LA City new law: you're a police officer now

[x0847Marine]

The City of Los Angeles has created a law, Council File 03-2062, that effectively turned security guards into cops. I saw this funky looking police car that read "General Services Police" and thought WTF is that?



I've been out of the cop game, injury retirement, for awhile. It used to be around here the only the top 3% of applicants earned the privilege to call themselves a police officer. I was competing against 125 other people for 3 jobs, out of that 125 only 2 of us passed everything... and that's the way you want it when you're giving someone a gun and entrusting them with the ultimate authority; to deny you of your freedom and shoot you in accordance with the law.

But the City of LA was having a hard time finding qualified people, so they created a City security force of mostly LAPD rejects that patrolled the parks and other City owned property.
 
These "cops" worked full time with only level II reserve training which is hundreds fewer than real 830.1PC POST certified Police officer. These "cops" make an average of $15 to $20 an Hr, I started at $38hr.

These "police depts"  had nothing to do with the LAPD, don't have chiefs but administrators, and have completely separate rules for investigating complaints. LA County has followed suit with "LA County Security", and "Safety Police" made up of LA Sheriff rejects.

Working with them, back then, was a nightmare, if they came across something they were not trained for, which was almost everything, they'd call us to clean up their mess. Their biggest jolly was getting into something while driving to and from libraries / parks... a chance to do something "police".

So the City decided to put them all under 1 Dept, no big deal, and bump up their training, which is good.. but the bottom line here your local Govts are hiring a whole lot of police rejects anyway.

Fail to qualify for LAPD/LASD?, no problem.. we'll still give you a gun, uniform and "Police car" and we'll pay you 1/2 as much. Talk about a "Police State", where I live in North Hollywood all these different "police" agencies cruse around, in large part because of the Metro rail:
LA City School Police
LA County Security Police
LAPD
LA County Sheriffs Dept
LA City General Services Police
Burbank Airport Police
CHP - (AAA w/ a gun police)
SPCALA Police

8 different police agencies, only 3 (LAPD, LASD, CHP) employ fully trained POST (Police Officer Standards & Training) certified "police officers".. the rest hire the rejects.

Maybe its just a personal thing to me, I worked very hard and competed viciously, when needed, just to get to get hired, then trained like a MOFO for 18 weeks in the academy, followed by 6 months of chaos called field training.. It was very hard to make the grade, saying "I'm a police officer" meant something, it separated the groupies from the rock stars. Now these, uh, "alternative police" Depts are making rock stars out of the groupies..

Oh well, just a rant. Look for your local Govt to start giving guns and "police power" to the  groupies, its cheaper and easier.. feel safer?

[StarOfAfrica2]

It could be worse.  Sounds like someone went to too many of those seminars on privatizing law enforcement, but lacked the balls to fully implement it.

Sounds like a cluster ****.

[john9001]

i already have a gun, now if i can just get a badge.

[Gunthr]

built in corruption

[FUNKED1]

General Services is probably a county department.  General Services police would be like sheriffs but with jurisdiction only at county facilities.

[x0847Marine]

Originally posted by FUNKED1
General Services is probably a county department.  General Services police would be like sheriffs but with jurisdiction only at county facilities.

They used to have "jurisdiction", so called, at specific facilities when they were straight security because security guards can only arrest for crimes committed in their presence.

Making them "police" means they swear to uphold the laws of the State, and are defined by State law; meaning they are cops everywhere now, and can arrest based on probable cause... they are also now covered under entirely different laws on use of deadly force... a HUGE responsibility you dont want handed out to police applicant rejects.

Before, yes, these security dudes drove from place to place, now they have red lights, sirens, "POLICE" on their cars and are cops fully capable of pulling you over... eventhough they probably have 1/2 the training of an LAPD officer driving a black & white... that is my gripe.

Back in the day, that authority was only handed out to a select few for good reason, but local Govts have decided its cheaper to hire police rejects as "alternative police"; costs less to train them, and they work cheap, yet are trusted with the exact same on duty responsibility of blowing off your head based on thier judgement? Judgement  that for whatever reason wasn't good enough for a regular police Dept...

It just bugs me "they' are making cops out of those, who just 10 years ago, were non hackers who didn't pack the gear to serve in my profession; then we called them "guards", today they're "Police"... it just wrong IMO.

[FrodeMk3]

Xmarine, Do those guys pay into, or draw from the benefits package that the regular cops do? I was kinda curious...

     Sounds to me, like a beancounter at city hall figured out that if they can undermine the PD associations or union, they can use the money saved to vote themselves a pay raise.

[MIShill]

Atlanta PD is now in the middle of trying to determine how many and what kind of felony convictions you can have & still be accepted for APD training. I guess recruiting is getting very difficult.
-MI-

[Slash27]

On the news Dallas was ranked worst for crime in the top 10 biggest cities. ( 1 crime for every 12 people, what ever thats supposed to mean) They also stated Dallas was like 700 officers under staffed from levels approced a few years ago. 700? Maybe there will be some "General Service" cops here before long.

