These men made so much money in overtime pay that the MPD could have hired nearly 380 new officers, full time, with benefits.

It has been said that crime does not pay. But, when did it become a common standard that fighting crime beyond a scheduled shift would result in a doubled annual salary?

Last Sunday, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ran an article telling the story of five Milwaukee cops, (three detectives and two sergeants,) who basically doubled their annual take-home pay by logging an obscene amount of overtime hours.

These men made so much money in overtime pay that the MPD could have hired nearly 380 new officers, full time, with benefits.

Now I realize that some overtime is completely inevitable, but between the 3 detectives, they claimed to be in court cases for 1,933 hours in 2006. That would mean at least one of them was in court for just under 7 and a half hours each weekday for the entire year.

Part of this problem stems from the fact that officers get paid for their court service time in such a ridiculous way. If an officer spends even as little as one minute in a court room after his scheduled shift is over, they will receive 2.5 hours of overtime pay.

I'm not sure about you, but I would love to get paid like that! I already work about 10-15 hours of overtime a week, but add an additional 2 and a half hours for staying a minute longer than I was scheduled, and that would add on an extra 12 hours of overtime pay on my check. I could take an extra day off a week for that kind of benefit!

Then there is a looming question of how this helps to fight crime in the city. Let's look at this logically for a second: Instead of having five officers out trying to tie up loose ends on cases, search for criminals and following leads beyond their normal "daily required hours," we could have over 300 officers doing the same thing?

I am failing to see a down side to this. The city of Milwaukee trains a number of new officers each year, but due to a huge budget, are forced into a position to not be able to hire that many new officers.

If they were to cut the overtime of the five officers in question, there would be so many new recruits asking for jobs that Chief Nan Hegerty wouldn't know what to do.

One voice printed in a campus newspaper is not going to change this policy of how these officers are slinking their way into a six-figure salary (not that I think that they do not deserve it). Police officers put their lives on the line each and every day, but it only takes one bad apple to spoil the whole the rest.

This time there are five apples that are looking spotty. Crime is still a major concern in this city and on this campus.

With reports of theft, burglary and armed-robbery showing up on the weekly crime report, something needs to be done to ensure that Milwaukee will be a safe city, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will become a safer campus for all of us. All I can do is urge each and every one of you to contact your Alderman and demand that action be taken.

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