Glad I do not live within city limits anymore. Very interesting article and video.

WGN Investigates
Terrorist incidents. Hostage situations. Dangerous suspects. The Chicago Police Department’s SWAT team responds to some of the city’s most volatile situations. Chicago, unlike most big cities, doesn’t staff its SWAT team around the clock. Instead it relies on members to respond during their off-hours. Now WGN Investigates has learned some members of the SWAT team are refusing to respond to those calls to protest the department’s practices.

“Lives are on the line,” Pete Milionis, a former CPD SWAT team member who now conducts training for other departments, said. “Unless officers make this stand and make people care bosses will never change."

The Fraternal Order of Police filed a grievance after a stand-off this summer in which a suspect broke through a police perimeter before the SWAT team could fully assemble.

“After calling over 50 members one by one, only eight were able to respond,” the grievance states.

The suspect allegedly pointed a gun at officers who shot him. He was injured and then turned the gun on himself. A police department lawyer responded to the union grievance by saying the complaint was not related to officer safety and the incident was “appropriately resolved.”

The union wants SWAT team members to be compensated for being on-call.

Watch the full story and see CPD Supt. Eddie Johnson’s response in the video player above.

LINK: https://wgntv.com/2018/11/01/s...partments-swat-team/

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ZSMICHAEL,

As an aside-I bet that work environment is pretty common. SWAT in both the agencies I worked for did not get any extra pay for their training/certifications, and were not paid when they were on-call. In fact, no one at my current agency gets paid when they are on-call. It boggles my mind.

I think it is complete bullshit, but the politicians know they can get away with it.

Wow, hard to believe a major city like Shitcago doesnt have full time dedicated SWAT teams.

Wow, I'm shocked they don't have a full time team with a dept. that size.

To not even get any on call pay...being on call sucks.

One solution would be to have a minimum per week number of volunteers to be on call for pay. Still way cheaper than a full-time team, but you'd have enough on-call being paid for a fast response time and it would rotate so they can maintain a decent work/life balance.

I'd be on call for ~$2/hour knowing it would be all OT pay if I do get a call and I picked the week so I knew the family event (or whatever) next week is protected when someone else is on call.

I don't understand how they can be required to be on standby without compensation in view of the Fair Labor Standards Act. It is common practice to pay two hours minimum for a standby shift. There must be something in the collective bargaining agreement that provides some other compensation.

My department was not large enough to have a full time SWAT team on duty all the time but there were enough members that there were always a few on duty at any given time.

quote:

Originally posted by medic451:
Wow, hard to believe a major city like Shitcago doesnt have full time dedicated SWAT teams.

Just the tip of the iceberg concerning the Chicago SWAT team. If you get a chance go look at some of the postings on Second City Cop Blog. I recall a couple talking about a steroid freak Swat Sergeant who goes roid rage during training, injuring other SWAT Officers. The sergeant is apparently a merit pick and is connected.

When I was in NC they, the cops, are a class of employees who are exempt from standard rules of pay, so are firemen. They only gave us OT when we met x amount of hours over your regular pay w/I a pay period... example pay period is two weeks with 44 hours in one week and 40 in another week, but you don’t get OT until you go.over 100 hours in that time pay period.

Then you get OT.


It sucks

They should get “on call”pay and extra for each call out. Or the dept should staff a full time SWAT

Yep. The government often doesn't have to play by the same rules when it comes to stuff like on-call compensation and overtime pay.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
When I was in NC they, the cops, are a class of employees who are exempt from standard rules of pay, so are firemen. They only gave us OT when we met x amount of hours over your regular pay w/I a pay period... example pay period is two weeks with 44 hours in one week and 40 in another week, but you don’t get OT until you go.over 100 hours in that time pay period.

Then you get OT.


It sucks

They should get “on call”pay and extra for each call out. Or the dept should staff a full time SWAT

Damn!! That sucks!!! We get OT for anything over our 8 hour shift in a 24 hr period. If you get the text/call that you are on Standby/Call out status min. 2 hours OT. For training we are paid straight time for the first 11 hours in a pay period. Anything over that is OT.

quote:

Originally posted by 357fuzz:

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
When I was in NC they, the cops, are a class of employees who are exempt from standard rules of pay, so are firemen. They only gave us OT when we met x amount of hours over your regular pay w/I a pay period... example pay period is two weeks with 44 hours in one week and 40 in another week, but you don’t get OT until you go.over 100 hours in that time pay period.

