Rjasd t1_j8oa2p2 wrote on February 15, 2023 at 7:45 PM

Reply to comment by Inspector-Tophat in Full Police Officers Salaries For The State of NJ. by vakr001

I don't know about that high amount specifically but police can get paid time and half for side jobs like road work, uniformed security, special traffic jobs, etc.

Dozzi92 t1_j8ojj18 wrote on February 15, 2023 at 8:44 PM

And those are jobs paid for by non-tax dollars. Work a road crew? Money is coming from whoever opened the road. Working a street fair? Whoever put on the fair pays. How one accrues three times their salary doing that, I'm not sure, but perhaps for someone in a director's position they get higher rates of pay to take part in these things.

And non-tax dollars presumably includes grant funding as well.

JoPeSup t1_j8rd5gx wrote on February 16, 2023 at 12:14 PM

the city holds the licenses and fees, and whoever is doing the work “pays to play”, so yeah, we all pay because the business has to grossly overpay for that contract.

Dozzi92 t1_j8re9yr wrote on February 16, 2023 at 12:25 PM

Yeah, I'm not suggesting I agree with the whole practice. Personally, I think some dude who's new to construction is perfectly capable of standing and holding a flag or something for about $100 less an hour than a cop. But I also imagine that there is some benefit to having a cop doing it versus just some kid with a flag.

RafeDangerous t1_j8rj95x wrote on February 16, 2023 at 1:13 PM

There are legal restrictions on who can direct traffic, so standing there with a flag at a roadblock might be okay but that person can't actually direct anyone to do anything unless they've been certified for it. Also, people are assholes. If they think there's no consequences for just ignoring your roadblock, they will - I've manned roadblocks during storms and had people call me an asshole, drive around me, and go straight into 5' deep flood water. Same type of roadblock with a cop at the end of it doesn't usually see problems like that. If I had a construction site going that I really really didn't want people driving into, I'd prefer to have a cop doing traffic control over a flag-man any day.

Dozzi92 t1_j8rk813 wrote on February 16, 2023 at 1:21 PM

Yeah, agree with everything you said. The law, that can be changed, and it was like, what a decade or two ago? But at the end of the day, folks are definitely less inclined to tell a cop to fuck off.

STMIHA t1_j8rtfnz wrote on February 16, 2023 at 2:34 PM

A cop doesn’t hold a flag. The low man on the construction totem pole does. Cops are present to prevent a pedestrian or motorist from interacting with said work/ in case something does happen. Sometimes it seems a bit much but that’s just how things are.

PirateForward8827 t1_j8sb16v wrote on February 16, 2023 at 4:33 PM

Not necessarily non-tax dollars. If they are working on a road crew, whether it be a town, county, or state road, the taxpayer is still paying.

Dozzi92 t1_j8sgjef wrote on February 16, 2023 at 5:08 PM

Yeah, I could've been more clear. If a third party is opening the road for whatever reason, it's on their dime, presumably from some escrow. If the municipality is, it's from a different pool of taxpayer dollars.