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34 minutes ago, Bevo said:

What would y’all do to motivate the police? If your children wanted to be policemen in Austin, what would you tell them about the job? Would those words encourage such a career? 

Do your children enjoy sugary breakfast treats and watching YouTube videos in an idling car?

Posted

Some stuff I looked up:

How much does an Austin Police Officer make?

Base Pay:

  • While in academy, $60,000 per year.  After graduation, base pay rises to $70,644
  • After 1 year, base pay rises to $79,277
  • After 2 years, base pay rises to $87,498
  • After 10 years, base pay hits $100,176 .. and tops out at $118,132

Officers can earn overtime pay and other pay stipends based on language skills, certifications, education, etc.  These might add $10,000 or so to base pay, for those that qualify.

This job requires a high school diploma or GED, US citizenship, a drivers license, the ability to read, write and speak English, and either 12 semester hours of college credit or 2 years in the military or two years of work experience.  You have to be 20.5 years of age to enter the academy.  You can graduate high school, work two years somewhere, and you are good to apply.

The job comes with health benefits and a pension.  Officers get 150 hours of vacation, 150 hours of sick leave, 88 hours of holiday leave, three personal holidays and 16 hours of wellness leave.  Officers work four 10 hour days in a row, then have three days off.  At 10 hrs per day, they have about 43 days of leave per year, if you add up all of their vacation/sick/personal/etc.  They can take an additional 120 hours for military leave.

Most of my data is from here: https://www.austintexas.gov/apdrecruiting/pay-benefits

How dangerous is it to be an Austin Police Officer?

I could not find data on officer injuries, but the city lists 29 officers killed in the line of duty from 1875-2025:

https://www.austintexas.gov/page/officers-killed-line-duty

I count eleven that were killed by gun violence and fourteen killed in a vehicular collision.  One had a heart attack.

Three were killed by COVID in Fall 2021, which was after vaccines were rolled out.  Either they didn't get the shot or were unlucky.

The police department has about 1500 officers.  It's possible to die on the job as a police officer, but it's not common.  You are as likely to be killed in a crash as you are by a gun.

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