[moehoward]

I agree with your entire post......except for "They simply cannot be everywhere at everytime for a $50K salary." I fail to see how a higher salary would impact their ability to be in more places. In fact since the bulk of their time IS spent processing paperwork and collecting various motor vehicle taxes, I'd rather have two $25k cops, or five $10k cops. That way we at least get a little more coverage.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I wouldn’t begrudge a more handsome remuneration to police personnel (that’s a rather small part of a police budget) IF, in return, retention could be based strictly upon merit evaluations into which integrity would be an essential element that couldn’t be outweighed by other factors.