TexasCHLforum.com

srothstein wrote: ↑Tue Sep 12, 2023 7:52 pm

Excaliber wrote: ↑Tue Sep 12, 2023 8:43 am The mayor pleads ignorance, but he and the city council approve the budget for the agency. The salaries and benefits for all those officers and the costs of their vehicles, equipment, and other support has to be eye popping. The required funds may have come largely from the revenue from the 5100 annual citations written. That could be around $1.75 million.

I think there's much more here than meets the eye, and the issues likely permeate the city's leadership beyond the police department. "Aw shucks, I didn't know" is unlikely to cut it with TCOLE.

What you and many seem to be missing on this is that 50 officers is not really quite as many as you think and is no where near as expensive as you think. It is probably only two paid officers and 48 unpaid part-time officers (what we used to call reserves). In a very small town, it is the only way to get a police officer on duty all the time. The part-timers, if it is like the town I work in, each donate two eight hour shifts per month. Figure there are twenty-one shifts per week to cover, that makes about 90 per month. Forty-eight officers covering two each means 96 shifts covered, which allows for a few being sick or on training days each month.

And it is also quite possible that many of the officers never worked at all. It is common in small towns for the chief to be retired from a larger department. Quite often he will carry the commission for his friends without making them ever work as a reservist. They have to show up for training and weapons qualifications to keep their licenses active, but that is it. This practice predates LEOSA and was started as a way for the retirees to keep carrying. It is not nearly as necessary as it was, but some old traditions don't die easily.

These reserves and just carrying the commissions would make the mayor's ignorance quite believable.