New York cops fed up with skimpy starting pay can move to Los Angeles, where they’ll get beaches, bikinis – and $52,638 a year, says the New York Daily News. “We’ve got Malibu and sunshine,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine, a 38-year Los Angeles police veteran, who was stunned to hear New York cops now start at $25,100. L.A. not only pays its rookies well, but it is considering a $5,000 signing bonus, because the city is still having trouble wooing recruits. “What person is going to work for [about] $26,000 a year?” Zine said. “It’s poverty level. That leads to corruption.”
New York’s plans to put 800 extra cops on the streets have been stymied by the paltry starting salary. “Nobody questions the fact that if we could pay more at the starting end, you would have more people interested in one of the great jobs in law enforcement and, arguably, one of the great jobs in the country,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He had hoped to hire 800 new cops by tomorrow, but the department is likely several hundred bodies short of its target of 37,838. New York City ended last year with a head count of 35,750.
Link: http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/487036p-410007c.html