cash grab

[thgear]

its all a cash grab

http://www.thestar.com/article/609928


" Under the Toronto Police Association collective agreement, police officers who attend court as witnesses during a scheduled off day are paid a minimum four hours, at 1.5 times their basic wage, even if the appearance lasts for 10 minutes. Officers receive three hours of pay at time and a half if they appear in court before beginning a regularly scheduled shift.

There is no cap on how many overtime hours an officer can work. "

[Steve Moore]

Serge, are you suggesting police officers should not be fairly compensated for going to court on their days off?

Those officers earning $100,000 + are always in court, doing paid duties and never home...to each their own. But if they work that hard they should be paid for it, no different than any other profession.

I like seeing my family, raising my sons, spending my days off racing. Not to mention I want to live in the house I pay for.

How bout you start a thread complaining about Firefighters sleeping on the job. They work seven days a month, 24 hours a day, they sleep, cook, wash their car, play road hockey and still make more than the average cop.

I shoulda been a hose jockey

[slucas]

Serge;if you get called in to work and then sent home 10 min. later, you too will be paid for four hours. It's the law. And it's a good one.

[thgear]

Originally Posted by Steve Moore

Serge, are you suggesting police officers should not be fairly compensated for going to court on their days off?

this is not fair compensation, this is far above fair compensation.

a police officer should get rewarded for his job putting his life on the line, to serve and protect, chasing criminals, going undercover, dealing with loads of stress. Hell pay them more, i'm for it.

a police officer should not get 1.5 times THAT for sitting in court talking with his buddies

Originally Posted by Steve Moore

Those officers earning $100,000 + are always in court, doing paid duties and never home...to each their own. But if they work that hard they should be paid for it, no different than any other profession.

ive been to the court room Steve, as far as i understand, a police officer is only responsible to present facts and stand witness. You consider that work that deserves 1.5 pay on top of a (relativly) large pay grade?

now, we are talking about traffic court only, murder cases and complex drug busts are outside of this topic.

Originally Posted by Steve Moore

I like seeing my family, raising my sons, spending my days off racing. Not to mention I want to live in the house I pay for.

at the expensive of government money?

Originally Posted by Steve Moore

How bout you start a thread complaining about Firefighters sleeping on the job. They work seven days a month, 24 hours a day, they sleep, cook, wash their car, play road hockey and still make more than the average cop.

I shoulda been a hose jockey

their salary is budgeted, this is a different issue.

Originally Posted by slucas

Serge;if you get called in to work and then sent home 10 min. later, you too will be paid for four hours. It's the law. And it's a good one.

for OVERTIME?

this is an issue where a person already recieves a set salary, he/she does not have to worry about putting food down on the table, this is all extra cash.

[Doug P]

Originally Posted by thgear

this is not fair compensation, this is far above fair compensation.

a police officer should get rewarded for his job putting his life on the line, to serve and protect, chasing criminals, going undercover, dealing with loads of stress. Hell pay them more, i'm for it.

a police officer should not get 1.5 times THAT for sitting in court talking with his buddies




ive been to the court room Steve, as far as i understand, a police officer is only responsible to present facts and stand witness. You consider that work that deserves 1.5 pay on top of a (relativly) large pay grade?

now, we are talking about traffic court only, murder cases and complex drug busts are outside of this topic.



at the expensive of government money?



their salary is budgeted, this is a different issue.




for OVERTIME?

this is an issue where a person already recieves a set salary, he/she does not have to worry about putting food down on the table, this is all extra cash.

I had to think about whether I should comment or not, but this is by far the stupidest post I have ever seen.

[thgear]

Originally Posted by Doug Phillips

I had to think about whether I should comment or not, but this is by far the stupidest post I have ever seen.

you insult me and you provide little argument, very pedestrian.

Or are you so inept that typing anything more than a single sentence strains your brain?

[finboy]

how old are you?

[Steve Moore]

Doug, when Serge is off his meds his posts dont make any sense. Come to think of it........when do they?

[thgear]

Originally Posted by finboy

how old are you?

im 24, how old are you?

[thgear]

Originally Posted by Steve Moore

Doug, when Serge is off his meds his posts dont make any sense. Come to think of it........when do they?

i'm just quoting the article Steve, its all there.

you get 1.5 times your regular salary to go to traffic court and you can rake up as much of this "overtime work" as you can.

and the bigger issue here is this unspoken "quota" of senseless traffic violations that cops are wasting their time writing out.

seriously, i dont even think you guys bothered to read the article i posted, that thing is like 4 pages long.

