Every Atlanta police officer gets $500 bonus from foundation to 'boost morale' as sick-outs continue

[ansible]

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/19/a

One day after a number of Atlanta police officers called in sick, prompting rumors of a mass walkout in protest of murder charges filed against a former officer, a police foundation announced Thursday that it had given every officer in the city a $500 bonus.

The bonuses, which reportedly total more than $2 million, are part of a broader effort to “stem attrition and boost morale,” the Atlanta Police Foundation said in a statement to local media outlets. In addition to the money, which was provided through donations, the foundation also plans to replace at least 20 patrol cars that have been damaged during the ongoing protests that have consumed the city for weeks, WSB reported.

“We’re afraid of losing good police officers, our city losing good police officers,” the foundation’s president and CEO Dave Wilkinson told the news station. “All this is in support of just showing that we appreciate the sacrifice these officers have made during this time.” Local leaders, including Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) and interim police chief Rodney Bryant, have spoken publicly about waning morale among police officers in recent days, in part due to the protests over racism and police brutality that have sparked intense anti-police sentiment in the city and nationwide.

The discontent within the police department appeared to reach a boiling point this week after Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard Jr. brought felony murder and other charges against Garrett Rolfe, the former officer who fatally shot Rayshard Brooks, a black man, in the back. Following Howard’s announcement of the charges Wednesday, an undisclosed number of Atlanta police officers called in sick just before a shift change that evening.



Read more: washingtonpost

[denem]

1. "We're afraid of losing good police officers"

Yeah. Sure you are.

[LonePirate]

2. Good police officers do not call in sick because they can't kill civilians without consequences.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

3. This☝️

[tazkcmo]

5. Good cops...

... don't watch bad cops do bad cop stuff and do nothing.

[cstanleytech]

7. Agreed. nt

[Nevilledog]

8. +1

[crickets]

13. *ding!* Winner. nt

[Delphinus]

22. Amen!

Succinct truth.

[BComplex]

34. Bingo!

You nailed it, Pirate.

[Timewas]

4. It is called

A bribe

[Baclava]

11. Bingo! I know, have a national 'police call in sick day', call it 'The Purge, Election Year'

[LizBeth]

6. Pay the cops off, isn't that ironic.

[fleur-de-lisa]

9. Fire their asses and hire women and people of color.

This white macho shit is getting old.

[Igel]

12. Wiki's demographics for the Atlanta police:

Breakdown of the makeup of the rank and file of APD:[4]
Male: 82%
Female: 18%
African American/Black: 58%
Caucasian/ White: 37%
Hispanic: 4%
Asian: 1%

As with everything else, when looking at who's hired I always want to look at the applicant pool.

But for now, just notice that 63% (at the time of data-finding for the Wiki article) of the police were POC.


Atlanta Demographics

According to the most recent ACS, the racial composition of Atlanta was:
•Black or African American: 51.85%
•White: 40.27%
•Asian: 4.16%
•Two or more races: 2.41%
•Other race: 1.05%
•Native American: 0.24%
•Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander: 0.03%

https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/atlanta-population/

Can't tell anything about "Hispanic" from the ACS data as cited; Latinos/Hispanics are largely white in census terms (with the rest being "black" ) .

[MichMan]

15. Baased on those numbers, Asian and women officers are significantly under represented

[Jedi Guy]

18. Women are under-represented in police in general, not just in Atlanta.

Ditto with Asian-Americans. Is that because fewer women and Asian-Americans choose to go into law enforcement as a career, or because departments prefer not to hire them?

[rurallib]

10. So is the "Atlanta Police Foundation" a public or private group?

If it is private, there are some things that really bother me about that. Sounds like bribery and buying favors.

[greenjar_01]

32. It's a private 501c3 organization

It's a fucking scam.

[LiberalFighter]

14. I may be wrong but I believe police officers paid well.

And I don't donate to any police organization. Again they get paid well.

[Jedi Guy]

19. Average salary for a cop in the US is just under $54,000 a year.

The average salary in the US is $56,500 a year. So cops aren't paid well in those terms, earning less than the average. That likely varies widely based on location, though. An NYPD officer is going to be paid more than a cop in, say, Biloxi, Mississippi.

