Most LEO I know make a decent living. Decent is the word here.
Not too much, not too little. With high risk and little thanks for their efforts at times. When I worked for the DNR in a law enforcement capacity the pay was decent. (actually for me at the time it was good) Yet, I was quite a bit younger and in my life position now the pay would not be as good. Most of the LEO's that I know are from bigger cities or work at universities at the moment with a few being on tactical teams. (those areas generally are paid more but they are a far cry from being over paid) I do remember more than a few friends though working as part time police officers before they got a full time job. There pay was so poor that they typically worked another full time job doing some thing until they got that full time LEO job. Some of them made just above a dollar more than minimum wage and yes these were guys who had already gone through the police academy. I knew one guy who worked part time like this for about 5 years and eventually landed a full time gig making around $27,000 and boy was he happy!
In general our police are underpaid overall in my opinion. I am not surprised at all to hear of someone in a Californian small town making $30,000 to start. Not surprised at all!!! Nor am I surprised one bit by TGace stating that he had a whopping $6,000 to spend on gear, etc. for his SWAT team last year. I would imagine that to be more the norm than the exception.
As to equipment that our police are utilizing. Well think about what jks9199 wrote above about patrol officers having sufficient fire power. When an officer responds to an incident we want him or her to have the tools to do the job if necessary. That would include them having the capability to utilize a rifle, shotgun, semi automatic handgun, taser, expandable baton, knife, pepper spray, handcuffs, etc. They of course also need some protection ie. vests, etc. They need a well equipment car with computer hook up, video cameras, etc. Now that is just for an individual officer working alone. However, say an officer comes across a armed hostage situation, etc. Then they are probably going to need backup and local or county, state swat, etc. We live in a pretty violent society with crime happening every day. We need personal that can handle a violent situation when needed. Just look at my blog post yesterday detailing a dangerous situation that resulted in a good outcome for the intended victims:
The Instinctive Edge Thank god for the officer who acted in the end. In some areas like New York where 911 happened we probably need a show of force in certain areas so that criminals and terrorists and the like understand that there are people around who can handle the job. I can remember being there just after 911 and seeing a good show of force and I was okay with it. Made me feel a bit safer. Yet, there of course needs to be balance. That balance may be a little hard to achieve and it would appear that in some areas they went a little over board. So at some point a correction will have to be made.
As to improper use of force, police brutality of the occasional misappropriation of manpower of SWAT, etc. Officers acting improperly or being aloof, etc. I have not met an officer that I know who would not roll their eyes when they hear about such things.
Meaning they don't like it either because it makes there jobs harder and diminishes their chosen profession!
As to the idea of "Shock and Awe". Well let me tell you if you are involved in a dangerous situation wouldn't you want to have serious and I do mean serious people, equipment and over whelming manpower with you?
I do not know of anyone who would answer "No" to that. That is unless they are not mentally unstable!
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n regards to politicians! Well they screw a lot of things up. However, we all know that already!!!
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