Wrapped In The Mantle

Dear First Responders:

You play the hero card a lot.

You rarely do anything heroic.

While heroism is exhibited and virtue displayed by some exceptional officers.

How many times have you dodged the expectations of your communities in the name of "officer safety".

How many citizens are dead because of those two words?

A profession with some shreds of decency and honor would never have gone to court to create a ruling that they had no obligation to do the job that The People want done.

Yes, I am bitter about this.

What you get paid is a matter of record, I can go look it up.

Pasco pays $39 to $41 thousand a year for a deputy sheriff, the lowest rank.  That doesn't seem like much, does it?

Full medical, zero out of pocket.  The value of this is jello with a nail in it.  This is, on average, a $40k a year benefit.

No employee contribution pension plan which will pay the full salary and medical upon retirement in as few as 15 years.  This is a near $100k a year benefit if you try matching it with doing the same with a 401k.

So our hapless deputy is really making $179 to $181 thousand a year.

Pasco is also well known for "grossly underpaying" the officers compared to the two counties to the south and has a retention problem because of it.

As far as the dangers of the job go, since its founding in 1887, the Pasco County Sheriff's Department has suffered FIVE deaths in the line of duty.  That's nearly 0.04 deaths per year!