Feeling the Heat-Police Laid off

Laid off Prospect Heights Officer

When I became a Police Officer fourteen years ago I knew that my employment was going to have a large trade off. I was going into a field that would be exciting, offer opportunities to enrich people’s daily lives and have a standard of job security not offered anywhere in the private sector. The trade off was I would not be able to take advantage of the economy when times were good and I would not be individually rewarded for my performance. The worst officer on the force makes the same as the best, even more if the worse has more time on. The promotions are not based on your performance but rather on your ability to answer a written test and your answers before an oral panel made up of the chief’s law enforcement’s friends, once every three years.


When times were good I would receive calls from my college buddies calling me stupid and lazy while their stock soared and they drove high-end BMW’s. When times were bad they would call and express their collective jealousy that they had been laid off while I was in no danger whatsoever of loosing mine. The trade off worked. Till Now.

Hoffman Estates-Laid off 4 Officers

Prospect Heights-Laid off 6 Officers

Naperville-Laid off 6 Officers

Other cities that have laid off police: Barrington, Calumet City, Downers Grove, Fox Lake, Highwood, Hinsdale, Hoffman Estates, Lake in the Hills, Lakemoor, Mundelein, Park Ridge, River Forest, Wauconda, Worth.

Story about Police Officers Laid Off

There have been over 300 officers laid off in Illinois this year alone.  That number does not include support staff who are easiler (due to lack of contact, no negative PR problems for the cities, etc)to lay off and their numbers easily are three times the number of police laid off.

So one of the major features of working in local law enforcement is slowly going away.
 

It has gotten so bad that even one of the major police academies The University of Illinois Police Training Institute (PTI) will be closing.  I never thought that would happen it has been a cash cow for the school for years.  But if no one is hiring police no police need to be trained. 

News Story About Closing of Institute.

I would not recommend anyone seek a career in law enforcement unless they would be going to the Federal level-they have not let anyone go...as of yet.  Why take a reduction in salary and the lack of opportunities for advancement if you are going to be subject to the swings in the economy equal to the private sector?  While I have loved this job if I was just entering the job market I would have sought opportunity elsewhere.

Wow if only these Municipalities had done this:

 Genesis 41:34-36

 

34 Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. 35 They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food. 36 This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine.”


Christian cop, Christian law enforcment, Christian police, Christian Officer