Then you get OT.


It sucks

They should get “on call”pay and extra for each call out. Or the dept should staff a full time SWAT

Damn!! That sucks!!! We get OT for anything over our 8 hour shift in a 24 hr period. If you get the text/call that you are on Standby/Call out status min. 2 hours OT. For training we are paid straight time for the first 11 hours in a pay period. Anything over that is OT.

To be precise, in North Carolina law enforcement officers have to work over 171 hours in a 28 day pay cycle before they hit overtime. A 40 hour week would put the normal person working 160 hours in that period.

Some departments have two-week pay periods, and adjust the 171 to fit that.

It sucks to work 8 days in a row of 10+ hour days and not get a penny of OT at the end of the month because your schedule flips and flops in a way that you don't hit 172 hours.

One EMS agency I used to work for had 24 hour shifts, and one week of a pay period you worked 72 hours in the week...and got no OT. It was completely legal, however I declined to work full-time for them.

Heads should role that an agency that size doesn't have a full time swat team. That is asinine. The officers could be assigned to a roving tac team to assist other officers as needed, until they get a SWAT call out.

As to being on standby, my agency was chronically understaffed way back, and they had you on "standby" almost every day you were off. They didn't pay you or compensate you at all. They tried to say that you had to sit by your phone and needed to be "close" to home in case they called you in. Big fat nope. I went and did family things, went to Disney, went on vacation.

I remember a Sgt calling me on my off day. "Bubbatime, you need to come in. You are on call today." "Ok. I'm at Disney World with the family, so give me about 4-5 hours to get home and get my gear, so I guesstimate that I can be there in about 6 hours."

"WHAT??!!" You are on call today!! You cant be at Disney!!"

They didn't compensate us for our time on standby, so they couldn't do anything to us for not being readily available.

Its bullshit for a place of employment to require you to just sit by the phone close to home on your off days so that they can call you in, especially if they do not compensate you for your time.

Thanks Chongo, I didn't explain it properly (my stroke has given me some deficiencies) but you are right...I hated is when Hurricane work would come up, as the bosses would play bean counter and send you home so they wouldn't affect their pay balance....or anything else that came up. like the tornado that destroyed a few blocks and we all worked over and they shorted the regular shift to keep some of us off and some on and the balance worked out so they really didn't lose, or spend extra funds....[sighs and walks away]

Wow, I had no idea. I guess i was spoiled by 1) working for a large agency and 2)having an aggressive union.

Our department had two teams, we called them SERT.

When one was on duty the other was on-call and was getting standby time because they had to be within an hour of the office and couldn't drink alcohol during that time. If they were called in, they were paid a minimum of four hours OT

Twas ever thus. When a shift would come up short, my home phone would start ringing. And I never answered, because I knew I was being ordered into work. Once I was watching TV and looked up to see one of our sergeants peeking in my living room window at me.
Eventually, our union put a stop to that kind of nonsense.
Given the conditions at CPD, this does not surprise me.

Chicago really doesn't want a SWAT Team. Never has. But I have to agree with the Superintendent on this one. IMHO there is an over reliance on SWAT. A Police Officer should not need to be protected by a SWAT Officer. And while I don't have the stats, I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of incidents are already over, handled by the beat officers before SWAT even arrives. But that's probably common nationwide.And I am not a SWAT hater as are some of the guys. On a happier note, Pete Milonis is an incredible shot. I've trained with him and watched in awe as he made hole in one shots time after time. From the hip. He is an incredible trainer who has taught all over the world with good reason. Plus he's a real nice guy.

JB-take what you read on that blog with a grain of salt. There are an awful lot of malcontents that post there who do so knowing that no one will know who they are. I'm sure you already know that. Some of the stuff you read there is true, some not, like most blogs. The topics as posted by SCC are usually all true but then you get the crybabies who chime in with BS because of some imagined slight or because they just don't like the guy or subject of the post. I had a Captain tell me when I first was promoted that no white shirt should ever read that blog. He was right. It will drive you nuts because you know that some of the stuff posted is pure bs posted by someone else who knows it's pure bs.

quote:

Originally posted by 357fuzz:

Damn!! That sucks!!! We get OT for anything over our 8 hour shift in a 24 hr period. If you get the text/call that you are on Standby/Call out status min. 2 hours OT. For training we are paid straight time for the first 11 hours in a pay period. Anything over that is OT.

I think this is a good policy. It is exactly what is done at several companies I've worked for that had service tech's on call. Hard to believe that a policy so common place in the workplace is not used by police and fire departments.

