Get Detroit-paid free Police Training then Run off to Suburbs? No more.

[Lowell]

Overdue legislation that sounds fair to me. Thoughts?

Snip:
"Two lawmakers from Detroit — state Sen. Sylvia Santana and state Rep. Tyrone Carter — introduced legislation that received bipartisan support to create an exception for law enforcement agencies, allowing them to recoup training costs from new recruits who spend fewer than four years working for an agency.

Snip:
"While most academies charge recruits tuition, the Detroit Police Department operates its own training academy at a cost of about $35,000 per attendee and provides wages and benefits to trainees, according to LeValley.

"He said 58% of officers who left the department since 2020 had fewer than four years of service with the Detroit Police Department. Among those who left, the cost to the department of recruiting, hiring and training them was an estimated $6,389,000, he said.

Snip:
"The legislation signed by Whitmer creates a sliding scale for repaying training costs based on how long an officer spent at the department before leaving to work at another law enforcement agency.

"If an officer spends less than a year, the agency could recoup 100% of the cost of the training up to the officer's first-year salary. But if an officer spends more than three but less than four years, the agency could only recover 25% of the cost up to the officer's salary for their first year of employment.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/pol...s/70314210007/

[JBMcB]

"While most academies charge recruits tuition, the Detroit Police Department operates its own training academy at a cost of about $35,000 per attendee and provides wages and benefits to trainees, according to LeValley."

So, instead of involving state legislation, couldn't Detroit just do what most other cities do and charge tuition? This sounds like a complicated solution to a simple problem. Also, it will be interesting what the union has to say about this. I'd imagine any cost-shifting to officers will have to be included in a union-negotiated contract.

[Rocket]

"While most academies charge recruits tuition, the Detroit Police Department operates its own training academy at a cost of about $35,000 per attendee and provides wages and benefits to trainees, according to LeValley."

So, instead of involving state legislation, couldn't Detroit just do what most other cities do and charge tuition? This sounds like a complicated solution to a simple problem. Also, it will be interesting what the union has to say about this. I'd imagine any cost-shifting to officers will have to be included in a union-negotiated contract.

Might work, but also might drastically lower recruiting.

Perhaps a system whereby a 1/10 of the tuition is forgiven with every year served?


Detroit is one of the few who operate like this, where they don't charge tuition AND don't require any previous experience to work for the department. It is widely known that if you're a pretty good officer, you'll quickly rise through the ranks. So Detroit has been able to attract some very good officer candidates from both Detroit and the suburbs, and get them work in some pretty shady areas of town, all while knowing that they'll likely leave in 4-6 years.

By comparison, Bloomfield requires a 4-year college degree to even apply.

If we change that setup, we'll need to make up for it somehow, perhaps by increasing wages. But that may be a lot more expensive in the end than what we have now.

[Ray1936]

"By comparison, Bloomfield requires a 4-year college degree to even apply."

That may be, but it just strikes me that being a police officer in Bloomfield would be terribly boring.

[slick]

being a police officer in Bloomfield would be terribly boring.[/QUOTE]

You don't want to deal with holier than thou people who think the dog down the street barks too loud!

[JBMcB]

If we change that setup, we'll need to make up for it somehow, perhaps by increasing wages. But that may be a lot more expensive in the end than what we have now.

The way I would set it up, is that, if training costs $35,000, the officer gets a bill for $35,000 after they finish training. Every year they work for the DPD they get $5,000 taken off of their bill. After seven years of service it's paid off. Or, they can pay it off faster if they want. Either way, the DPD benefits by having the cost paid off by the officer, or have an officer work consistently for seven years. It would cost the DPD nothing extra. I don't think it would require any state legislation, either, as it isn't much different than any other college.