[x0847Marine]

Originally posted by FrodeMk3
Xmarine, Do those guys pay into, or draw from the benefits package that the regular cops do? I was kinda curious...

     Sounds to me, like a beancounter at city hall figured out that if they can undermine the PD associations or union, they can use the money saved to vote themselves a pay raise.

Thats a good question, Cal cops & firefighters pay into "CalPERS", California Public Employees' Retirement System, which also has a credit union.. I'm not sure where these guys fit in.

BTW I say these alternative police are police rejects, and usually have less training, which is true, but.. these hyphenated Depts are also infamous for hiring fully trained guys who have been fired from other Depts. A guy I know failed LAPD field training, 2 weeks later he was hired by a Dept that was called "Safety Police".  

A good buddy of mine,  former partner, got fired from my Dept for an unfortunate sexual adventure with a young female. 6 weeks later, LA Unified School Police hired him!!! lol, great idea huh?, send a cop who screws young  girls to patrol young girls. You guessed it, he didn't last long.. resigning because of rumors. Yeah, right.

He was later hired by the now defunct "RTD Police", or the bus police. The Sheriffs Dept took over the RTD Police Dept. The Sheriffs, being a top tier POST policing agency, had higher standards and ended up hiring very few existing RTD Cops, so he was laid off.

Its like he got dropped from the Big league, and kick around the minors until washing out.

When I was a kid Cops were big league, and Guards were the minors. No need for Park Police, the Sheriffs Dept had a dedicated car to cruise the park, that same Deputy was the school cop too. We saw him at school, and at the park. He knew us, we knew him. There were also Guards doing their guard thing; checking doors, walking around looking for poop to call the Sheriff about.

Today that door checking guard has police powers, a gun, and authority to kill you... but makes a fraction of the salary. Giving formerly unqualified people police powers to rattle doors and check alarms, to me, is insane. The City / County had "security" forces in place for 50+ years that worked out just fine

Nobody seems to care though, they havent noticed that the Govt has slowly turned relatively powerless Civilian Security Guards into real cops that can arrest you.

[mora]

Originally posted by x0847Marine
These "cops" make an average of $15 to $20 an Hr, I started at $38hr.

So the starting salary for a PO is over $6000/month? 7.6 times the minimum wage?

[x0847Marine]

BTW the main difference between a hyphonated Police and the real Police..

A "General Services Police Officer" has police powers while on duty, a real police is a cop 24/7. The difference being the amount of training, the Gen services guy having level I (or II) reserve training, the real troop has a full time police adacemy under his belt.

A CCW for police in Ca can only be issued by a Cheif of Police or Sheriff, Gen. Svs Police has no chief, but an administrator who can't issue CCWs. They are reserve trained cops who work full time and cant carry guns off duty.

One of the best perks of being police is the CCW, can you imagine the frustration these guys go through?, they get to dress up as police, drive a po-lice car, and do po-lice things, then walk away after work as Joe Blow. A daily reminder they are not the real police. On top of that they have no detectives or police resources to solve jack squat, anything important comes up and LAPD takes over. All their arrests & reports go to LAPD / Sheriffs too.

This is a big reason why in the local law enforcement culture we used to laugh at these guys as a joke, back then there only a few of them.. these dudes are everywhere now.

[FrodeMk3]

X, I would hazard to say that this is only the tip of the iceberg, at least in California. It's very likely that, in the future, you will actually see fewer "True" PD officers, only a core to handle investigations, issue the CCW, etc. and all of the field "grunts" will become these GSP's. City Hall Gives not one hoot in hell for what actually goes on in the streets, only what goes on in the accounting office.I can see a day where all you will see patroling are these guys.

[lukster]

How long can it be?

[x0847Marine]

Originally posted by mora
So the starting salary for a PO is over $6000/month? 7.6 times the minimum wage?

$38 Hr was what I averaged per Hr based on my end of year W2, I think my base salary was about $3800 Mo back then.

Today they start at $4,260 (check out lasd.org, my dept used to pay based on their wages.. today they make more) Base salary doesnt include benefits, I was unmarried with zero dependants, benefit $$ I did not need went into my paycheck. That alone was a few hundred bucks and boosted me to over $4k a mo.

Married guys with kids made less, or even had to pay, a family of 5 and wife, eh, $3,100 or so.

Court OT, I got 4 hours pay for just showing up, 2 hrs for being "on-call", working mid watch I was on call for something almost every work day. If I spent more than 8 of my day off hours in court, double time kicked in every hr after that.

Military and tactical bonuses; The Feds kicked in 3% for miliraty service, and I was on a tactical team subject to call 24/7 on my off days... sounds cool, wasn't a big deal, but added $175 a Mo to cover maintaining a pager / cell phone. Sniper training boosted my pay grade level to someone who had a BA because I was subject to call from other Depts as well as mine.
 
I made serious bank, and had just turned 24. Even today a Sheriff Deputy with about my training makes a base salary of $4,749.36, add in a few pay incentives, benefits and OT, $6k a month is easily doable... and that for a grunt, Sgts or supervisors who work OT make even more.

So Cal cops get paid very well, the real ones anyway.