12 years here, stay safe brother and sisters!!!!

Hopefully I'm doing this right. Retired in 09 after 30 years in LE with most of them in K9. Now a contract trainer for a fed agency training explosive K9's. Good to see this room.

Good idea doing the short bio... I've been at it since 1989, 11 years with the first agency as patrol officer, detective and patrol sergeant, 10 years now with second agency, patrol, detective sergeant, patrol sergeant and now....drumroll please....sergeant in charge of property & evidence and code enforcement. Don't laugh, it's Tuesday through Friday, 7-5 with 3 day weekends!!

edit: Almost forgot...I am also an "alternate" motor sergeant. And loving it!

Don't worry stro. Somebody has to work in property and evidence. LoL. My former job civilianized the jobs in there with the top guy reporting to a Capt. I believe. We are getting snow tonight so no riding here. I just bought some heated gear but no snow tires yet for the bike.

Another thing. (Don't want to hog this room-----I'm supposed to be working on my honey do list) It was nice to see on the thread by T-Dub (?) about cops being careful where so many posters coming on expressing sentiments about cops being careful and thanks. I'm so used to so many FTP threads that this was a nice surprise. Also, I saw a short article on the net today where an officer with the Alexandria, VA PD wrote a bicyclist a speeding ticket of 31/25. When I first saw it I was like oh shit. But I'm familiar with that area and many of the bike riders are out of control so maybe it was well deserved.

Our P&E has been run by civilians for years, and it shows. I am the first "boss" they've had. They no likey me so much right now.

5.5 years with two small agencies and the last 7 with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. For you Florida guys, if you haven't heard yet, they're putting forth a bill in the Florida house to cut our pension benefits in half and extend the minimum retirement to 25 years service/55 years of age to get a 40% pension. This includes all local municipalities as well, since the state insures our pensions.

40%. Are they insane?

The cutting of the pensions / lack of pay is one of the reasons I got out of LE and went to contract work. Though I have to admit I really miss pushing around the back and white ghetto shed.

As I tell others, most of us get into this for the excitement & adventure. After that wears off, we stay for the pension. It's never because of the pay. If they cut the pension then I will have no other reason to stay. If I left today my pension amount would be $11,500/year (just based on my 7 years with JSO), but if the new changes take effect, I will have to work another 18 years to have a pension of roughly $24,000/year (at today's salary scale anyway). Another 18 years for that? If it passes I'll be looking to other states to move to. I hate Florida anyway, so maybe it's a blessing in disguise. Wyoming sounds nice, maybe I'll look there.