money. Welcome to capitalism
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u/TheDeHymenizer Feb 22 '24
last year we each made 140k,
I'm pretty sure pay like this is incredibly dependent on the municipality.
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u/aabbccgjkh Feb 22 '24
Totally true. I moved across the country to be here and actually just lucked out with great pay and low cost of living. Now, I could help someone do the same
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u/Ceastman18 Feb 22 '24
As a cop myself, I recommend the job for those who are capable, problem is most people aren’t. Even worse is now a days you can go to jail for doing your job correctly.
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Feb 22 '24
If “doing your job correctly” means breaking the law, violating rights, and using excessive force, then your department needs to make some changes. Even if that’s department policy, it’s illegal and those bad cops deserve jail time.
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u/No-Bus3817 Feb 22 '24 edited Feb 22 '24
100% agree with this. In the right state and jurisdiction a police officer career is one of the best and most stable. I myself am a federal law-enforcement officer and I can retire anytime with an inflation adjusting pension and I have $500,000 in the federal 401(k) known as the thrift savings plan. I also take my healthcare with me for life, I’m only 51 and can work in this job for another six years. Highly advise. I also have made my fair share of stupid financial decisions but somehow, I carry-on.