A Seattle officer that made over $400k

Forerunner · Sep 3, 2020

A Seattle police officer’s extraordinary pay raises questions SPD can’t answer

Ron Willis, a Seattle patrol officer, became the most highly paid city employee last year. How? He was paid the equivalent of two years of work inside of one, renewing longstanding questions on how Seattle Police monitor overtime pay.

www.seattletimes.com

Seattle Police Officer Ron Willis was exceptionally busy in 2019 — so much so that he crammed the work of two years into just one.

Willis, a 58-year-old patrol officer, made $414,543.06 last year — more than the mayor, the police chief or any other city employee. How? He was paid for 4,149 hours of work, not including vacation or sick leave.

Under their contract, Seattle officers can be paid for more hours than they physically work. SPD, however, couldn't say whether Willis physically worked all of these hours because it can't effectively track overtime that is still filed on paper forms.

This inability to monitor the workload of its employees illustrates a lingering weakness, four years after an audit found widespread potential for inappropriate overtime pay and as SPD's internal affairs division continues to fault the department for lax oversight. SPD's budget is now the subject of intense scrutiny as officers contend with historic levels of unrest and as activists call for cuts to police funding.

SPD has struggled for years to monitor its overtime costs, which initially were budgeted at about $30 million this year. The city auditor's office in 2016 cited numerous lapses in SPD's policies and procedures governing extra pay, including identifying 400 potential duplicate overtime payments totaling more than $160,000 in 2014. The auditor suggested, and SPD endorsed, an automated system that would flag errors or inappropriate use of overtime.

Four years later, that system is still not in place. SPD says it is expected to go live "within the next year."

There are also other gaps that have stymied investigators trying to determine whether SPD employees are accurately reporting their working hours, according to a Times review of OPA cases.

Supervisors "did not have tight supervisory controls and did not keep accurate records," OPA wrote in a 2015 memo after investigating whether employees in the Education and Training section claimed hours they didn't work. The office didn't sanction any individuals.

In January 2019, SPD began investigating a complaint that officers in the training unit were manipulating the system to get paid for hours they didn't work. OPA's investigation "did not yield clear evidence of time theft," and a criminal investigator didn't find evidence that justified filing charges, according to a case summary issued in March.

Both OPA and SPD's Investigation Bureau, however, faulted the oversight measures in place. OPA compared the time sheets of SPD employees with a log showing when they used electronic key cards to enter buildings. Some buildings, however, lack a card reader and don't record any data. The key-card log also doesn't show when employees leave a building.

Officers can accrue overtime for various purposes, including handling security and traffic at sports events and protests, leading training sessions and making court appearances.

Adding to the confusing picture of Willis' compensation, there are some interdepartmental discrepancies in exactly how many hours Willis was paid for. While payroll data from human resources shows he was paid for 4,149 hours in one year, records provided by SPD total just 3,874.5 hours. The records also show he was paid more than $60,000 at a time when zero hours were worked.

mattlikewhoa · Sep 3, 2020

Jesus 🤯

infinitebento · Sep 3, 2020

fuck the police

less · Sep 3, 2020

Four years later, that system is still not in place. SPD says it is expected to go live "within the next year."

I'll believe it when I see it.

Not being able to effectively track this stuff is straight up bullshit. Seattle needs to step the fuck up.

jb1234 · Sep 3, 2020

152K is the median pay? Jesus CHRIST

I am a Bird · Sep 3, 2020

God what I would do to make even half that amount.

defaltoption · Sep 3, 2020

Freaking ridiculous, and damn the median is over 150k? Wtf? Teachers better be getting paid like 200k over there.

BWoog · Sep 3, 2020

defaltoption said:
Freaking ridiculous, and damn the median is over 150k? Wtf? Teachers better be getting paid like 200k over there.

LOL. Wait are you serious?

Dekim · Sep 3, 2020

Some of the easiest professions you can get into and make six figures is either porn and law enforcement.

defaltoption · Sep 3, 2020

BWoog said:
LOL. Wait are you serious?

It says they make the median is $152,000, that's insane. Why the hell is it so high?

Muppet of a Man · Sep 3, 2020

Literal mafiosos like I said in the last police fuckery thread.

smurfx · Sep 3, 2020

jb1234 said:
152K is the median pay? Jesus CHRIST

that's what i was thinking. i bet all the cops in his department hate his guts for bringing a spotlight to this. there's always that one guy who overdoes it and screws it up for everyone else.

HeySeuss · Sep 3, 2020

The overtime racks up quickly when you have a 3 hour minimum overtime for court. And if the department is short staffed as many are, you can easily double your salary working extra shifts. A lot of special duty work hired by local stores and bars for security pay cash under the table too.

