See: On the Beat in Boston
"Public servant" simply means self-serving looter in the Bay State.
"Amid cuts, big pay for police; Overtime, contract terms boost some Boston officers" by Maria Cramer and Matt Carroll, Globe Staff | May 6, 2010
Even as Boston police officials laid off cadets and cut popular units like the mounted patrol, some police officers managed to dramatically boost their paychecks last year, in a few cases to more than a quarter of a million dollars.
Some of the officers earned extra cash because contracts require that officers working a detail or testifying in court be paid for a minimum of four hours. In one case, a lieutenant was paid for four hours after 15 minutes of case preparation.
All of the officers benefited from a retroactive, one-time salary boost under a new police contract. And all worked a lot of overtime....
The officers’ payroll records, released to the Globe under a public records request, show how it is possible for police officers to more than double their salaries, even at a time when the Police Department and other city agencies are facing enormous budget pressures and attempting to cut back on overtime spending.
“The salaries are excessive,’’ Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said in an interview. “Clearly the average person on the street does not make this kind of money....’’
The department declined to make any of the officers available for comment. Police cannot speak to the press without permission from the department.
But Superintendent-in-Chief Daniel Linskey said that, while police salaries are high, the toll the job takes on officers is significant.
“Quality of life definitely goes down,’’ Linskey said. “Cops are away from their kids a lot, away from their families a lot. It does take away other dividends . . . I can’t tell you how many officers retire at 64 or 65 years of age and don’t even get a full year of their retirement before they die of cancer, heart attack, other instances.’’
At least they were not beaten to death.