EDIT: a perfect example of this was my ticket on Tuesday, March 31st.

my dads birthday is march 14th, and the car is still in his name, since i havent lived with them forawhile i never got that renewal sheet, but in the back of my head i knew that by the end of March i had to get a new sticker.

i had a whole plan laid out in my hand, April 1st i put the car in the garage, and start taking the TTC, then when i would find the time (because Toronto MTO kiosks are always full to the brim) i would go and get a sticker so i can take the car out in emergencies.

i get pulled over by a cop who was behind me while i was making a left hand turn and he just asks for my papers, i ahvent a clue why. He comes back tells me that "my plate is expire", and i'm like "yeah, March, its still march" and he tells me "no, its march 14th" and gets back in his car.

now i have a 110 ticket!

and you know whats going to happen?

i'm going to go to court, show them my renewed sticker, and they will drop the ticket.

he seriously could not have let me off with a warning?

i thanked him politely for making the city streets safer by making me fork over some cash, which, according to the article, the city will only see a fraction of if i actually end up paying it.

[Steve Moore]

Serge, if we go to court while we are on duty we do not get paid anything extra. If we go off duty we get 3hrs minimum at time and a half, if we go on a day off we get 4 hrs minimum. So if your there 10min or 3hrs and 59min you still get 4 hrs.

Court is court, nothing different for Judge and Jury trials right down to Parking Tickets.

How can you expect Cops in court on duty when they are needed on the road keeping the city from anarchy.

Toronto is not the same city I started working in 20 years ago, I certainly wont be encouraging my sons to follow in my shoes.

[thgear]

Originally Posted by Steve Moore

Serge, if we go to court while we are on duty we do not get paid anything extra. If we go off duty we get 3hrs minimum at time and a half, if we go on a day off we get 4 hrs minimum. So if your there 10min or 3hrs and 59min you still get 4 hrs.

Court is court, nothing different for Judge and Jury trials right down to Parking Tickets.

How can you expect Cops in court on duty when they are needed on the road keeping the city from anarchy.

Toronto is not the same city I started working in 20 years ago, I certainly wont be encouraging my sons to follow in my shoes.

as the article outlined in the later sections, there are many things that could be done to get cops out of the court room doing more meaningful things.

1. driver education (something i have been a strong proponent for awhile now)
2. dont write dinky tickets (as per my post edit above), write less tickets, spend less time in court.
3. dont make it so easy for people to go to court (as per my previous post about 3 months ago where i went to court and had my speeding ticket reduced)

point two and three go very well together, write less tickets, be more forgiving, but make tickets that you do write stick more.

and to summerize:

a) the system is flawed
b) some cops take advantage of this system
c) there ARE solutions

i am not making anything up, the article, its all in there, i'm just putting my spin on it.

[Trackside]

Well there is an option.

We could make sure that all the police officers and the courts should get together and schedule all the court appearances to fall on days when they are on shift.

Then you would have the choice of reducing the police force actively enforcing the laws of the land or sitting in court to provide evidence for people they have already caught breaking the laws.

Personally I would rather have the police officers on the street for their regular shifts and gladly pay them time and a half for their overtime in the courts.

Oh and your argument that the firefighters are different because it is budgeted doesn't fly. The police budget also includes overtime for officers, any company or budget person who doesn't include these sort of things in a budget isn't doing their job.

[thgear]

Originally Posted by Trackside

Oh and your argument that the firefighters are different because it is budgeted doesn't fly. The police budget also includes overtime for officers, any company or budget person who doesn't include these sort of things in a budget isn't doing their job.

if its budgeted, why is it such a surprise?

as someone that works in accounting, i can tell you right now, no one would ever budget an empoloyee doubling his salary through overtime.

[Trackside]

I don't understand why anyone is surprised. It isn't the first time that it has happened. Research some articles around the same time each year and I bet you will find that it has happened every year for a long time.

As for budgeting for a person to double their wages no, but then again when I set budgets I do not go person by person either. I go by, in my case departments, and if a department has a salary of x$ and projections show the need or potential need for overtime allotment then it is set up in the budget.

Don't forget budgets are a guideline not carved in stone, and they are rarely accurate to the penny