This is strictly the free market working. Some companies still try to abuse their tech's. No one with talent goes to work there.

You want good tech's? Treat them with a little respect. Imagine that...

quote:

Originally posted by mark_a:

quote:

Originally posted by 357fuzz:

Damn!! That sucks!!! We get OT for anything over our 8 hour shift in a 24 hr period. If you get the text/call that you are on Standby/Call out status min. 2 hours OT. For training we are paid straight time for the first 11 hours in a pay period. Anything over that is OT.

I think this is a good policy. It is exactly what is done at several companies I've worked for that had service tech's on call. Hard to believe that a policy so common place in the workplace is not used by police and fire departments.

This is strictly the free market working. Some companies still try to abuse their tech's. No one with talent goes to work there.

You want good tech's? Treat them with a little respect. Imagine that...

Yeah. My department is lucky in some areas.

Yes, there's some problems in SWAT.
First, that place went down hill the day Lt Mancha got dumped by that little shit-in-the-pants Masters.

2- they need manpower. But then again, so does damn near every where else on the department.

3- with the manpower issues, there's a test to get on SWAT, they are in the process of testing right now. They need to get more officers that WANT to be on SWAT. Not a whole lot of "qualifyed" cops want to get there because they know it's a little messed up.

4- don't get me started on the pay. Those guys got fucked a while back in getting a step increase/ out of grade pay. K-9, Evidence Techs, Marine/Helicopter, Mounted all get a step increase in pay. But not SWAT. There's a nit-wit at HQ that hands out cell phones, and he has a take home car, SWAT? Only if you're on call.

5- there's a large and somewhat powerful undertone in the dept against SWAT. A "we don't need them" attitude, there's also the same attitudes toward the patrol carbines and the less than lethal shotguns.

Yes, there's some internal problems in the unit, some with internal management, some with personnel, some with training...

On a side note; Milinois, the retired officer who now does the training.
WOW
That guy really, REALLY knows his way around a pistol. Without a doubt, one of the fastest people I've ever seen in person on a gun!

On a side note, I agree about Pete Milionis and his shooting ability.
I participated in a steel match years back. I had never seen Pete up to that match. He shot SSP.
There were over 150 shooters, in all the usual classes including unlimited that had some top notch shooters participating.
Pete SMOKED the entire field, ALL classes.
Truly an example of, its the shooter NOT the gun!

CHICAGO — Chicago is one of the few big cities without a police SWAT team that responds to emergencies around-the-clock. Now, WGN Investigates has reviewed a draft memo from CPD’s SWAT team commander announcing the team will be staffed 24/7.

The change comes after WGN Investigates reported gaps in staffing that lead to long response times. In one case cited in a union safety complaint, a suspect was able to break through a perimeter and take his own life before SWAT fully deployed. The department relies on overtime to cover some overnight shifts as well as calling-in SWAT team members who are off-duty. In protest, some SWAT operators have been refusing to answer calls during their off-hours.

A Chicago police spokesperson confirmed the department is moving to 24/7 SWAT coverage but said details are still being worked out. The draft memo said changes would take effect Nov. 11 and stated SWAT operators who are on-call should not consume alcoholic beverages and must be able to respond within one hour. The Fraternal Order of Police has argued “on-call” time should be paid. A CPD spokesperson said other units in the department are not compensated for being on-call, only if they are requested to respond to an incident.

“We’re fighting dinosaurs in the department to comprehend how a SWAT team should function,” SWAT team member and union rep Robert Bartlett told WGN. The Fraternal Order of Police filed a grievance after a stand-off this summer in which a suspect broke through a police perimeter before the SWAT team could fully assemble. “After calling over 50 members one by one, only eight were able to respond,” the grievance states. The suspect allegedly pointed a gun at officers who shot him. He was injured and then turned the gun on himself. A police department lawyer responded to the union grievance by saying the complaint was not related to officer safety and the incident was “appropriately resolved.”

“Lives are on the line,” said Pete Milionis, who is a former CPD SWAT team member who now conducts training for other departments. “Unless officers make this stand and make people care, bosses will never change,” Milionis said.

Police Supt. Eddie Johnson downplayed the union’s safety concerns during an interview in late-October. “Officers on the street, they know how to keep themselves safe. We don’t need SWAT to keep us safe… SWAT is another tool.” Johnson later acknowledged discussions were underway to staff SWAT around-the-clock.