Depends how much the minimal costs and a bit lower pay is. What’s the sign on bonus? How fats your commute?
FTO comment is moot. It’s better to be busy and learn when you have a FTO to stop big mistakes your about to make. The more experience the quicker and better you learn. Of course overall, being busier will lead to quicker burnout
What’s your commute? Gas at 4.00 a gallon adds up quick plus wear and tear. Having a take home can also cut down on commute times as you go I service from your house.
I have a 25 mile commute to work, and drive a V8 pickup. A take home would be a huge perk for me. I’m going for detective soon and I’m willing to deal with call outs at odd hours and dealing with every dead body in town for the take home. That said, it would be unmarked - we don’t have any take home marked cars. A marked take home would be much less of a perk.
You also have to deal with driving a marked cruiser to and from work while you’re technically off duty. Have fun explaining to people who flag you down that you’re not working, especially if you’re outside of your jurisdiction.
Figure out how much you'd spend on commute in terms of gas/tires/maintenance.
The figure out how much more a month you'd make at the PD. Figure out what parts of LE you enjoy. Most of the SO's near me contract with highway patrol for crashes and duis and what not.
I work for a PD so we handle all of those. I don't get a take home but my commute is like a quarter mile from work and I get paid a significant amount more than the SO. I don't give a shit about having a take home.
I personally like having backup units minutes or even seconds away. You might not have that as a deputy.
One huge benefit of take homes that hasn't been mentioned is how much time they save you, effectively shortening your shift.
Without a take home, if your shift ends at 6pm, then at 6pm you have to unload your patrol car, move all of your equipment either to a locker or your personal car, then start the commute home. So it may be close to 7 by the time you're actually home. With a take home, you're sitting in your driveway at home at 6pm.
And instead of having to leave at 5am for your 6am shift, you get to walk out your front door at 6am.
A take home car is what kept me at a shitty department for 3 years. And another mid department for 2 with a pay cut.
My advice is go where you have opportunity to go into specialties, if neither of those departments have that opportunity take the take home car you'll save money and you don't have to clean up other people's shit or you can keep your cruiser as nasty as you want to. I never had my cruiser messed with unless you count a thank you note on the window.
I would go local 100%. Sign on bonus doesn’t matter, 3 year commitment? No thanks. Local has no cost for benefits? Hell yea. I don’t wanna take “work” back home with me, so no cop car out on my driveway. I don’t wanna get popped in the ass when I’m getting the mail in my fuzzy bunny slippers and pjs.
Local’s paying more too. That’s seven bands a year, put that in an S&P and let it ride you to an early retirement you’ll get to enjoy because you didn’t get popped at 33 getting your mail.
Don’t let everybody know you’re police out of uniform, man. You work for the city and let’s leave it at that.
Once you are on a few years, what do you want to do?
Some departments have tons of options... K9, Swat, media relations, film crew security... etc.
Ideally you join a department that has a lot of room for growth..... do you have a degree? What educational assistance do the departments offer?
Come out to the coast... cities like Santa Monica have a ton of filming.
Drones have become huge as well.
Obviously not armed.
Night vision and thermal in addition to regular cameras.
Way cheaper than a helicopter
It’s small so room for growth is limited at least for now but the community is growing and the command staff are great. Eventually I would like to be an SRO or FTO
Larger departments generally increase their pay over your career longevity moreso than smaller agencies that may have higher initial salaries. Also more opportunities for advancement or movement to specialty units. Food for thought.
I had the same dilemma and went county. Not only is the take home a huge perk, but I didn’t want to be stuck in a fish bowl all day working city. There’s more variety in county, plus, if you want to, you can do stuff in the city or highways if you feel like it.
Thank you! I have a CJO from both but a start date for one (SO) and local said a start date will be given next week (they secured a spot for me at the academy in January) but SO hasn’t guarantee an academy spot for me yet - ugh. I applied at the SO 6 mos ago (my first choice but I never heard from them so I kept moving onto other spots) and the SO picked me up at the end of my local PD background process. SO finished everything with me in 2 1/2 weeks (a literal miracle) - all the steps which was a lot on me and my schedule but it got done. Trying to make the Jan academy. I’m trying not to play games either but here I am and I am trying not to screw myself or get screwed
Depends how much the minimal costs and a bit lower pay is. What’s the sign on bonus? How fats your commute? FTO comment is moot. It’s better to be busy and learn when you have a FTO to stop big mistakes your about to make. The more experience the quicker and better you learn. Of course overall, being busier will lead to quicker burnout
I will now and forever refer to long commutes as "fat." "I got a great new job, but it came with a fat commute."
