Hi from Kentucky

[morgant17]

I am new and wanted to stop by and say hi! I am interested in becoming a police officer in Lexington, KY. Any comments or advice would be greatly appreciated! ;)

[acreature]

Welcome to RP, and good luck!

[ACS Explorer]

Welcome to RP!

[Mike Romeo]

Well hello there....lot's of good information here about hiring processes. Welcome to the board.

[darrell]

We have a member also going through that process with LPD but I don't remember the sn.

Welcome. I know your town well cause my aunt lives 40 min SW of you in Wilmore just off of Circle 4.

[Oldbillplod]

Welcome to RP

[Jynkxxie]

Welcome to RP!

[klaginess]

Welcome to RP!

[Deputy757]

Welcome to RP. As for Lexington Metro..just a few bits of info. One, officers there have been woefully underpaid for a long time. There is supposed to be a plan in the works to bring them up to standard but time will tell. The raises they were promised last go around didn't materialize for many officers and they've been losing people left and right for some time now. Two, the pension system was about 40 million dollars underfunded when I left in '94. From what I've been told..it's still in the red and the FOP is filing suit to make the city cough up the dough. Also, most departments contribute to the County Employee's Retirement System (CERS) and if you leave Lexington to go to another department, the money you have contributed will not be transferable to CERS. In other words, you will be starting from scratch in the new system. Not a bad trade off if you only have two years in, but after five you are starting to feel like you are stuck!
Good luck with the process, but don't sell any of the smaller departments in the same area short!

[Wakaishu]

Welcome to RP, I'm from Louisville, KY...
I'm down there (in Lexington) periodically because my girlfriends parents live there...

Good Luck,

[Old Trooper]

Welcome, and good luck!

[mcsap]

Welcome to RP.

[john2190]

Welcome to RP!

[Jbbreeze]

Welcome to RP. As for Lexington Metro..just a few bits of info. One, officers there have been woefully underpaid for a long time. There is supposed to be a plan in the works to bring them up to standard but time will tell. The raises they were promised last go around didn't materialize for many officers and they've been losing people left and right for some time now. Two, the pension system was about 40 million dollars underfunded when I left in '94. From what I've been told..it's still in the red and the FOP is filing suit to make the city cough up the dough. Also, most departments contribute to the County Employee's Retirement System (CERS) and if you leave Lexington to go to another department, the money you have contributed will not be transferable to CERS. In other words, you will be starting from scratch in the new system. Not a bad trade off if you only have two years in, but after five you are starting to feel like you are stuck!
Good luck with the process, but don't sell any of the smaller departments in the same area short!

There has been quite a bit of change in the LPD as of lately. I am currently going through the recruitment process and have talked with many different officers, trainers and anyone else that I can find that has knowledge about the LPD. They have finally gotten a step pay scale going so that people that have been on the force for 5 years are not making the same as the new recruits. Also here is an excerpt from their retirement plan and I will include the website also so that you can see. It looks like if quit that you now get your money that you put into the retirement plan back but then again I guess you are talking about a retirement fund and not getting your money back. "Sworn employees contribute to the Policemen's and Firefighter's Retirement Fund and participation is mandatory. Sworn employees contribute 11% and the Urban County Government contributes 20% of the employee's gross salary to the P&FRF, beginning with the date of employment. Sworn employees do not pay Social Security, except for the Medicare portion (1.4%). Upon request, a booklet outlining the details of the plan will be supplied by the Secretary of P&FRF located in the Division of Police Headquarters at 150 East Main Street. If a sworn employee ceases employment with the Urban County Government for any reason, other than retirement, their contributions can be refunded." Sorry for some reason I cannot get the URL on here but if you search for Lexington Police you can find it on their website.

I know that they have had some serious problems in the past but as I'm am trying to get on there I do hope that they have corrected most of what you said. So far everyone I have talked to has said that they are trying very hard to address all of those problems. If not I think that it would be a great place to cut my teeth and then move on Northward and get a LE somewhere else. Where are you working now? Are you still in KY doing LE or did you move on? Well to original poster good luck I am taking all my tests on Nov. 5 and 6. If you have any questions please let me know and I will help you in any way that I can.

[Deputy757]

Yes, it's changed some and definitely for the better. But real change is not going to happen until they get a more sympathetic ear in the mayors office. The raise is a start but when the last really nice raises came out, they were supposed to be part of a series of increases that never came. That's why many are still suspicious about the new scheme!
You're right about the pension..you can take your money out if you leave but you'd better get it into something else that's tax sheltered pretty quickly. CERS would be nice but that's not going to happen until the law changes. Funny enough, if you have contributed to an out of state hazardous duty pension, you are able to put that money into CERS and buy your years of service! Go figure.
I'm still in KY....a little further south now but happy and much more prosperous! Good luck with LPD!