Posted by Someone With A Brain on 3/31/2008, 3:14 pm, in reply to "Re: 5?"
13StArZ is very close to being completely correct. Five officers per shift is generous on most days for most shifts. Most of the time there are either three or four. There are a total of 38 officers, not 45.
The Chief and the Major are on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and they are in their offices on weekdays. Contrary to popular belief, they aren't just sitting at their desks waiting on Powder Springs citizens to visit with them or to drop by for a fireside chat. They have a secretary and you have to call to make an appointment to see them because their daily agendas are packed with appointments along with all their other duties. This takes two of the "38" off of the road.
There is an Internal Affairs officer. He is a part-time employee. He does not work the road. He handles all of the public's complaints about all the "horrible" officers that work for Powder Springs Police as well as internal issues. This takes one of the "38" off of the road.
There are 5 detectives. The detectives do not work the road. Each of them have a full case load that they are expected to handle. There is also one detective on call at all times should they be needed any time of the day or night. This takes five of the "38" off of the road.
There is one officer that handles all the issues with the police vehicles as far as repairs, upgrades, equipment replacement and anything else that they might need. He also transports prisoners back and forth to Cobb County. This takes one of the "38" off of the road.
There is one officer that is completely in charge of any type of evidence that comes through the police department. This is a HUGE job that has to be done efficiently and logged correctly. That officer also handles any media contacts that need to be taken care of. This takes one of the "38" off of the road.
There are eight part-times that are required to work a minimum of three 8-hour shifts per month to continue working for the police department. These are officers that are also working other full-time jobs. Some are firemen, some are in civilian work as well as other careers. This takes eight of the "38" off of the road.
There is one officer that handles the front office administration as well as the GREAT program about gang resistance, the Explorers and the Jr. Explorers and about a dozen other things. This takes one of the "38" off of the road.
There are two transport officers. One of them comes in and handles any and all prisoner transports and paperwork whether it be from Cobb County to court or daily arrests that are made. The other transport officer also works in the front office and helps with the gang resistance program. This takes two of the "38" off of the road.
That leaves 16 full-time officers to cover 21 8-hour shifts per week. If five officers were assigned to each shift and each officer worked a forty hour week, there would still be 4 full shifts not touched. Sick time and vacation time have to be considered. Training and school takes up A LOT of their time, too.
It would be wonderful if there were five officers for each shift each day just roaming around trying to keep all the juvenile delinquents at bay, but as you can see, that would be literally impossible.
Give these men and women the credit they deserve for doing their very best to protect all of us and still do it by the book legally because God forbid they offend anyone. They don't make enough money by laying their lives on the line every day to be bad-mouthed by people that don't have a clue as to what really goes on.
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