Michigan State Police and Detroit Police Department - WRONG - Education - (Pay)
MSP and DPD require only a General Education Degree (GED) for hiring - in a job that is very stressful, dangerous and may require a person to make a split second decision that will face review, civilly, criminally and departmentally, and their members deal daily with the public - a low educational requirement - is WRONG, for the Departments and the public, which is demanding better police services.
I have spoken out about the need for Detroit PD to raise its hiring standards, this is the 21st Century...and DPD is trying to maintain a 'best practices' and professional police department and a GED requirement should have been dropped during the DOJ Consent Decree process (and so should MSP). DPD and MSP should have a two year minimum college requirement ( really four years) or a two year military experience requirement, raising the educational levels shows the members and the public that their departments demand more of them.
Colleges now require two and four year degrees to be hired into their police / public safety departments and now MSP and DPD should too.
DetroitPD starting pay is $29.300. and MSP starts troopers at $45,000 ($1,700 a month during training)...So DPD must under the Reorganization Plan raise its hiring standards and PAY, to maintain a professional department and MSP / DPD should raise its hiring standards to meet the requirements of state colleges.
ps: DPD under its new contract - still not signed - pays starting DPD officers only $14.25 an hour and they are required to contribute 8% of their pay to their pensions - effectively reducing their take home pay. Will some DPD members qualify for state welfare payments ????????????
DPD officers can effectively make more take home money, working a liquor store, or other off duty jobs. DPD officers can after training move onto suburban or out of state police departments and make substancially more money and with better benefits, recruiting efforts by out of state departments has always been a problem for the DPD. Burger King, McDonalds, Rally applicants may now flock to DPD recruiting with their GEDs in hand, hoping to be a DPD officer.
note: this should not discourage minority applicants but would require a different recruiting effort to find the 'best and brightest' applicants among those in college or the military.
