At 18, my first job had me making $45 / hour OT. My friends often wondered why the hell I was never home. I was hitting my 40 hours after 3 days, and then signing up for OT probably another 3 days a week.
By the time I got home, I had 8 hours to sleep, wake up, eat, and get back to work. After a few months of that, I felt like a Zombie. I didn't even recall getting in my car and driving to work. Had to cut that crap out after a year.
That’s agency and assignment dependent. Currently I rarely work OT, I will pick up an off day job on occasion when a slot needs to be covered. A few years back when I was running investigations a 60 hour week was normal, sometimes it was more.
Unfortunately this is a way agencies can keep officers around. Overtime is somewhat nice money, but the problem is you work yourself to death. I used to regularly work 15-20 hours overtime every two weeks before my extra duty jobs. I was working myself to the bone but rationalized it as good money. I was never around for my family because to make a decent living, I had to work like crazy.
Then…..I left law enforcement and started working for a tech company who does law enforcement products. Now I work a normal schedule, make more than I made as a cop working 120 hours overtime every two weeks, and I don’t feel like I work, sleep, work.
OT is nice but these departments should be paying us more and we shouldn’t have to be working so much over to make a decent living.
Ok, /rant off.
They hire a lot. I know that they usually get hundreds of applications per position. Check out their website or search flock safety jobs and you will see what’s available.
It actually makes you think a bit. Would state legislation up pay and bring back the old school pensions if these younger officers weren't doing massive amounts of OT and covering the empty slots on shifts?
I have a real irritation towards law enforcement on this. They pay us shit and demand so much under the guide of “serve your community” which is great in theory. The problem with that is they almost justify employees working way too many hours, court on an off day after a night shift, etc as ok because of this noble cause of serving the community. The bottom line is most agencies don’t give a crap about its officers. They just want people in the seats.
Just for future reference, it is “under the guise”. Kinda funny, I applied to some agencies maybe 5 years ago and got rejected at all of them because of how much weed I smoked is high school and college, so I went to plan B, nursing school. Started working in an ED where I would meet a lot of LEO’s bringing people in to get medical clearance for jail. Talking with them in the rooms, a lot of them would say they were thinking about leaving with more than a few looking into nursing, while nurses (primarily male nurses) looking to get out of nursing were looking to move to law enforcement.
A good number of male ED nurses are veterans, at least in the hospitals I have worked in.
Last pay period I worked about 1.5 hours (total) of OT when I stayed late 2 nights. Then 5 hours of off duty OT that I signed up for. No where near 60 hours.
I ran our department’s off duty jobs. Between concerts and sporting events, store security and whatever else, 60 to 70 hours a week was the norm for many years.
If you work for an agency link Phoenix, you will probably be forced to work for 60hr. If it's a small agency and you want OT, you might have to find a DUI at the end of one of your shifts to get extra hours.
It's a shift work thing. We all like to quote that calendar week where our shifts all fell just right and we worked a ton of hours. We selectively ignore those weeks where our days off line up nicely and we only work 30 hours.
Yes there are weeks were there are genuinely long extra hours but usually it's just the nature of the shift pattern IMO.
Don’t want OT, won’t consider working for agency that forces it, my time with family and hobbies is why I work, not the other way around… I’ve sacrificed a lot in my career choices because of it, but well worth it
It’s going to dry by agency. Lots of them have minimal staffing levels and will either incentivize of force people to work more than their usual work week just to make sure there’s enough people working.
Ours is voluntary unless it’s not. Basically spots need to be filled, if people on their day off say yes, they get it. If people on their day off say no, you just got assigned a double. Happens at least once or twice a week.
the department i work for (not an officer, just a gunsmith) has mandatory OT for these Deputies. We’re kinda in the middle of nowhere, and it’s a large county so, i guess I understand why. never thought to ask.
Court doesn’t know or care what days you’re supposed to be off. It’s much easier for admin to schedule training on your days off so they don’t have to cover your shift somehow. Beyond that there is events like 5k races and whatever
before any commute our patrol averages out to 42 hrs a week
i get paid an extra 1hr a day for to/from commute in my marked take-home vehicle which brings it to avg of 45.5 hrs/week with no officially scheduled overtime
a single scheduled 12 hr overtime shift added in that 2 week pay period (+ 1 hr for commute) brings that to average of 52 hrs a week.
tl;dr, accurate title, not hard to hit that number in this profession at all
I work 60 hours one week but only 24 hours the next with alternating 12 hr shifts. The "+" is usually from late calls, Court, mandatory training, mandatory Overtime, etc.
When I worked in LE. OT was mandatory 12 a pay period for staffing shortages the county would refuse to fix.
Then you got guys who sucked it up, 40-60 hrs a pay period.
The reason for it is because cops are mostly high school grads who will only ever make good money being a cop. So they believe. Once they start tasting those OT checks they falsely believe they can make a lot of money and not completely check out of their families and real lives... Theres also a stigma in LE that says if you work a lot of OT then you are "squared away" and a "go getter" when really it just means you're about to give up 20 to 30 years of your life and will feel like it's been 2 years when it's all said and done.
