I would have liked to have sent this to the Morning News editorial, but I just don't feel comfortable attaching my name to it. 

Congratulations on winning the election. 

Your opponent winning would have been the seventh sign of the apocalypse condemning us to being another Detroit. I know in the long run you can turn the city around.

I don't know when my attitude started on its downward spiral, but I do know the straw that broke this camel's back. I shouldn't put much stock in what I see on the nightly news, but on a local station's "viewer's voice" I heard some old lady say that the pay raise should be split.  She was for the firefighters getting a raise but not the police. "Too many scandals" as she put it. 

Like I said, it shouldn't bother me, but it really shocked me that even one citizen  thinks that way.  I know there are more. The aftermath of September 11th has shown that the public sure likes firefighters. You don't hear a whole lot about the 90 or so local, state and federal police officers who were also killed doing their job responding to the towers. 

Both our departments need raises.  

I never considered leaving the DPD, but I see no choice if we don't get a decent raise soon.  With better than 6 years on the job, I can go to Mesquite and get more money as a 1st day rookie.  The DPD can be replace me, but with me goes my experience.  I do my job,  work hard and know what I am doing. 

In police work, experience plays a huge role in how successful an officer is in making the community a safer place. I saw it in myself and in other officers around the 5-year mark.  We change and mature as officers, and the stupid rookie mistakes taper.  Four years ago, I would have told you I knew everything about police work.  Now, I know that I don't know it all and learn something new every day, even if I have to seek that new thing out.  I am mastering the nuances of my job at an ever increasing rate.  If I leave, it will take many years to regain that net loss of experience with a new recruit officer.

As for my replacement, you get what you pay for. At our academy there was a simple rule:

Fail 3 tests or the same test twice and you were fired.  Period.  

As the pay gap between us and other departments increased, then came "fail three tests, sit and get paid to study until the next class started so the recruit could go through it all over again." 

Now we have come to, if the average test score dips below 70 for the third time, the recruit is recycled to the next class.  We just don't pay enough to be competitive.  Ask what our first attempt passing rate is on that state test now and what it used to be.  

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to be a cop. You need to be a rocket scientist, social worker, lawyer, carpenter, cab driver, psychologist, pizza delivery man (it is a developed skill to find an apartment quickly at night some time).  You have to qualify for a whole list of other professions and a big part hungry wolf to be a good cop. 

The "fail three and you are gone" rule was in place to set the minimum and to keep those recruits who were capable of becoming all those other things.  If a recruit cannot retain material for a week until the following Monday morning and pass, they do not possess the skills needed to think on their feet in the field, make decent decisions or have a working knowledge of our ever changing General Orders and S.O.P.

All that has changed now.  We are starting to get what we pay for. 

There are some exceptionally strong and smart recruits coming out of the academy.  I feel for them.  They get lumped in with the rest that should not be here.  Police work is a calling, somewhat like being a priest.  Lots, if not all, the good police knew they wanted to be cops as little kids. It is in the blood -- or it was. 

Now being a Dallas Police officer is just a job for an alarming number of recruits. "It was here or that manager's spot at CiCi's, but ya'll called first..."

Police work, patrol work in particular (where the first 10 years of the job ends up being), is self paced with little field supervision.  We ride alone, not 3 or 4 to a car with the supervisor riding shotgun watching our every move.  You can go out there and look to put the bad guys in jail or you can answer a couple of loud music calls and never get out of your car. You can take that robbery report and look for weeks until you can identify and arrest the bad guy or you can write a few parking tickets.

Eight hours to spend however hard or slow you choose to work.  90% of the real police work is done by about 15% of the officers.  An ever growing percentage of new officers are clerks with guns.  

New officers should be highly motivated and hyper to the point it is annoying.  We are not paying enough to attract these type officers.  We are hiring clerks with guns. They hit the streets right off training and do nothing.  They can take that offense report just fine, but make no attempt to find the suspect.  Nor does our department require it.  No one has ever gotten in trouble for just taking a report.

Reports don't put bad guys in jail.  So often if the bad guy is not captured in the field quickly after the offense, the offense goes unsolved.  That offender is free to do more crime.  Free until he crosses the path of a wolf who snares him and deposits him in jail. 

These clerks with guns will promote through the ranks.  Being worthless will be the norm.  The pay issue is causing the top tier 15% officers to go elsewhere. The pay is not recruiting the top tier 15% officers either.  We are paying for clerks with guns. 

Our own department PIO has stated we can't fault people with questionable backgrounds and lowered standards for coming to the DPD to "better themselves."  We send addicts to rehab to "better themselves."  That probably should not be one of our recruit goals, but with the lowered pay we can't set obtainable recruiting goals. 

Unless this trend is reversed the department, the city, and most importantly the citizens will suffer.  We need a raise. 

Mayor Miller, have a mess to clean and stop the fleecing that has happened.  I am asking for a 5%, 8% and 8% for the next 3 years.  That gets us a little closer to being competitive again for decent recruits and allows you a full budget year to clean house. 

Please consider it.  I cannot go on strike. We've tried the lawsuit route.  I have no other option but to leave, and others like me will follow. We have been beat down too long.

A Beat Down Beat Cop