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Right now I am questioning if I should take the next captains exam and if the rank is worth taking. The only reason I want the rank is for the pension. I have about 10 year OTJ. I don't know if I can take all of the headaches and stress of being in the rank of Captain for atleast 10 years. What I am asking for is some insight on the rank. I know a lot of people bash the rank, but most of these people are not captains. What are the pros and cons? How is the schedule? Is it at all flexible ? Does the rank get better with time ? My main concern is my family. I don't want to miss out on time with my family. Can days off be taken whenever needed or is tough to get days off? Being in the rank of captain is there any down time? Just looking for some feed back.
The captain rank is not better or worse than the lieutenant rank. It is hard to explain. The big difference is what borough/bureau you work in. Some borough inspectors/chiefs are gentlemen who realize that you have a life and some are psychos who dedicate their lives to this job and believe you should too. I can answer based on my experiences with about a year in rank; others may have different experiences.
XOs now have a piece of the weekend and a Cat 2 car. The car is huge if you live in the city; not so much if you don't. Maybe at some point it will be a Cat 1. The reason they aren't Cat 2s, according to the union, is that the job believes XOs won't strive to be COs if they can get a take home car as an XO. Speaking of which, the union is useless and Roy Richter does not care about you. The SBA is the best union out there.
For the most part, I have the same RDOs every week. If I get a scheduled duty on my RDO (happens about once a month), I am supposed to adjust my RDOs or bank the day. If I get a detail/parade on an RDO, it's full tour overtime. You can also adjust your RDOs to make it work for you. For example, if you have Fri/Sat off, but want to take off Thursday to hang out with the family, you can change your RDOs to Thurs/Fri to avoid burning a day. Or you can use one of the aforementioned banked RDOs.
Biggest con is the meetings. Lots and lots of meetings. Gun enhancement meetings, crime strategy meetings, borostat, compstat, pre-compstat, Graffitistat, Trafficstat, Domstat, quality of life meetings, the list goes on and on, especially if your command or borough is up in crime. As the XO, the CO will delegate the boring meetings for you to go to. You need to be familiar with crime conditions even as the XO because you might be called up to Compstat when the CO is on vacation.
Majority of XOs work some sort of 4x12 shift consistently, since you have to do an opposite tour from the CO. You can adjust your tour once in a while for personal reasons but don't do it all the time.
Does the rank get better with time? No. It gets better with position. A CO normally has it easier than an XO, especially in a slow house. A 1PP captain has it easier as well obviously. Narco/DB I don't know anything about. I work with XOs with 10+ years in rank; they have the same schedule I do.
Taking time off - not a problem as long as it's not abused.
Down time - plenty of it, especially when you're not doing the duty.
If your CO is decent, you'll have plenty of latitude to run the shop when he's not there. You have the potential to help improve morale on an otherwise ****ty job.
The bottom line is I make a decent salary without having to work insane amounts of overtime. I work my 9 hours (soon to be 8) and go home. I maybe do ~15 hours a month overtime from taking my time writing 49s when I run into something on the duty.
You could build up more overtime if you wanted. You could always stay later to finish up that injured prisoner 49 you're working on, or there could be a job late in the tour you need to go out on, or you might need to come in early to supervise an operation. At this rank your overtime can be disapproved by the borough but as long as it's not being abused nobody is going to question you.
Some captains want no part of being a CO and are content with the lesser responsibility of being an XO; while other XOs were dumped out of other places and the job will never give them any position of real responsibility.
From my understanding with the car, every command was issued an unmarked for the XO's use. When you get assigned to a command, you have to submit a 49 to the PC requesting the car be designed a cat 2 and telling them where you're going to park it at night. The problem you may face is if the command has two XOs or an impact captain and an XO. You and the other guy are going to have to fight it out over who gets the car. The car stays with the command so if you're transferred to a new command as the XO you have to request approval again.
The xo game is a political mess. What some have to work years for, others have handed to them. You can figure out what I'm saying pretty easily. Bottom line...if you're worried about time with family...within 6 months you'll get calls from plenty of units. Weekends off, cat 1, tit schedule. Trade off...no further promotions (unless u fit what they're looking for). Anyway, you'll have to make that decision for yourself. Is an $8000 raise at DI worth it to be away from your kids, friends, etc?
Thanks all for input. How long is the process to get approval for category 2 once 49 is submitted? Who does the 49 get submitted to, PC direct or to Boro through channels? Thanks again.
Thanks all for input. How long is the process to get approval for category 2 once 49 is submitted? Who does the 49 get submitted to, PC direct or to Boro through channels? Thanks again.
Your borough will know what to do. I used mine on my first day. I don't know if I was supposed to or not.
Wit 10 Years left you would be crazy not to take the test. A Lt. for 10 yrs you'll never stay in the same spot unless you can find a unit in 1PP to hide in and even then all you need is the wrong CO and you'll find yourself in an undeserable spot or gone. Maybe I've been lucky but the only con I have witnessed as an XO is every detail in the beginning. Meaning the big ones, but even Co's go or have to work so I guess it doesnt matter. Hours were steady and flexable, steady sun/mon, and bascially did what I wanted. Never was denied a day off and you can take as much ot within reason as you want. You still have to adhere to the cap but most captains don't come close to 120 a quarter. And like someone else mentioned, in a few months you will get offers to leave and go elswhere.
As far as union is concerned I have to diagree. I think Richter has been great in my time in rank. Cat 2, back to 8 hour tours and who could believe, OT. Never would have thought or dreamed of that before.
Base pay just for showing up 10/01/18 is $165,455. That doesn't include longevity, holiday pay and uniform allowance which puts you over 180. Throw in night diff and you can break 190.
Nice to hear about the rank from guys in the rank. I'm tired of listening to guys about why I shouldn't study for Captain when all they know about the rank is opinion or based on hearsay from non-Captains. Not saying the rank is all sunshine and rainbows, but that shouldn't deter guys like myself who are relatively young on the job from taking that final test.
Base pay just for showing up 10/01/18 is $165,455. That doesn't include longevity, holiday pay and uniform allowance which puts you over 180. Throw in night diff and you can break 190.
Any new captains, or old, have any feed back on the rank? Is it what you expected? Pros/cons? Regrets? Advice? Biggest headaches? How is your schedule?
The rank was overwhelming at first. Depending on the Boro you are assigned to helps as the one I am assigned to is pretty good. The schedule is always going to be tough as a new XO because your expected to work friday/saturday evenings 1400x2300 etc. If you get one of the "lucky" shooting commands the chiefs expect you to work later (1800x0300 or 1700x0200) weekends.
Mostly everything stated by people above is correct... lots of down time, meetings, duties etc. As long as you are outgoing and friendly you can always find another captain to cover your duty if you need off. The rank can be very stressful and if you are normally an individual who stresses easily, or has anxiety then you better get some xanax because it can be difficult. I know some XO's who are happy, some who are just putting time in to move on, and some who absolutely hate it and cant wait to jump ship. I guess it depends on your work ethic.
Overall I was not happy at first but its getting better as time goes on. Once I get past the first year and chop that 9 hour shift to 8 it will really improve things, especially with doubles. I also have a great CO who enjoys teaching and constantly mentors me daily. This is a HUGE bonus because I dont feel apprehensive or scared to ask questions. He has even given me weekend nights off when he has a duty (as inspector) and also covered my late tour if I needed a night off in advance.
