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Police Organization Weighs Lawsuit After Rate Hikes For Off-Duty Officer Jobs - YouTube
Channel: KSL News
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robbery rates are up murder rates are up
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all violent crime is up this is not the
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time for the city to be
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pulling back on its service on its law
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enforcement services to local businesses
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now that's the voice of the fraternal
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order of police the largest organization
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of officers
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here in utah they are not happy about a
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recent change
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in how west valley city police manages
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off-duty security jobs
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neither are a handful of businesses the
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kso investigators learned
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are in some cases paying twice as much
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for those services
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is it unreasonable or a move to be more
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competitive with going rates
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well ashley this letter right here
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obtained exclusively by ksl shows just
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how seriously the fop views this issue
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they're prepared to file a lawsuit
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saying the change quote marks a
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disturbing
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and possibly illegal trend in the way in
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which law enforcement officers
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interface with local businesses for
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secondary employment
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the city though sees it differently
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it's just a really bad outcome for
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officers and for local businesses
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bad outcomes says ian adams executive
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director of utah fraternal order police
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after west valley city police department
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raised their rates for off-duty officers
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pricing many businesses out of hired
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protection that they have enjoyed for
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years
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back in january west valley police
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finalized a contract
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with texas-based off-duty management the
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goal
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manage these side gigs for their
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officers to better protect them
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and evenly distribute the jobs the
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company's website
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advertises insurance workers comp and
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other perks for departments
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at no cost to the agency those costs
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went elsewhere
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unfortunately prices for these local
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businesses
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went through the roof three years ago
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west valley officers were negotiating
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their own rates directly with businesses
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now it's 57 dollars an hour for an
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officer with a two-hour minimum
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compare that to 45 dollars an hour for
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salt lake city police and unified's
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flexible rates
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which average 38 dollars an hour toilet
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police
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which also uses off-duty management
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charges 60 bucks an hour
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adams says by their count 11 of 15 west
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valley businesses that regularly hired
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off duty officers
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have cut ties with the city there's no
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reason to cost these local businesses
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hundreds of thousands of dollars more
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hundreds of thousands is right these are
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some of the estimated increases in cost
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by fop for businesses
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after the rate change and take a look at
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these emails between these businesses
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and west valley city police obtained
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by public records request walmart once
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paying 560
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000 dollars per year now paying close to
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a million bucks
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saint mark's hospital suggests raising
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rates would mean cutting 24
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officers they employ from west valley
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we're always going to try to look for
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the cheapest alternative
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the rate hike meant granite school
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districts stopped hiring west valley
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police for their night school
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and big events like football games just
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looking at the numbers we just try to
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get the best deal for taxpayers that we
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can and while officers would love to
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make 50 dollars an hour in a side gig
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adams says now there aren't even enough
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jobs to go around
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and regular reliable jobs officers had
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are now spread out across the entire
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department
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cutting their hours and we've already
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begun to see officers leaving the
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department
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at a time when it's already difficult to
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recruit and retain qualified officers
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and we feel that it has been an
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excellent program for west valley city
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the ksl investigators took all of this
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to west valley police deputy chief scott
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buchanan who told us the change
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is about eliminating risk he believes
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the new policy ultimately will lead to
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good
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outcomes buchanan points to many
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lawsuits across the country
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where off-duty officers have hurt people
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discharged their weapons
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or gotten hurt themselves the
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consequences there
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could be severe in terms of cost to you
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things not necessarily being covered by
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workers compensation insurance
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and of course even risk-related issues
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like lawsuits
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this became an issue for salt lake city
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police back in 2014
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that's when a journalist sued the
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department after its off-duty officer
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guarding the chevron refinery allegedly
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violated his first amendment rights
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in 2018 two state audits found police
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departments needed to come up with
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better ways of managing those risk
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factors
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and unify police secondary employment
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policies was the ultimate suggestion
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buchanan says a move to higher odm does
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just that
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and will help avoid other bad outcomes
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we believe that it is the
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best practice possible for secondary
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employment for police officers
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west valley city hopes some of the
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businesses they previously served will
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look to private security contractors to
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see if that may be a better option for
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them
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for more details on this change in
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off-duty job management all you got to
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do is visit ksltv.com
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kevin joining us
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