The NJ Police Chief Magazine Volume 24, Number 4 | Page 22

The New Jersey Police Chief Magazine | April 2018
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cameras were the most frequently cited.
In the 2014 New Jersey School Boards Association School Security Final Report “What Makes Schools Safe?” the task
force stated “The advantage of having a full-time trained police officer in a school means paying a full-time police
officer’s salary and benefits.” Well, this is no longer the case.
Under the new law, a fully trained police officer can be hired without the pension and health care obligations placed
upon the emplo yer. This will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the over-all cost of employing a SLEO III
officer.
For example:
If we use an average base salary of $100,000 for a sworn police officer, we must now apply the cost of fringe
benefits to that salary. Using the 2017 PFRS Fringe Benefit Rate of my current employer, we would see a combined
fringe benefit rate of 79.301%.
FICA/MEDICARE
SUI
SDI
PFRS PENSION
HEALTH BENEFITS
COMBINED RATE
7.650%
0.000%
0.750%
25.510%
45.391%
79.301%
If we simply remove the tax rates of 8.4% which would be required of either a full time officer or a SLEO III, we
have a new combined rate of 70.901%. If we apply the modified fringe benefit rate of 70.901% to the average base
salary of $100,000 we now have a total cost for salary and fringe benefits of $170,901.
AVERAGE BASE SALARY
MODIFIED FRINGE BENEFIT RATE 70.901%
ANTICIPATED SALARY
$100,000
$70,901
$170,901
So essentially, one full time police officer at an assumed annual salary of $100,000 will cost the agency or district
$170,901.00 per year.
Now let’s fast forward and take a look at the potential cost of a SLEO III officer.
Let’s make the following assumptions:
Salary for the SLEO III is $25.00 per hour
SLEO III works 5 eight hour days per week, or 40 hours
SLEO III works 10 months per year or 40 weeks
40 hours per week x 40 weeks = 1,600 hours
ASSUMED HOURLY RATE
ANTICIPATED HOURS
ANTICIPATED SALARY
$25.00
1,600
$40,000
Now let’s take a look at the comparison between the Full-Time officer and SLEO III officer.
SALARY OF 1 FULL-TIME OFFICER: $170,901
SALARY OF 1 SLEO III OFFICER (Based on assumptions):$40,000
If we divide the salary of a SLEO III officer by the salary of a full-time officer we find that we can hire 4.27 SLEO
III officers for the price of one full-time police officer. (Using the assumptions provided)
$170,901 / $40,000 = 4.27
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