Some people say I am hard on our police force, I am, they should be held to a higher standard when it comes to ethics, I think most understand that. But when it comes to pay of public employees, I am a BIG advocate in paying our police force what they deserve;
The Fraternal Order of Police and the City of Sioux Falls have been holding several bargaining sessions trying to put together a labor agreement able to satisfy both sides.
After seven meetings between the two, the City put forward what they say is their final offer for a two year agreement that includes a one-point-five percent annual wage increase.
“I don’t know if that was the best offer the city could make but it’s the offer that the City said it was the last offer it was going to make. We believe that the City certainly has the financial ability to do better by its employees, particularly its police officers,” explained Wilka.
“It has become more and more difficult to preform the job of a policeman without everyone looking over your shoulder. It’s gotten more challenging not less challenging, so if anything the raises should be greater not less than what they’ve been historically,” stated Wilka.
I agree 100% with Wilka. With all the tension with police these days between the public and them, and the FACT that violent crime in Sioux Falls is on an extreme upward spiral, this is a piss poor time to offer them a piss poor raise.
That and the irony of wanting to build a new $25 million dollar admin building to increase the ‘morale’ of city administration workers. What about the ‘morale’ of our police force?
“The city has all kinds of money for this project or another project, the latest being the 25 million dollar administration building,” Wilka tells KELO Radio News. “and then to turn around and be told that you are only going to get a raise that is less than is what is commonly done in both public and private sectors in this region, that really produces a negative reaction on the part of people.”
I want to fill Mr. Wilka in on a little secret, the building that is being proposed ISN’T being built for the public or the employees, just sayin’.
Thank you for the support. Keep holding the standards high. It gives us more try.
Meanwhile the head of public works, who has a nice cushy office in the public works bldg, (which by the way was NOT built in 1933) makes $50,000 more a year than he did when starting his gig.
Please stop with the pseudo cop support. No way this comes off credible after years of cheap-shotting them. This is merely another means for you to bash M3. Just admit it.
Bill, he does deserve bashing on this one. But if you search ALL of my posts about police, you will see that I have never questioned pay, in fact, I have told the mayor and council on several occasions that they deserve good pay and training to keep quality officers. In fact one of my biggest arguments against the free meals at Avera (besides the ethical question) is why don’t our police make enough to buy their own lunch?
Nice try though Bill.
I have to agree with Scott on this one.
He’s only tried to bring to light concerns about the police when they’ve done something questionable like:
1. Had a ‘suspect’ for an unknown crime in the Tuthill area where an officer discharged his firearm, but then didn’t release any audio or video to the public to help catch the ‘suspect’.
2. Questions the police receiving free stuff. I don’t recall Scott bringing up this concern or not, but I will; Have you ever seen McDonald’s at 41st & Minnesota some mornings? There are as many as 4 cop cars there some days.
Are they there for the fine cuisine or because it’s free for them?
How many patrol cars are there in a district? so what is the response time going to be in other areas since they are all sitting together in on part of town?
Years ago I worked in a convenience store and the owner told me always give cops free coffee and pop and thank them for what they do. Try to keep them in the store as long as possible because it decreases the amount of time we could be robbed and people remember seeing the cops in here and feel safe.
So do you really think all these places are really giving away free stuff to cops and expecting nothing in return?
Even if they aren’t, looking at McDonald’s as an example, if the free stuff is causing a huge gap in coverage or a slower response, it’s still having an impact, intentional or not.
It shouldn’t be allowed.
Someone pointing this out doesn’t mean they don’t support the police.
Someone asking for transparency when many communities release office body camera or dash camera footage doesn’t mean they don’t support the police either.
bill has triple m’s back.
No wonder these cops are so dependent on free charity lunches. they are denied the dignity of being able to pay for their own birdseed. Sort of like all the Walmart employees who need to be on welfare.
Free lunches and a free bike to ride to work? What more could a working man want? Surprised the city doesn’t have a medicare and SNAP representative come to speak with city employees about all their great programs.
The proposed raise is weak mostly because it’s less than inflation.
Officers don’t get free meals at McDonald’s. There are usually 15-30 officers working at one time, sometimes this is WAY too few for the call volume. The city is split into 4 patrol quadrants for those 15-30 officers to work. There are 4 officers allowed on break at a time so they usually choose to eat together for safety sake ( an officer eating alone makes an easy target). Since only 4 are on break the rest are still in their assigned patrol quadrants answering calls for service.
Officers are allowed 2 breaks per shift, but call volume only allows 1 most of the time. The only gratuity officers are allowed to accept is food that can be readily consumed.
The city has risen by about 30,000 people since the last time the department increased in size. That means fewer officers are responding to more calls for service. After the shift is over most cops stay hours late to complete reports accumulated throughout the day. Officers are facing more work with fewer officers in a rapidly growing city with increased violent crime. The cities proposed offer is a slap in the face. People already don’t want to apply at police departments, poor pay won’t help.
I know some of the cops in town and asked about some of the things Sheeple brought up. They told me they are allowed to have 4 officers on their unpaid break at one spot. So 4 at McD’s would be within their rules. They also said McD’s doesn’t give free food, but do give a 50% discount to any first responder in uniform, including military, fire, or ambulance people. This is supposedly a national policy of McD’s. They also said that most of these cops do not work in the same area of town, so coverage is not hurt during the break. They did say though that there is not enough cops on any of the shifts and it’s only getting worse each year. This is just a neutral FYI, take from it what you will.