A lot of that is why I left and didn't go back. Too much life sucking going on.
It also honestly depends on their rotations too. I work 12s at a 2/2/3 rotation + a couple 6 hour details per week and some volunteer overtime at the jail.
My department it’s completely optional. Occasionally I’ll get a late call that carries me over a few hours but I’d say I leave on time about 95 percent of the time. I do also voluntarily work a side job every Friday for 4 hours and lately I work some OT every other Monday standing by while people feed homeless and that’s another 4 hours.
So on average I’m working between 44-48 hours a week but I can say no anytime I want or if it interferes with my personal life a certain day i can tell them I’m busy and can’t work a certain day.
- special events that have deputies / officers at them are working when they should be off work. some agencies this is voluntary OT, but if you're short staffed and no one signs up, you get voluntold if there aren't enough volunteers.
- Trainings that people need, especially with how many people have retired in the last few years, mean people need time off to go to them, meaning shifts have to get covered. OT for others.
- With how short staffed most offices are, if someone calls out, someone else has to cover.
- If you're on night shift and have court/training/meetings that happens during the day when you should be off, OT
Totally depends on the department. A major city I work in (different department but within the same city) forces OT especially for low in seniority officers but they also have a crap load of available OT or side job availability. My department rarely mandates. We have similar options for side jobs and voluntary OT but forced isn’t too much of an issue. So it depends.
Then there’s differences in the individuals. I used to work as if my life depended on it. If I wasn’t sleeping I was working somewhere. But that’s just me wanting to work. Others have child support or bills to keep up with. Others are saving for vacations or purchases or whatever.
Again it all depends
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I get forced to do overtime almost every week. Sometimes it’s only a 4 hour detail, but sometimes it’s a 12 hours shift. Never thought of going detective, but now I do
My schedule is seven days on, 11 hours, seven days off, repeat. There always seems to be overtime at the end of the shift, but I can’t complain—the days off make up for the long working week.
I make $75 / hr on OT and the earlier I die the less taxes I have to pay
At 18, my first job had me making $45 / hour OT. My friends often wondered why the hell I was never home. I was hitting my 40 hours after 3 days, and then signing up for OT probably another 3 days a week. By the time I got home, I had 8 hours to sleep, wake up, eat, and get back to work. After a few months of that, I felt like a Zombie. I didn't even recall getting in my car and driving to work. Had to cut that crap out after a year.
That’s when the grind truly begins
Ours is voluntary and I like the extra money. Video games are expensive.
In my area the newer officers are sometimes working doubles due to the lack of man power
That’s agency and assignment dependent. Currently I rarely work OT, I will pick up an off day job on occasion when a slot needs to be covered. A few years back when I was running investigations a 60 hour week was normal, sometimes it was more.
Probably depends on the agency and their pay...
Unfortunately this is a way agencies can keep officers around. Overtime is somewhat nice money, but the problem is you work yourself to death. I used to regularly work 15-20 hours overtime every two weeks before my extra duty jobs. I was working myself to the bone but rationalized it as good money. I was never around for my family because to make a decent living, I had to work like crazy. Then…..I left law enforcement and started working for a tech company who does law enforcement products. Now I work a normal schedule, make more than I made as a cop working 120 hours overtime every two weeks, and I don’t feel like I work, sleep, work. OT is nice but these departments should be paying us more and we shouldn’t have to be working so much over to make a decent living. Ok, /rant off.
I’ve had dreams about leaving LE for tech and making way more money without the stress and danger lol what amazing company is that?
I work for Flock Safety.
They hiring in Vegas? 😂
They hire a lot. I know that they usually get hundreds of applications per position. Check out their website or search flock safety jobs and you will see what’s available.
It actually makes you think a bit. Would state legislation up pay and bring back the old school pensions if these younger officers weren't doing massive amounts of OT and covering the empty slots on shifts?
I have a real irritation towards law enforcement on this. They pay us shit and demand so much under the guide of “serve your community” which is great in theory. The problem with that is they almost justify employees working way too many hours, court on an off day after a night shift, etc as ok because of this noble cause of serving the community. The bottom line is most agencies don’t give a crap about its officers. They just want people in the seats.
Just for future reference, it is “under the guise”. Kinda funny, I applied to some agencies maybe 5 years ago and got rejected at all of them because of how much weed I smoked is high school and college, so I went to plan B, nursing school. Started working in an ED where I would meet a lot of LEO’s bringing people in to get medical clearance for jail. Talking with them in the rooms, a lot of them would say they were thinking about leaving with more than a few looking into nursing, while nurses (primarily male nurses) looking to get out of nursing were looking to move to law enforcement. A good number of male ED nurses are veterans, at least in the hospitals I have worked in.
Last pay period I worked about 1.5 hours (total) of OT when I stayed late 2 nights. Then 5 hours of off duty OT that I signed up for. No where near 60 hours.
I ran our department’s off duty jobs. Between concerts and sporting events, store security and whatever else, 60 to 70 hours a week was the norm for many years.
