Thread: More NYPD cops leave, this time for MTA

COPS QUIT FOR
MORE $$ AT MTA
By PHILIP MESSING
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April 24, 2002 -- More than two dozen New York City cops are making tracks for the MTA's police force - where patrolling rail yards and stations pays 9 to 16 percent more than prowling city streets.

The NYPD vets - who will join the MTA force tomorrow - are just the latest in a string of city police officers lured to other police departments by higher pay.

Since the new MTA recruits have already passed the city's police academy, the only job requirements they need to fulfill are a polygraph test, drug screening and a 10-week orientation class.

Their new jobs are likely to be less dangerous and maybe less physically taxing than working for the NYPD.

But the real draw to the MTA force appears to be money.

Starting pay for MTA cops is $36,528 a year - 17 percent more than the city's $31,305 starting salary.

And MTA cops can also expect to earn $56,088 after five years - 8 percent more than the $51,978 they'd make with similar NYPD experience.

About 200 new cops are expected to be hired to augment the existing 500-officer MTA force, which patrols Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal, Metro North and LIRR facilities, and train yards.

"This group is being hired as an outgrowth of the special circumstances created by 9/11 that requires beefing up the MTA force," said a source.

NYPD salaries also lag behind those offered by Nassau and Suffolk counties, which are hiring city cops in record numbers.

Well all I can say to that article is that until the NYPD does something to make us stay this is going to increase more and more with people leaving.. I took the test sat., and I know I hope in the near future I am offered a job with the MTA..