Signing Bonuses

Hi everyone -

I'm doing a paper for school and I have a question for you guys.

Do any of your departments offer signing bonuses or incentives? If so you could post some info in here or shoot me a PM.

or

If you know of a PD that offers these things please give me a buzz.

Thanks,
Kate

I would check down south and out west. Ma. isn't desperate enough to offer bonuses.

I know..but there are some people on here from out West.

...

Wishful thinking

I think in Mass the bonuses are given to the hiring authorities by the hopeful employee.

Kate check these threads;

http://www.masscops.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48001&highlight=Signing Bonuses

http://www.masscops.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23126&highlight=Signing Bonuses

It's bad when a Mod. does a search and can't find anything...I'm an idiot. Thank you Harry.


Still, any personal experiences would be great.

A bit of additional info. Dallax, TX was in touch we me on an issue recently and they were offering a $10,000 signing bonus payable upon completion of training. Many other departments are also offering bonuses recently including New Orleans, Houston, Los Angeles, and numerous other California departments. Some, but not all, departments will pay the bonuses only to experienced or pre-certified officers.

Thanks guys!

I was just a member of our starting pay committee the Colonel decided to enact. The reason being a starting salary is horrible and they are looking at ways to fix it. Command staff and the training division brought up the idea of signing bonuses. One of the reasons being it is controllable. You have a set number you need to pay to a set number of recruits, it was easily added or adjusted into the budget. Raising the starting salary is not nearly as easily to add. When the starting salary is raised the hourly rate rises and in turn does the overtime rate. The department, despite their repeated attempts, cannot control overtime.

Our final recommended was a starting salary increase and we denied the idea of signing bonuses. There are departments in Vermont that do signing bonuses, Colchester Police (New - $3,000 Cert - $5,000), Berlin Police (Cert - unknown $), Brattleboro Police (Cert - $3,000), University of Vermont Police (New and Cert - $4,000).

I have no idea how this is working out for any of them.

Good Luck with your paper.

Bill

For new recruits who are not already a POST certified police officer, LAPD gives a $5,000 bonus. For laterals who are POST certified, we give a $10,000 bonus.

That means any of you folks back there in New England who are already on the job and looking to get away from the snow and freezing temps could possibly get the bigger bonus out here. That would certainly help with moving expenses. I wish they had this same bonus when I came on the job. I came out here with very little and $10,000 would have come in very handy.

There are several metro Atlanta departments with bonuses:

Gwinnett County Police: $2,000 signing bonus. Educational differential of 3% (Associates) or 6% (Bachelors) and $1,500 relocation allowance.

City of Atlanta Police offers different starting pay based on degrees, and different pay for lateral officers based on degrees and previous years of service:
http://www.atlantapd.org/index.asp?nav=Career

DeKalb County Police has a $1,000 signing bonus for previously POST-certified officers.

Cobb County Police lets lateral transfers bring up to 5 years of seniority with regards to pay, vacation, and retirement

Clayton County Police offers higher pay for college educated or POST certified and even higher pay for POST certified with various degrees of experience (GA only)
http://www.claytonpolice.com/Employment.htm

Fulton County Police offers the same pay to 4-year college graduates and those with 8 years of police experience, about $5,500 more than starting rate for those without either.

Most large southern departments have hiring bonuses or college/military/previous experience incentives. Nearly all departments around here offer higher starting salaries for those with prior experience or those with Bachelors or Masters Degrees. (Most top out the same rate for everyone, regardless of veteran status or degrees; Atlanta has different top-out rates depending on what degree one has)

Thanks Bill!

New hires.

Do certified officers get more money because it's less training for the PD?

Wow, that's surprising. Thanks for the info.






You guys have all been very helpful thus far. I appreciate it.

I believe the bonus from any department is supposed to be a way to get you to sign on with that department.

Let's face it, other than back there in New England, many large departments around the country are having a hard time hiring quality people.

The bonus for first time officers is to get you to sign with their department. The bonus for officers who are already on the job is to get you to leave your current department and lateral over to their department. I'm sure the fact that you can pretty much get right on the streets is a plus too.

To Delta:
The Vermont towns I mentioned were all bonuses upon being hired. Anybody who already works there gets nothing.

Bill