Joined
·
3,316 Posts
Editorial: Pricey details
Sunday, May 15, 2005
Massachusetts is the only state in the nation that requires the use of paid police details instead of civilian flaggers whenever work is being done on a public road. It is a lucrative perk police unions zealously defend, and a drain on those -- mainly government agencies and utility companies -- that must pick up the tab.
That tab just got larger. Col. Thomas Robbins, commander of the state police, has just given state troopers working details a raise worth $5 an hour. After discussions with the State Police Association of Massachusetts -- the troopers' union -- Robbins authorized the detail pay to rise from $32 to $37 an hour, the Boston Herald reports.
Robbins is being awfully generous with our money. State police details are mostly used by the Mass. Highway Department, the Mass. Turnpike Authority and big utility companies. Every dollar of detail pay comes from our state taxes, the tolls we pay to ride the Pike, or the bills sent us by utilities.
Those dollars add up. The Beacon Hill Institute estimates that local police details cost state residents $141 million a year, and that calculation doesn't include state police details.
A state police spokesman points out that the troopers haven't had a raise in detail pay since 2000. Candor compels us to note that when it comes to high-speed roads like the Mass. Pike, state police details are usually safer than civilian flaggers.
But we'd feel much better about a raise for police details where they are needed if the police unions would show some willingness to consider civilian flaggers in cases where they are not.
Sunday, May 15, 2005
Massachusetts is the only state in the nation that requires the use of paid police details instead of civilian flaggers whenever work is being done on a public road. It is a lucrative perk police unions zealously defend, and a drain on those -- mainly government agencies and utility companies -- that must pick up the tab.
That tab just got larger. Col. Thomas Robbins, commander of the state police, has just given state troopers working details a raise worth $5 an hour. After discussions with the State Police Association of Massachusetts -- the troopers' union -- Robbins authorized the detail pay to rise from $32 to $37 an hour, the Boston Herald reports.
Robbins is being awfully generous with our money. State police details are mostly used by the Mass. Highway Department, the Mass. Turnpike Authority and big utility companies. Every dollar of detail pay comes from our state taxes, the tolls we pay to ride the Pike, or the bills sent us by utilities.
Those dollars add up. The Beacon Hill Institute estimates that local police details cost state residents $141 million a year, and that calculation doesn't include state police details.
A state police spokesman points out that the troopers haven't had a raise in detail pay since 2000. Candor compels us to note that when it comes to high-speed roads like the Mass. Pike, state police details are usually safer than civilian flaggers.
But we'd feel much better about a raise for police details where they are needed if the police unions would show some willingness to consider civilian flaggers in cases where they are not.
