Report Finds California Best Place for Cops

A report released yesterday by WalletHub ranked California as the best state in the country for police officers. The report compared training, salaries and job hazards among the states to establish the ranking.  However, the surveyors did not actually take the time to talk to police officers. Josh DuBois of KTLA reports that the state’s police officer associations are having none of it.

“We don’t see any of these metrics in this ‘study’ but that is the reality law enforcement officers face in California,” he added. The unions also took issue with the report’s findings on officer compensation, saying WalletHub failed to consider the high cost of living in the state, especially where housing is concerned,” said the President of the Los Angeles Police Protective League.”

And while the pay scale may be higher than other states, with California’s highest-in-the-nation taxes, electricity and gas prices and the cost of owning a home, officers in the Golden State are actually fairing worse than those living in other states.

“As of March 2024, the median price of a home in California is $793,600, and in San Francisco, it’s $1,415,000, said Tracy McCray, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association. “In order to find an affordable place to live, our officers, especially new recruits, are forced to live further and further from work, adding hundreds of hours of commute time, added stress, higher travel costs, and causing them to spend much less time with their families.”

Police and Sheriff’s Departments in California’s large cities are also seriously understaffed and recruiting new officers has been extremely difficult. The police officer groups also noted that state laws and local prosecution policies are putting officers in danger. Officials cited zero bail, catch and release policies, and the state’s weak sentencing laws for keeping dangerous repeat offenders on the streets instead of behind bars.

The head of the Sunnyvale Public Safety Officers Association noted that in recent years they have had to recruit officers from out-of-state to staff the department but:

“Once they get here and face the reality of housing costs, the demoralization of constant legislative efforts that degrade or vilify the profession, and the overall declining moral in our Department, too many return to their home state or go elsewhere.”