That McDonald’s at 41st & Minnesota needs to get rid of their stupid left turn option in their exit onto 41st street, because there are 2 lanes of wedstbound idiots who will try to let a left-turning car out by opening a gap in the traffic light backup, while the westbound left turn lane of 41st has no way to see the fuckers trying to cross their lane. I only state this here because I don’t think it would do any good to contact the city’s traffic engineer and also, most city employees read this blog. Thank you.
How’s morale you ask? Bring back Doug.
I’ve been in McDonalds and seen the employees offer the food to the officers for free and seen the police accept it.
Not just at the 41st & Minnesota McDonalds, but at the 59th & Louise ave McDonalds as well.
So there may be an official policy, but there is also what is really happening as well. So yes, McDonalds IS giving free food, at least some of there employees are.
So the department has a policy of 4 officers can meet on break. That still doesn’t address the question of “is that the best policy?
If Sioux Falls is so unsafe the police have to eat in fours, maybe they should get their lunch ‘to go’ and enjoy it in the safety of one of the fire stations or back at the police station.
Then they could save the mileage and the gas of driving across town every break to go out of their district to meet at the same place every time. If safety is truly the issue, that is a bad idea anyway (being that predictable and following the same routine everyday).
But let’s be realistic, the greatest danger the cops are facing is the heart attack they’re going to have from eating all of that free McDonalds food.
Try meeting at Subway once in awhile instead.
On another note, I’m not saying the police don’t deserve a raise, but they should be able to do the job too. they should have a yearly physical agility test in their contract just like the firefighters do, until then, maybe McDonalds should be off limits.
So just because there is a current policy doesn’t mean it’s the best policy and doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be changed.
Just like is that the best policy not to have a full-time internal affairs officer on the department?
Is that the best policy not to release dash cam footage if requested by the media?
And that doesn’t mean a person doesn’t support the police just because they see room for improvement.
Don’t want to argue with anyone but would like to clarify some stuff for Sheeple. To clarify, it is not against SFPD policy to accept an offer of something that can be immediately consumable such as food or a drink. The policy manual is online if you would like to read it for yourself. Written by management not the officers.
Breaks are unpaid. So while Subway may be better for you and the station safer, they aren’t on the clock so why restrict their freedom of chosing how to spend their unpaid break time. They don’t tell you what or where to eat and I’m guessing you wouldn’t want anyone making your choices for you either.
Fitness is certainly something that is desired and encouraged. New hires must pass a medical exam. Currently, fitness level is a personal choice but that may change in the future and is up to management. There are differences in a fire fighters job and a police job. Police don’t have the luxury of having hours of paid downtime where paid workouts can be completed.
The department does have Professional Standards (IA) personnel that are part of management and are full time salaried employees of the City. The complaints that are investigated by them are online for your consumption.
The dash cam video not being released is again management’s decision. The officers are proud of the work they do and the abuse they face (and is recorded) on a daily basis would shock you. It’s a shame the public is unable to view it. It’s also a shame reports and mugshots aren’t released. That’s more of a state law issue so please contact your reps and ask for some open records changes.
Doughnutz – I never said it was against SFPD policy to get free food. If you read (and comprehend) my posts you will see my point was it is a bad idea for officers to accept free items because some businesses do it with the expectation they are benefiting by receiving free police protection by having officers on-site more often than establishments that do not offer free or discounted food and drinks.
So no clarification needed, I know they can accept the free and discounted food, I just think the policy should be changed and they shouldn’t be able to. They make enough money to pay full price for their food.
You’re right, they should be free to choose wherever they eat lunch and firefighters are different than police, but police work still requires a certain amount of physical fitness whether the officers are paid to work out or not. I guess that’s something they need to negotiate.
Sadly, that’s why periodically you will see on the news, an officer tazing a handcuffed suspect they couldn’t subdue, or chasing them down and hitting them with their patrol car because they couldn’t catch them on foot. Just because officers don’t get to work out on duty it doesn’t give them an excuse to be physically unable to perform their job. And just because firefighters have the downtime to workout on duty doesn’t give them an excuse either.
So while working out on duty might be a luxury police don’t have, some have the luxury of receiving a paycheck for a job they are physically unable to perform; and that isn’t right either.
A top earning police sergeant makes just over $80,000 per year. I know a lot of people who would find that motivation enough to work out and eat healthy to keep receiving that pay check.
But hearing “I need to be paid to work out on duty” or “the firefighters get to workout on duty” sounds like whiny entitlement crap to me, but that’s just my opinion.
As far as Professional Standards and Internal Affairs, Those are usually two separate things, but I can see in Sioux Falls how they would be combined due to the lack of volume of complaints, but it still probably isn’t the best idea to combine the two.
Not to switch gears, because the discussion here has been fantastic, but the Firefighters are also paid hazard pay for their full shift. While that may not register with most people, what it means is that firefighters are paid to fight fires their entire shift (hazardous work) while they are either working out, cleaning trucks, training, equipment inventory or playing cards. A lot of other departments in the country are not like that. They usually figure out a percentage of ‘hazard time’ and are paid for that accordingly.
I also want to point out that anyone making comments here and using a fake name will not be tolerated. I no longer will be allowing full names. If you use a full name, I will edit it as a first name or initials. Someone came on here and posed as an actual police officer’s name (faked it). Anomity is protected by the 1st Amendment and city employees have a right to privacy. Don’t F’k that up for them.
“A top earning police sergeant makes just over $80,000 per year. I know a lot of people who would find that motivation enough to work out and eat healthy to keep receiving that pay check.”
Hey now – let’s take it easy on the sergeants, they are all pretty buff.