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Friday, November 12, 2010

A Random Pixels reader explains police overtime

A few days ago a Random Pixels reader left a comment on my post that revealed that more than 3,300 Miami-Dade employees earn over $100,000 a year.

More than 800 on the list work for the Miami-Dade police department and derive a lot of their take home pay from overtime. The reader took the time to explain how Miami-Dade police officers earn overtime and where the money comes from.

While the reader doesn't identify himself, it's almost certain that he (or she) is a police officer. I thought in the interests of being completely fair I'd highlight the comment in a separate post.
This list is VERY misleading, here is my case.


1. Insurance contribution is NOT take home pay.


2. Of my 101k, 22k was paid by the private sector working "off-duty" jobs i.e. Dolphin games, youth fair, things like that.


3. Court pay is not separated. Part of our job is writing tickets and we HAVE TO go to court, this accounts for 19k of my pay. Take into consideration I wrote 352 tickets (during that fiscal year) at an average of $250, I made at least 88k for the state, which in return gives the county funding for police.


4. Many of the officers on the list work the Port of Miami and MIA. [Their] overtime pay comes from the Feds., not the county.


5. Due to a shortage of officers many are REQUIRED to work extended shifts.


6. I worked exactly 0 hours of voluntary, county tax funded, overtime that year.


Know the WHOLE story before you get pissed at us for just doing out job.

2 comments:

  1. OK, let's say it is fair for police and fire-rescue employees to take home 100k+ if the feds (which is us) and the private sector (who pass their costs along) pay for it. Take them off the list. That leaves a thousand other, including librarians and a/c mechanics, on that amazing list.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Insurance contribution is not take home pay." Dear Mr. policeman. Please google the term "money is fungible." I really don't like the idea that my taxes are putting firearms in the hands of such complete and utter idiots.

    ReplyDelete

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