It's pretty sad when you have the majority of the top 50 earners being local cops that are pulling in upwards of 150K a year. Time to put salary caps on these jobs. You could cut these salries in half and they would still be getting a high paying salary at 70K. There is no shortage of people who would take these cop jobs for 60-70K. The city could double the amount of cops on the streets just by doing this or start saving some money for the city rather than spending wastefully.

Mike, in case you missed our story last week or aren't familiar with how police salaries breakdown, usually more than half their income is from overtime, details and Quinn Bill compensation. The actual salaries are between $45,000-$60,000 for many officers.

Right, but the point that I think Mike is trying to make, is you could cut out the overtime. Do that, and there could be more manpower on the streets. Say, Washington Street?? For instance.

Paying police overtime is a far more cost-effective solution when you consider the added expenses of benefits like healthcare (which will continue to rise), training, equipment, insurance, etc. Not to mention the lifetime pensions that additional personnel would receive to cover 20-30 years of retirement living in the future. I have no problem with the cops, they put in long crazy hours away from their families, consider that. I have far more of a problem with the pay raises that the elected officials just pushed through. Thats just plain wrong.