'Exodus' continues at the Dallas Police Department

[txdpd]

Great article by a guy that has been turning over slimy rocks, journalistically speaking, for years in Dallas. I shared that article on FB and got some traction. Dallas continues its slide towards Detroitville.

Unfortunately it's not just Dallas. A lot of what's happening with DPFP is getting pushed by John Arnold and the Arnold foundation. I think Dallas is going to be the first case in a serious push to destroy public pensions in Texas, and move people over to defined contributions. The current outlook is no matter what happened in Dallas over the last 25 years, Police Officers and Firefighters are going to take the financial hit and the city is going to be absolved of most of it's responsibility. TMRS will be next.

I was in in-service training, out of 50 officers in the room, 80% were planning on being retired or separating from DPD in the next five years, that included a lot of 10-15 year officers. I'm in that boat, my retirement plans just looked like they went from 12 more years at DPD and taking a early retirement at 46, to having to put in 24 more years at DPD and hope there's something left in the pot at the end of the rainbow. No thanks.

[Rex G]

Meanwhile, a provision in the house bill for the Houston PD pension will likely prompt anyone with more than about 25 years of service to retire by the end of 2017, to avoid a recalculation of the monthly pension benefit. I had thought I would stay until well into 2018, perhaps reaching 35 years of sworn service in March 2019, but depending upon how this bill is negotiated/amended, might be a private citizen within a matter of weeks or months.

[HCM]

SAPD puts billboard in Dallas, hopes to recruit officers

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Police Department is looking to add some experienced officers to its ranks.

The department put up a billboard in Dallas saying, "Strong pension. Hiring officers." SAPD hopes this will help recruit Dallas police officers who are leaving that force due to pension problems.

http://www.kens5.com/news/local/sapd...cers/429119327

[TGS]

SAPD puts billboard in Dallas, hopes to recruit officers




http://www.kens5.com/news/local/sapd...cers/429119327

That's almost as bad as back when big agencies from across the nation would have recruiters in NYC to grab up the NYPD guys leaving in droves.....

[txdpd]

And I guarantee you San Antonio will get every spot they want filled with a well trained Dallas officer. There are a lot of recently hired officers that came to Dallas from out of state and moving a little further south isn't much of an issue.

[Rex G]

And I guarantee you San Antonio will get every spot they want filled with a well trained Dallas officer. There are a lot of recently hired officers that came to Dallas from out of state and moving a little further south isn't much of an issue.

Some Houston PD officers are looking into moving to SAPD, too, especially those who have 20+ years, but are young enough to start somewhere else, to work on a second pension, now that our pension and D.R.O.P. are being modified by the leglators in Austin. Among other things, there is a multi-year moratorium on pension COLAs after this year. Twenty-and-out was the norm before D.R.O.P. was started, and the new norm, for those hired post-2004, may become using HPD as a stepping-stone, leaving for opportunities elsewhere as soon as they are vested.

I am too old to start-over anywhere that requires a physical agility test. (Well, age 55.5 is not so old, and my duty belt size has not changed since I was a skinny cadet, in 1983/1984, but my knees and right shoulder/arm/wrist/thumb have just about aged-out of passing any PD's physical exam.) Fortunately, I played my financial cards very conservatively, but well enough, so can walk away at any time, and be reasonably comfortable. The local assassination of Assistant Chief Deputy Constable Greenwood, who had previously been a Major with the Sheriff's Office, and a prosecutor with the D.A., has my wife reminding me, on a daily basis, that we have enough to enable me to retire. (She is recently retired from the Harris County M.E., having worked as a death scene investigator until that toxic-environment job almost killed her.)

[DocGKR]

rojocorsa--look south and west, not east...

[LSP552]

Meanwhile, a provision in the house bill for the Houston PD pension will likely prompt anyone with more than about 25 years of service to retire by the end of 2017, to avoid a recalculation of the monthly pension benefit. I had thought I would stay until well into 2018, perhaps reaching 35 years of sworn service in March 2019, but depending upon how this bill is negotiated/amended, might be a private citizen within a matter of weeks or months.

There is life after retirement, Brother!

[Depmur]

Some Houston PD officers are looking into moving to SAPD, too, especially those who have 20+ years, but are young enough to start somewhere else, to work on a second pension, now that our pension and D.R.O.P. are being modified by the leglators in Austin. Among other things, there is a multi-year moratorium on pension COLAs after this year. Twenty-and-out was the norm before D.R.O.P. was started, and the new norm, for those hired post-2004, may become using HPD as a stepping-stone, leaving for opportunities elsewhere as soon as they are vested.

I am too old to start-over anywhere that requires a physical agility test. (Well, age 55.5 is not so old, and my duty belt size has not changed since I was a skinny cadet, in 1983/1984, but my knees and right shoulder/arm/wrist/thumb have just about aged-out of passing any PD's physical exam.) Fortunately, I played my financial cards very conservatively, but well enough, so can walk away at any time, and be reasonably comfortable. The local assassination of Assistant Chief Deputy Constable Greenwood, who had previously been a Major with the Sheriff's Office, and a prosecutor with the D.A., has my wife reminding me, on a daily basis, that we have enough to enable me to retire. (She is recently retired from the Harris County M.E., having worked as a death scene investigator until that toxic-environment job almost killed her.)

I retired last year and took a investigator's job with the state. My main motivation has more to do with medical insurance than money. The state of Texas has pretty decent retiree benefits and assuming I continue to bank their pay in 10 years I should be set pretty well. My county retirement continues to amaze me, hard to believe how little I actually lost by retiring <$350.00 per month.


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[secondstoryguy]

We host a lot of classes at my Dept which is not far from San Antonio. One of their guys put a recruiting flyer on our board and the signing bonus was pretty juicy for experienced officers. With the cost of living being reasonable down there I don't doubt that the will fill their ranks pretty quickly.

On another note our testing has been pretty sad. 300 or so sign up for testing with only about 60-70 being left after the physical portion. We are changing to different physical testing (a rowing test on a concept 2 rower) so I suspect future test are going to have higher success rates.