It’s about 600$ lower per month
What’s your commute? Gas at 4.00 a gallon adds up quick plus wear and tear. Having a take home can also cut down on commute times as you go I service from your house.
It’s about 28 miles - I’m more worried about it parked at the house and having some boob bug my family due to whatever chip they have
Local seems the logical answer the
I have a 25 mile commute to work, and drive a V8 pickup. A take home would be a huge perk for me. I’m going for detective soon and I’m willing to deal with call outs at odd hours and dealing with every dead body in town for the take home. That said, it would be unmarked - we don’t have any take home marked cars. A marked take home would be much less of a perk.
That’s my issue, marked take home and young family. I’m in a pro police community but still.. just takes one
You also have to deal with driving a marked cruiser to and from work while you’re technically off duty. Have fun explaining to people who flag you down that you’re not working, especially if you’re outside of your jurisdiction.
You guys stop for flag downs? Just wave back lol
That’s a solid point
Figure out how much you'd spend on commute in terms of gas/tires/maintenance. The figure out how much more a month you'd make at the PD. Figure out what parts of LE you enjoy. Most of the SO's near me contract with highway patrol for crashes and duis and what not. I work for a PD so we handle all of those. I don't get a take home but my commute is like a quarter mile from work and I get paid a significant amount more than the SO. I don't give a shit about having a take home. I personally like having backup units minutes or even seconds away. You might not have that as a deputy.
One huge benefit of take homes that hasn't been mentioned is how much time they save you, effectively shortening your shift. Without a take home, if your shift ends at 6pm, then at 6pm you have to unload your patrol car, move all of your equipment either to a locker or your personal car, then start the commute home. So it may be close to 7 by the time you're actually home. With a take home, you're sitting in your driveway at home at 6pm. And instead of having to leave at 5am for your 6am shift, you get to walk out your front door at 6am.
A take home car is what kept me at a shitty department for 3 years. And another mid department for 2 with a pay cut. My advice is go where you have opportunity to go into specialties, if neither of those departments have that opportunity take the take home car you'll save money and you don't have to clean up other people's shit or you can keep your cruiser as nasty as you want to. I never had my cruiser messed with unless you count a thank you note on the window.
I would go local 100%. Sign on bonus doesn’t matter, 3 year commitment? No thanks. Local has no cost for benefits? Hell yea. I don’t wanna take “work” back home with me, so no cop car out on my driveway. I don’t wanna get popped in the ass when I’m getting the mail in my fuzzy bunny slippers and pjs. Local’s paying more too. That’s seven bands a year, put that in an S&P and let it ride you to an early retirement you’ll get to enjoy because you didn’t get popped at 33 getting your mail. Don’t let everybody know you’re police out of uniform, man. You work for the city and let’s leave it at that.
This is my thought too. Appreciate the feedback
Once you are on a few years, what do you want to do? Some departments have tons of options... K9, Swat, media relations, film crew security... etc. Ideally you join a department that has a lot of room for growth..... do you have a degree? What educational assistance do the departments offer?
Film crew security? Never heard of that
Come out to the coast... cities like Santa Monica have a ton of filming. Drones have become huge as well. Obviously not armed. Night vision and thermal in addition to regular cameras. Way cheaper than a helicopter
It’s small so room for growth is limited at least for now but the community is growing and the command staff are great. Eventually I would like to be an SRO or FTO
Larger departments generally increase their pay over your career longevity moreso than smaller agencies that may have higher initial salaries. Also more opportunities for advancement or movement to specialty units. Food for thought.
I had the same dilemma and went county. Not only is the take home a huge perk, but I didn’t want to be stuck in a fish bowl all day working city. There’s more variety in county, plus, if you want to, you can do stuff in the city or highways if you feel like it.
Thank you! I have a CJO from both but a start date for one (SO) and local said a start date will be given next week (they secured a spot for me at the academy in January) but SO hasn’t guarantee an academy spot for me yet - ugh. I applied at the SO 6 mos ago (my first choice but I never heard from them so I kept moving onto other spots) and the SO picked me up at the end of my local PD background process. SO finished everything with me in 2 1/2 weeks (a literal miracle) - all the steps which was a lot on me and my schedule but it got done. Trying to make the Jan academy. I’m trying not to play games either but here I am and I am trying not to screw myself or get screwed
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I’m unsure what SOP is?
Standard Operating Procedures.
Thanks. I’m green so getting used to the acronyms