Bradenton Police Seek Better Pay, Staffing Levels
You’d never know from reading either the Bradenton-is-no-longer-part-of-our-name Herald or the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that the Bradenton Police rank and file are busily negotiating a new employment contract with the city. But they are, and several officers I’ve talked to have said they are depressed by the lack of citizen support for them in these negotiations. “The citizens don’t know you’re trying to get not only a little higher salary but also better staffing so you can fight crime better,” is what I reply, and what I hear in return to that is, “The only time the papers write about police here is when one of our guys screws up.” There is some truth to this. So let’s go, newspapers. Let’s show our police force that reporters, editors and most citizens would rather boost than bash them — and that we want our police to be paid decently, get decent benefits, and have enough staff that they can do proactive neighborhood crime-fighting instead of running from call to call all the time.
Get information from the PBA, the Mayor, and the Police Chief
Searching the Herald or Herald-Tribune story archives would give you the idea that the PBA is only involved with bowling. You might never learn from these papers that the PBA important to our police officers here is their collective bargaining agent, the Southwest Florida Chapter of the Florida Police Benevolent Association, AKA PBA. Their local office - the one that represents Bradenton Police Department (BPD) officers, is at 2075 Main Street, Suite 4, in Sarasota, zip code 34237, phone (941) 366-1436. I’m sure they’d be happy to talk to reporters from any local media outlet.
On the other end, you’ll want to talk to Bradenton city officials, probably starting with Mayor Wayne Poston. Here’s his contact information.
You may also want to talk with Bradenton Police Chief Michael Radzilowski. You can try reaching him or the department’s media relations person, Major J.J. Lewis, through the contacts on this page. (I recommend calling rather than emailing. I have had plenty of frustration trying to call individual BPD people through that switchboard, but it *is* apparently possible to reach someone through it if you allow for plenty of time and frustration, while I have no evidence that anyone there reads email.)
How can I learn more about BPD salary negotiations?
I know this is going on only because I saw a notice in the city hall foyer — and then I took the trouble to buttonhole some individual officers and get their opinions. As you might expect, they all feel they deserve more money, but some of what they said surprised me– and may surprise you, too:
- Bradenton Police get paid less than any major department around here, including the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.
- BPD has more personnel than it did back when this was a sleepy little town, but staff growth has not kept up with population growth. It hasn’t even been close.
- Some officers feel neither the city nor the Chief of Police want them to get a raise; that their bosses believe there are plenty of people out there who want to work for the department, so if they lose some (BPD has one of the highest law enforcement personnel turnover rates in this area) they can always get more.
- If police here do get a raise, chances are that increases in their medical insurance costs and copayments will eat it right back up.
- Local citizens don’t appreciate how hard police here work; if they did, they’d be calling the Mayor and their City Council members, telling them to not only give our police a raise but help raise the department budget enough to have as many police on the streets as the city needs today, not the number it needed 10 years ago.
-Some police don’t like “Chief Raz” much, and some wouldn’t like him no matter what since he was an outside hire (from Washington D.C.) instead of a local guy promoted through the ranks. And while some officers believe Chief Raz isn’t very concerned about officers’ welfare and isn’t standing up for them in the salary negotiations, others say his changes are steadily improving the department, and that he’s quietly working behind the scenes for raises and more people on the street. In other words, opinions about the Chief vary. He has both supporters and detractors within the department.
Do Bradenton Residents Support Their Police?
I think some do and some don’t. And a lot of it has to do with where they live and the contact they have with police.
I had a great police contact today, to give you an example: I was coming home after a video shooting session and a BPD cruiser pulled up next to my driveway. The young officer told me that a call I’d made a few days ago, and a neighbor’s accurate description of a reckless driver who literally bounced back and forth across 11th St. W, jumping curbs and hitting at least one trash can on the sidewalk, narrowly missing a parked car and coming w-a-y too close to some kids playing in front of their house, had resulted in an arrest. The guy not only took off crazily when the cop spotted him, which was more reckless driving, but had no drivers license.
Yes, that reckless, unlicensed (and likely drunk/stoned) driver is probably back on the street already, but there’s at least one smart BDP officer who has him pegged. And that bad guy is going to tell his friends that police here are on the bounce, which means he and his buds might clean up their behavior a little — or possibly even move elsewhere.
Good job, Mr. Police!
I say, “Give that man a raise.” I don’t want him to leave for a higher-paying department as soon as he gets good at being a Bradenton officer. Assuming he doesn’t get ground down and burnt out, the more experience he gets and the more knowledge of the local scene he picks up, the more valuable he’ll be. He’ll soon know where the drug houses are (if he doesn’t already), and even if he can’t necessarily do much about them directly as a patrol officer, he can surely feed information to detectives that may eventually lead to headline-worthy arrests.
And one thing this young police has already done is show his mettle directly not only to me but to three neighbors and to the two political activists (one a local candidate) who happened to be at my house when he stopped to tell me about the arrest he’d made.
We see little (if any) local media coverage of grunt-work police successes. The officers who say the only way to get their names in the paper is to screw up are at least 90% correct. We need more newspaper and TV stories about local law enforcement officers doing positive things. I don’t mean writeups of command-sponsored, well-publicized events like the National Nights Out, but stories about the day-to-day job our officers do. An awful lot of hard-working people in our society get no respect or attention for what they do. Police are high on the list of folks who deserve more positive attention than they get.
Meanwhile, if we Bradenton poeple want to have more good police, we need to pay our officers well enough — and give the good ones enough respect — that they stay with us instead of moving to other agencies once they’ve gotten some experience under their belts.
Local newspapers and other media should be telling you about police salary negotiations and the need for more officers on the street. You shouldn’t be learning about this sort of thing from some guy’s personal Web site. But you are, and now that you know a little about what’s going on, you can follow up on your own.
(And if you’re a local reporter or editor reading this, please start following the BPD salary negotiations. It’s not only a topic that deserves coverage because of its importance to the community, but one that could lead to an award-winning feature piece or series about how local police agencies differ in pay and working conditions, and how those differences affect those agencies’ morale and effectiveness.)