ConradCervantes · Sep 3, 2020

And cops used to fucking glare at me in college every time I rung their shit through at full price. Motherfucker, you make far more than I do, with benefits and a bulletproof union to boot, you're not a fucking hero for turning your siren on to get through a busy intersection, so pay for your goddamn coffee.

Deleted member 2802 · Sep 3, 2020

defaltoption said:
Freaking ridiculous, and damn the median is over 150k? Wtf? Teachers better be getting paid like 200k over there.

if you have years of seniority your base salary is huge
I remember there's a bunch of NY teachers that make 100k but don't work

alr1ght · Sep 3, 2020

I mean dude worked ~86 hours a week on average.

Forerunner · Sep 3, 2020

defaltoption said:
It says they make the median is $152,000, that's insane. Why the hell is it so high?

Big city PDs pay well once you have been on for a bit and there is also the OT.

Deleted member 19533 · Sep 3, 2020

jb1234 said:
152K is the median pay? Jesus CHRIST

Hate cops, but how do I get into the SPD? Is it just the typical 12 week course?

HeySeuss · Sep 3, 2020

Alex Stroud said:
And cops used to fucking glare at me in college every time I rung their shit through at full price. Motherfucker, you make far more than I do, with benefits and a bulletproof union to boot, you're not a fucking hero for turning your siren on to get through a busy intersection, so pay for your goddamn coffee.

Not every department pays well like that. Typically only large departments do. Smaller towns and rural areas are lucky to make 12 bucks an hour or often even work as a volunteer.

But getting pissy about a discount on a 5 buck sandwich is ridiculous

AusGeno · Sep 3, 2020

Minimal training, high pay, loads of power. If I was a criminal asshole I'd sign up to be a cop so damn quickly,

Radec · Sep 3, 2020

Damn, that's more than some CEOs here in Asia lol

Deleted member 19533 · Sep 3, 2020

alr1ght said:
I mean dude worked ~86 hours a week on average.

Yeah. If someone making average pay worked that much, they'd make less than the median cop pay by quite a bit.

Powdered Egg · Sep 3, 2020

Bored Man gets paid!

Afrikan · Sep 3, 2020

Dekim said:
Some of the easiest professions you can get into and make six figures is either porn and law enforcement.

Are you sure about that?

Forerunner · Sep 3, 2020

BlueBomberX said:
Hate cops, but how do I get into the SPD? Is it just the typical 12 week course?

It generally goes:

Apply and meet the minimum requirements.
Written test
Physical test
Interview
Background check and psych evaluation.
Some do a polygraph and others don't.
Academy, which is 16 weeks for SPD.

exodus · Sep 3, 2020

Forerunner said:
Big city PDs pay well once you have been on for a bit and there is also the OT.

1853 hours is only 38 hours a week assuming 48 work weeks.

Deleted member 19533 · Sep 3, 2020

Forerunner said:
It generally goes:

Apply and meet the minimum requirements.
Written test
Physical test
Interview
Background check and psych evaluation.
Some do a polygraph and other don't.
Academy, which is 16 weeks for SPD.

That sounds really easy tbh. I honestly think the physical test would be the barrier for most people. However, I know some people in security, and their tests are an absolute joke.

Deleted member 12833 · Sep 3, 2020

152k ? Wtf am I doing with my life?

henhowc · Sep 3, 2020

Know a few cops. Doesn't seem like there's a cap on how much OT they can pull.

Nepenthe · Sep 3, 2020

So you get to get paid for literally doing nothing.

FaceHugger · Sep 3, 2020

Damn. Where I work everyone has a degree or two and five to fifteen years experience and the median income is quite a bit lower than that. I guess it's a little because Seattle, a lot because the police be fleecing fools because they can get away with it.

Verelios · Sep 3, 2020

Dekim said:
Some of the easiest professions you can get into and make six figures is either porn and law enforcement.

You would think so, but not only is porn physically debilitating, extremely so, the median income is also drastically lower than what you'd expect. I'd even say you have more chance at hitting it big as a youtube influencer or instagram model.

lenovox1 · Sep 3, 2020

FaceHugger said:
Damn. Where I work everyone has a degree or two and five to fifteen years experience and the median income is quite a bit lower than that. I guess it's a little because Seattle, a lot because the police be fleecing fools because they can get away with it.

One of the reasons the Seattle's former police chief says she quit is because the city was lowering her already stretched budget without any input from her.

Essentially, they're understaffed for the amount of hours they need to cover, which would give the cops more leverage in pay raise negotiations.

lenovox1 · Sep 3, 2020

Verelios said:
You would think so, but not only is porn physically debilitating, extremely so, the median income is also drastically lower than what you'd expect. I'd even say you have more chance at hitting it big as a youtube influencer or instagram model.

