Quote:
Originally Posted by jolinar of malkshor
Just because the minimum educational requirement for the job is low doesn't mean that is who they are picking. As one poster already mentioned, getting a job with CPS is very competitive. I know a lot of people in the field and the majority of them (especially those with 10 yrs of service or less) have a degree. Including myself.
Now, forget the educational requirement for a moment. You cannot compare a police job with a regular civilian job. These people are required to carry a firearm, they are required to use deadly force if necessary, they are required to work in a very high stress job. Their decisions are always being challenged and seconded guessed by the public and the courts. They are required to give death notifications to families. They are required to interact with criminals, drug dealers, organized crime members. They are required to deal with people who have all kinds of diseases. They are required to think about others before themselves. There are a lot of other examples I could continue with.
If they are in the middle of a high stress situation where their life or someone elses life is in danger they can't just call the boss and say they are going home, they have to deal with it.
So forget any educational requirement and the above list alone justifies their salary.
And again, lets not forget that this is NOT their base salary. These people are WORKING extra for this money, no different if they went and took up a part time job. So your comment "absolutely ridiculous salary" is not only wrong (because it is not their salary) it is unjustified.
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So let me get this straight, we should throw aside educational requirments because they have high-stress jobs, are registered (to carry a gun), their decisions are constantly being scrutinized, have to make spur of the moment decisions, are relied upon by others........
Sound to me like any financial job in industry or at any of the firms or banks downtown. Only difference is most of the people in those positions have 4-8 years of post-secondary education, worked for peanuts for years (30K) to put themselves in a good financial position, have no pension, and next to no union support should they actually make an error. Sure these people don't have to carry a gun, but they have to maintain their status in certain professional organizations which are no walk in the park to maintain.
Wow, there's competition for police jobs..... Welcome to the real world. Ask any of the U of C students who graduated in the past 3 years how hard it was for them to get a job, assuming they have a job because most of them don't. The competition for the CPS Is nowhere near as fierce as you want people to believe either. I know of two relatively recent additions to the CPS. One has no education, the other has some in a completely unrelated field. Their prior work experience was as a night security guard. Can you imagine going to Nexen downtown and saying, " Hey, I have my high school degree, a couple of college classes, and limited work experience" and them giving you a 60K year job plus benefits? We just went through a pile of resumes, to interview 20 university grads to fill 4 positions. All of these people had to maintain a B average at minimum to even be looked at. That's competition.
I have no problem with Cops with say 10-15 years experience maxing out at 80K, or paying detective a premiums, but some of the guidelines posted above for constables is ridiculous with consideration of their pension benefits and the fact that they will be increased so quickly over a 5 year span.