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Courtesy of the Bay Guardian's politics blog, we get the latest word from Chris Daly's second favorite organization, the Police Officer's Association. In an online posting to fellow Police Officers, Union President Gary Delagnes discussed the reasons why it's been difficult these past few years recruiting new cops. He lists a bunch of the usual reasons: the cost of living in SF, the occasional danger involved in the job, unappealing working conditions, but then finds the ultimate culprit for the lack of new recruits: Gen X sucks.
And we quote:
"… Quite simply, this appears to be a generation that has little interest in working nights, weekends, or for that matter a 40-hour work week. It cuts into their leisure time and as one expert in law enforcement stated, “We have moved from a generation that lived to work to a generation that works to live”. These younger people are not particularly fond of confrontation, physical altercation, or verbal interaction. The general belief is that we have raised a generation of “Day Traders” who would rather spend their time “sipping ice tea’ then slugging it out with a parolee that doesn’t want to go back to prison."
In other words, we're losers, baby, so why don't you shoot us. First question: do we Gen X'ers really like to do nothing but drink ice tea? And why didn't he mention lazy, depressed, and prone to all things "extreme?" (and hey, here's a way to recruit more cops, just say it's "extreme law enforcement" and show guys running around as cops screaming at everyone). Actually, those complaints sound so early 90's and as a card-carrying member of Gen X, we have to say that's no longer true. Why, we developed the Internet and gave the world dot.coms! We made video games mainstream and irony an art form! And lately, we have discovered that babies can be the latest in cool accessories. Who said we wouldn't make good cops? Hell, and if he thinks we're bad, wait till he gets a load of Gen Y or the Millennium kids-- arresting people is really hard to do while texting someone at the same time.
But mainly, here's the thing-- if you're going to try and recruit people, why insult an entire generation of people? We're not quite as young as we used to be, but we're still younger than say Boomers or Post-Boomers. Maybe that's why people think Delanges is a bit douchey.
Oh, he also said to many people lately are joining the military instead. Umm.... has he paid attention to what's going on out there?
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Iced Tea? Gen X'ers drink screwdrivers!
I wonder if there's also some exasperation in the SFPD because the D.A. often doesn't back up their arrests with prosecutions?
p.s. "coast of living"??
Delanges is fricking moron. First off, only a moron would complain that people now work to live and not live to work. Dear Mr. Delanges - that societal change is a good thing - Gen X woke up and realized only fools spend their entire lives at the office.
Second, if Gen X is so lazy, then why are we (and Gen Y) the ones volunteering to join the military and ship off to Afghanistan and Iraq. We signed up KNOWING we'd ship of to a war zone. Maybe, just maybe, there is a connection between SFPD recruitment difficulties and the fact that a lot of the type of people who would ordinarily be interested in a police career are currently stationed overseas in a WAR. You want police recruits? Then work to bring our soldiers home.
This is actually a serious problem, and if they could come up with a legitimate reason for their inability to recruit then they could do something about it, which would be great. Homicides are out of control in this city. More cops might help. And they also might be more inclined to have cops walking the beat.
Delagnes violates the No Asshole Rule. I wouldn't want to work there, either.
This is total BS. I took all the tests (along with thousands of other slackers) over the past year and was DQ'd for some unknown reason... I have very few skeletons in my closet and I got high scores on all of the test portions, I have a Degree and am not a felon. I also know others in the same boat. The background unit is very secretive and will not even tell me why I was not allowed a background interview to find out why they didn't like me as a candidate...I can only assume their standards are WAY too high.
Work ethic lessons from a police union flack who has no real labor to speak of other than acting as a firewall between Thailand-vacationing cops and the law.
Not exactly what I'd call an honorable position or a respectable career path for someone of any generation.
Oh boo hoo your friggin' generation was insulted. These are COPS. If you can't take a blog post, go pansy yourself somewhere else.
Grow. The fuck. Up.
-fellow gen xer
PS Yes the cop is an idiot too. People aren't signing up to go to Iraq because they are afraid of physical violence. And I know your post was tongue in cheek but there's still this underlying whiiiiiiine I can't stand.
The good officer does not seem to have a handle on labor economics. The job does not pay enough for the cost of living in SF. The city needs to allow more development so that we can attract high quality public sector employees: cops, firefighters, teachers, etc. PLENTY of people have grown up wanting to wear the uniform; but they have to face economic reality.
Lower the cost of living in the city (increase housing supply) or increase the salary.
OK, so I took the time to read the SFPOA article from their newsletter. There was also an article on the problems NYC is having on recruiting and retaining new officers. A former New Yorker, I can tell you, living on $26K a year is impossible. Even with ridiculous overtime, a rookie beat cop in NYC maxes out at less than $60K. Starting pay at comfy suburb a train ride away: $90K.
I think the POA is off base when they say recruiting is a problem because of tendencies of the Gen Xers. To quote a real President: "It's the Economy, stupid." You need to recruit a large base of applicants so you can choose high quality trainees. You need to have more trainees than officer positions so you can make cuts after the academy and take the highest quality from that pool.
SF needs to do something fast if we are currently 300 officers short with 700 coming up for retirement. Homicides are out of control and I'm not to happy with the public toilet we call UN Plaza.
A self-described card-carrying member of Gen X gets his panties in a bunch over a cop's memo and does what? Moans on his blog... Yeah dude, it's the cops who are predictable and lame these days. The real issue: We need more cops. Why not blog about that and give it a fair shake instead of complaining how your feelings were hurt? Oh wait: That's the point. Sorry, forgot... Also, think you meant to complain that "too" many people are joining the military. Jeez.
Yeah. We need more cops who aren't assholes that break the law when they see fit. And we should hire them ALL from San Francisco!! All cops should live in the communities they patrol.
I work to live, I am not particularly fond of confrontation, physical altercation, or verbal interaction, and although I'm not a day trader, I would indeed rather spend my time sipping ice tea then slugging it out with a parolee that doesn’t want to go back to prison. There's something wrong with me?
only 14 comments, everyone must still be still sipping ice tea. People only cry when something happens to themselves.
Man, I have some really colorful insider thoughts on all this, but I dare not speak them in a public forum.
And THAT'S the real problem.
Is Delanges aware that the eldest Gen X-ers are over 40? Perhaps they would do better to focus on younger candidates.
Generally once you can see "4-0, next exit" on the highway of life, a career in law enforcement or the military might not be very attractive, for a variety of reasons. Maybe Delanges is misusing the label; I would think that someone who's 25 (and therefore squarely in Gen Y) would be a more desirable recruit.