With OnlyFans, if you can network, get a big studio contract for a few films, and use Twitter effectively, you could probably clear six figures.

That certainly is not "easy," though.

AstronaughtE · Sep 3, 2020

Sounds like time theft to me.

"SPD, however, couldn't say whether Willis physically worked all of these hours because it can't effectively track overtime that is still filed on paper forms." Convenient. They spend millions on a high tech crime center, ask for millions more for new buildings and are filing overtime out on fudgable paper.

TheHunter · Sep 3, 2020

Dekim said:
Some of the easiest professions you can get into and make six figures is either porn and law enforcement.

Porn folk don't make that much.

Hell stripping doesn't make that much anymore.

Selbran · Sep 3, 2020

It's crazy how high many of these big city police departments pay and yet the minimum qualifications is often only a high school diploma. Meanwhile, a quick Google search says Seattle Teacher's with a Bachelor's degree start around 60K and that's after recent strike negotiations.

TheHunter · Sep 3, 2020

lenovox1 said:
With OnlyFans, if you can network, get a big studio contract for a few films, and use Twitter effectively, you could probably clear six figures.

That certainly is not "easy," though.

For every single 1 of those stories theres dozens that don't make it.

And that's before you get to the abuse, drug addiction and trafficking problems.

F34R · Sep 3, 2020

It always hurts when I see salaries like this lol. I mean, sure, I was in a 5,000 population sized city. My salary was $697 a week. That's after 13 years of service. Most I made in over time was $40k a year (that's base + overtime together). That's crazy, the pay in the OP.

geardo · Sep 3, 2020

This society is sick

Ashhong · Sep 3, 2020

alr1ght said:
I mean dude worked ~86 hours a week on average.

Did he though? Seems like the system is easy to abuse. Write whatever hours you want!

dubc · Sep 3, 2020

Under their contract, Seattle officers can be paid for more hours than they physically work.

/thinking emoji

mAcOdIn · Sep 4, 2020

If that guy legit worked those hours I'm fine with that. There was a time 2 years ago where I was working 16 hours a day, course my pay was way less than that guy's, but, if he legit worked it I'll be the last guy to cry foul over him getting paid for it. It's of course BS they're not even sure, this is 2019/2020 but I give it 50/50 odds he worked it, hell maybe lots of cops worked it and felt pressured not to claim them or of course fraud. Neither would surprise me but working essential 16 hour days isn't exactly out of the norm for a lot of people so it's not impossible.

Kill3r7 · Sep 4, 2020

Ashhong said:
Did he though? Seems like the system is easy to abuse. Write whatever hours you want!

Basically working for government in certain sectors is like this. IIRC last year the head of the MTA stated that they couldn't say if everyone on their payroll actually still worked for them. That said, it is hard to believe that someone did not approve his OT.

Ashhong · Sep 4, 2020

Kill3r7 said:
Basically working for government in certain sectors is like this. IIRC last year the head of the MTA stated that they couldn't say if everyone on their payroll actually still worked for them. That said, it is hard to believe that someone did not approve his OT.

I know my supervisor barely even checks my OT requests. Wouldn't be surprised if he has zero clue of how many hours I've done haha. Just sign sign sign

KingM · Sep 4, 2020

defaltoption said:
It says they make the median is $152,000, that's insane. Why the hell is it so high?

A very large amount of cops scam on overtime pay. Others law enforcement too. The bigger the department the easier it is to get away allegedly. No one wants to be the politician or accountant who goes at "hard-working cops" and it takes tons of time to catch.

BringBackSonics · Sep 4, 2020

shira said:
if you have years of seniority your base salary is huge
I remember there's a bunch of NY teachers that make 100k but don't work

how do you make six figures and not work?

KingM · Sep 4, 2020

BringBackSonics said:
how do you make six figures and not work?

You can be in spot where you can't be in the classroom due for various reasons from being horrible at your job to legal reasons, but you can't be fired with following the correct processes which take time. It isn't very common, the term is rubber rooming. NYC for example has nearly 80k teachers but a few hundred who have been rubber roomed.

Holundrian · Sep 4, 2020

defaltoption said:
Freaking ridiculous, and damn the median is over 150k? Wtf? Teachers better be getting paid like 200k over there.

Lel respecting educators with fair pay and thus maybe also attracting good teachers? Can't have that in the idiocracy that is America.

Failburger · Sep 4, 2020

In remember nearly getting fired when I worked 15 minutes of overtime at Walmart. Fuck this shit.

A Seattle officer that made over $400k

Resetufologist

Very low key

Community Resetter

Resetufologist

User requested account closure

User requested account closure

Resetufologist

User requested account closure

User requested account closure

When the music hits, you feel no pain.

Bold Bur3n Wrangler

Bold Bur3n Wrangler