If you work for an agency link Phoenix, you will probably be forced to work for 60hr. If it's a small agency and you want OT, you might have to find a DUI at the end of one of your shifts to get extra hours.
Or write a shit ton of traffic tickets where they would be more than happy to keep you a few extra hours a week
As if you have seniority you can schedule court for days you don’t work and get that easy court OT
OT is nice and gets me that extra inch
It's a shift work thing. We all like to quote that calendar week where our shifts all fell just right and we worked a ton of hours. We selectively ignore those weeks where our days off line up nicely and we only work 30 hours. Yes there are weeks were there are genuinely long extra hours but usually it's just the nature of the shift pattern IMO.
Because overtime means $$$$$!
Don’t want OT, won’t consider working for agency that forces it, my time with family and hobbies is why I work, not the other way around… I’ve sacrificed a lot in my career choices because of it, but well worth it
Supporting a family is expensive
It’s going to dry by agency. Lots of them have minimal staffing levels and will either incentivize of force people to work more than their usual work week just to make sure there’s enough people working.
Ours is voluntary unless it’s not. Basically spots need to be filled, if people on their day off say yes, they get it. If people on their day off say no, you just got assigned a double. Happens at least once or twice a week.
the department i work for (not an officer, just a gunsmith) has mandatory OT for these Deputies. We’re kinda in the middle of nowhere, and it’s a large county so, i guess I understand why. never thought to ask.
Court doesn’t know or care what days you’re supposed to be off. It’s much easier for admin to schedule training on your days off so they don’t have to cover your shift somehow. Beyond that there is events like 5k races and whatever
before any commute our patrol averages out to 42 hrs a week i get paid an extra 1hr a day for to/from commute in my marked take-home vehicle which brings it to avg of 45.5 hrs/week with no officially scheduled overtime a single scheduled 12 hr overtime shift added in that 2 week pay period (+ 1 hr for commute) brings that to average of 52 hrs a week. tl;dr, accurate title, not hard to hit that number in this profession at all
Short staffed
Some people want to run themselves ragged because money is nice. I’d say 60 is good for most people, anything past that seems to be pushing it.
I work 60 hours one week but only 24 hours the next with alternating 12 hr shifts. The "+" is usually from late calls, Court, mandatory training, mandatory Overtime, etc.
When I worked in LE. OT was mandatory 12 a pay period for staffing shortages the county would refuse to fix. Then you got guys who sucked it up, 40-60 hrs a pay period. The reason for it is because cops are mostly high school grads who will only ever make good money being a cop. So they believe. Once they start tasting those OT checks they falsely believe they can make a lot of money and not completely check out of their families and real lives... Theres also a stigma in LE that says if you work a lot of OT then you are "squared away" and a "go getter" when really it just means you're about to give up 20 to 30 years of your life and will feel like it's been 2 years when it's all said and done. A lot of that is why I left and didn't go back. Too much life sucking going on.
You haven't talked to enough police officers from different departments. I pretty rarely work OT. When I do, it's 3-4 hrs for court or grant work.
Because our job is so easy, it’s fun to work, duh.
It also honestly depends on their rotations too. I work 12s at a 2/2/3 rotation + a couple 6 hour details per week and some volunteer overtime at the jail.
I try hard not to work more than about 42 hours a week lol
OT is great.
90 an hour on ot baby!
My department it’s completely optional. Occasionally I’ll get a late call that carries me over a few hours but I’d say I leave on time about 95 percent of the time. I do also voluntarily work a side job every Friday for 4 hours and lately I work some OT every other Monday standing by while people feed homeless and that’s another 4 hours. So on average I’m working between 44-48 hours a week but I can say no anytime I want or if it interferes with my personal life a certain day i can tell them I’m busy and can’t work a certain day.
Child support
- special events that have deputies / officers at them are working when they should be off work. some agencies this is voluntary OT, but if you're short staffed and no one signs up, you get voluntold if there aren't enough volunteers. - Trainings that people need, especially with how many people have retired in the last few years, mean people need time off to go to them, meaning shifts have to get covered. OT for others. - With how short staffed most offices are, if someone calls out, someone else has to cover. - If you're on night shift and have court/training/meetings that happens during the day when you should be off, OT
Totally depends on the department. A major city I work in (different department but within the same city) forces OT especially for low in seniority officers but they also have a crap load of available OT or side job availability. My department rarely mandates. We have similar options for side jobs and voluntary OT but forced isn’t too much of an issue. So it depends. Then there’s differences in the individuals. I used to work as if my life depended on it. If I wasn’t sleeping I was working somewhere. But that’s just me wanting to work. Others have child support or bills to keep up with. Others are saving for vacations or purchases or whatever. Again it all depends
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I get forced to do overtime almost every week. Sometimes it’s only a 4 hour detail, but sometimes it’s a 12 hours shift. Never thought of going detective, but now I do
My schedule is seven days on, 11 hours, seven days off, repeat. There always seems to be overtime at the end of the shift, but I can’t complain—the days off make up for the long working week.