[LiberalFighter]

21. That doesn't include their benefits and pension.

[Jedi Guy]

23. Neither does the average salary for the US that I found. N/T

[ProfessorGAC]

26. Median HOUSEHOLD Income Is $66.5k

You showed $56k for cops.
Saying it's below average suggests a vast majority of cops have single income households.
In 2020, even a majority meeting that standard is unlikely.
So, it's doubtful police salaries are statistically significantly below average.
In that, since a 2nd income would only have to be $15k per year to be statistically above average, I think it far more likely police household are, in fact, above the median.

[Jedi Guy]

27. I looked up the average salaries for an individual and for a cop, and those are the numbers I got.

I also never said police salaries were significantly below average. I didn't do a deep dive, either. Looking at the Google results again, different news outlets are showing different numbers, as well.

[ProfessorGAC]

28. Not Quite

These are 2019 numbers as issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics

the U.S.?
What is the average income in the U.S. currently, and how do factors like your job and age impact it?
STEVE FIORILLOUPDATED:FEB 11, 2020 4:02 PM ESTORIGINAL:FEB 3, 2019
Exactly how is the economy for workers? Unemployment levels continue to go down, but automation and gig economy contract jobs can still make everything feel uncertain.

So one way people may think to look at how the economy is doing for employees is income. This can help give a more solid idea by determining the mean or median income in the country, but a deeper look is required - one single number doesn't tell the whole story of how many factors, occupations, institutional biases and more go into what a person's income actually is.

But before all that, what, at the moment, is the average income in the U.S.?

Average Income in the U.S.
Recently, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their report on the Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers. Using information from the fourth fiscal quarter of 2019, the BLS claims that in that quarter, the median income for a full-time wage or salary worker on a weekly basis was $936. For a 40-hour work week, this translates to a yearly income of approximately $48,672. This is a 4% increase on the previous year.

When seasonal adjustments (holidays, severe weather, etc.) are taken into account by the BLS, the median weekly earnings are $933, or about $48,516

So, the median worker makes 8/9ths of the average cop. Police salaries are, statistically significantly above the median.

You can't use average salaries, because a CEO making $20 million or a professional athlete making $40 million skews the average badly. 9,999 people making $50 grand gives us $499,950,000. Add $40 million from Kevin Durant, for instance. (Not picking on Kevin). Now, we're at $539,950,000. Divide by 10,000. We get an average of $53,995. Nearly 4 grand above the median or around 8%, caused by a single high earner. Now imagine people at 90% of the median. The average gets skewed by a higher percentage, even though it's the same 4 grand.

The median is the more important statistic when reviewing data like salaries. One is either above or below the median, so limited skewing (in the example a number that moves 1 person out of 10,000 to below the median is not significant skewing.

In addition, the calculation of standard deviation using the median more accurately captures the distribution by not inflating it.

The median is really the only way to go with personal econometric data.

[Mosby]

30. The starting pay for a phx police officer is 52k

I suspect the average pay for police in large cities is quite a bit higher than the national average.

[Jedi Guy]

33. Probably, yeah. I expect it drops precipitously the further out you go from metro areas. N/T

[sakabatou]

16. Every cop who does this stupid sick out should be fired

[Jedi Guy]

20. Based on their contracts, they probably can't be fired as long as they have sick time to take.

They're probably given X number of sick/personal days per year that they can use. If they go over that number, those days are probably unpaid. But their sick/personal days are theirs to use as they like. Firing them for using a sick day probably wouldn't fly and would result in a lawsuit. And odds are the cops would win.

[sakabatou]

24. And here I would've thought of dereliction of duty.

[Jedi Guy]

25. Sick/personal days can be used at any time and for any reason, as long as you have them. N/T

[Collimator]

17. Isn't this a "dis-incentive" to work?

At least, that's what Larry Kudlow would think. . . when it comes to giving regular people an extra $600 in unemployment benefits.

Once again, law enforcement officers are somehow above or apart from the law.

[Happy Hoosier]

29. Who are these people?

When I was a Federal employee, we were not even supposed to accept free coffee when acting in an official capacity. We were supposed to pay our hosts 50 cents a cup out of our own pockets. And these folks can just send $500 checks to cops?

[greenjar_01]

31. Just set up a "non-political" 501c3 to officially bribe public employees

We live in an extremely corrupt and broken country.