30% jump in six-figure salaries in D.C. police department

The number of D.C. police officers getting six-figure salaries has risen sharply in the past four years even as the number of sworn officers patrolling city streets has fallen to a level Chief Cathy Lanier called troubling. The police department is paying 81 members at least $110,000 annually, for a near 30 percent increase of six-figure earners since 2007, when the department had 63. Lanier became chief in January 2007.

She told the D.C. Council last week that the department has 3,879 sworn officers and many are expected to retire in coming months. There's no cash in the city's tight budget to hire more, she said. "Once we go below 3,800, we're going to have trouble," Lanier testified. That reduction in street officers comes as the city has seen a bump in crime. Property theft has gone up in the first 2 1/2 months of 2011, the Washington Post reported.

The jobs of the department's top earners range from field commanders to office staff, including one inspector earning $110,730 this year who recently testified that his primary job is to check Lanier's email.

"I want the salaries to be examined," said Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry, who sits on the council's public safety committee. "It should be going to the officers on the street."

Lanier said in a statement to The Washington Examiner that those who earn six-figure salaries "get no overtime or comp time and they work on average 12-14 hours a day. ... I assure you they all work hard for their positions."

Lanier is the highest paid, with a $219,755 annual salary, according to documents sent to the council. The next-highest paid is Lanier's chief of staff, Alfred Durham, who earns $178,178 annually.

But Lanier told The Examiner that Durham is not her chief of staff, he's the "Executive Officer of the Department." She said her actual chief of staff is Inspector Ralph Ennis. Last month, Ennis said during a deposition that he earns his $110,730 annual salary as a Lanier aide. "I pretty much oversee her calendar to make sure her days go smoothly," Ennis testified. "I watch her email, I do a little bit of everything."

The falling numbers of city police officers was explored at a city council hearing last week.

At-large Councilman Phil Mendelson, who heads the public safety committee, told Lanier the department's budget was large enough that the city should be able to avoid dropping below 3,800 sworn officers.

"I don't understand how we got to this point where we're looking at that as a possibility," Mendelson said. Lanier promised to look into how the department's money was being spent.

Police union chief Kris Baumann said, "It's very hard for the public to understand why we have so many top officials, when we're losing police officers at such a dangerous rate."

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/dc/2011/03/30-percent-jump-six-figure-salaries-dc-police-department#ixzz1IBmeQbRW

For those of you who drink the law enforcement koolaid and think that police are underpaid.

and That reduction in street officers comes as the city has seen a bump in crime. Property theft has gone up in the first 2 1/2 months of 2011, the Washington Post reported.

Doubtful if there is a correlation. Especially since DC is notorious for using poice as revenue collecting agents. Let them spend less time writing traffic tickets and looking for cigarette tax violators and more time dealing with real crime.

Actually, I’d like to see just one DC cop write a traffic ticket.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Actually, they have a very proficient ‘Traffic Bureau’. There used to be talk of just getting the ‘ticket writers’ to be the cops because they seemed to ‘magically’ appear at meters just prior to expiring, so by either being ‘creative’ or just standing there for a minute or two, they catch a ‘criminal’ just as the meter clicks.

You have to live in the DC area to get the full brunt (which they are having trouble keeping under wraps) BUT one of the Mayoral candidates was SUPPOSEDLY offered big bucks to continue throwing slime at the incumbent.
The candidate was SUPPOSEDLY paid not only CASH, but WAS given one of those plush 100,000 ++++ jobs for his dirty deeds.
He complained and ‘blew the whistle’ but got fired for his actions and is now suing.
The “NEW MAYOR” also signed up about 6 people and paid them OVER the salary cap.
His Chief of Staff has already resigned and the recipients of the LARGE SALARIES have had their salaries somewhat reduced. (ALLEGEDLY)
Also former mayor MARION BERRY is a Ward Council Member and his ward has an unemployment rate of 25+%...
So now DC has as its citizens, (for the most part), poor, unemployed (and unemployable) minorities, a large STRONG gay community and various yuppies moving into the down trodden neighborhoods, plus the ‘old line’ rich in their gated enclaves.
ALSO—It is being claimed that at least 2 (and probably many more) schools were changing the grades of students to put the system in a better light... I am not sure (well??) if this is just a slam on Michelle Rhee (??) or not but it is a shot across the bow to the citizens to make sure ‘you keep your own’ in positions of power.
They interviewed on of the ‘concerned parents’ (and IMNSHO he not only looked like but sounded like he couldn’t spell cat if you gave him the K AND A) said his daughter got out of Middle School ‘with honors’ and (he said) she couldn’t add, divide or spell very well when they moved to one of the suburbs schools.

Ah politics, where everything changes but remains the same.

In a related subject - former Prince Georges County (where all the Black DC money relocated) executive was indicted, along with his wife, for bribery and other criminal activity.

He was voted out (nothing surprising, just natural) but his wife was elected to the PG Board of Supervisors (prior to indictment) and is now sitting in her ‘chair’ while her indictments ‘pile up’.
Guess they will next vote her as CHAIRMAN because she knows how to ‘play the angles’.

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