Greetings to all. I am new to the whole forum concept, so I hope I am posting this in the right place. I am hoping some of you out there can help my K9 unit and I out with some information.

I am a Deputy Sheriff/K9 handler in Sacramento, Ca. I am in the process of creating a proposal for our K9 unit to receive hazard pay, in addition to our regular wage and FSLA pay. All other sepciality units within our department, including traffic motors, receive this pay.

I am collecting information about which departments receive this pay, how much the pay is (in dollars or percentage), and how the unit justified the pay increase. I know LAPD and some other agencies receive this type of hazard pay compensation, I am just having a hard time tracking them all down.

If anyone out there could help provide me with such information, it would be greatly appreciated. You may e-mail me at icarver@sacsheriff.com with any information and/or a contact name and number for someone who may have such information.

Thank you and stay safe,

Ian Carver (K9-4)
Sacramento Sheriff's Dept.
Canine Enforcement Detail
http://www.ssdk9.com
icarver@sacsheriff.com

I'm going to post here to keep this one fresh for Ian.


Anyone have some good statistics for this guy?

I have seen some departments offer 3-5% increase of base salary for a k-9 officer. If your unit is attached to a swat or special team like (bomb) some departments make it as high as 8%. All of my stat's come from Washington state police departments.

None of our specialty units get hazard pay. The response has always been the same "If you don't think it's worth it, quit." Narcotics is the only unit that gets any support at all from our administration. So far this year, our K-9 unit has been paid for only 16 hrs of training the whole year. Everything else is on our own time. Hazard pay sure would be nice. Good luck.

Kevin it's not clear from your post if this is being done but your department must pay you for 30 minutes/day (seven days a week) for maintenance of your dog unless he's kenneled centrally. If you take him home they have to pay you. You can go back up to three years to get this pay if you have to sue. Check with an attorney who is familiar with FLSA regs.

One problem with doing this is that many departments will retaliate by closing down the K9 unit. If you have the support of the community you can prevent or minimize that. FLSA prevents them from doing that in retaliation for asking for your money or for suing them for it; but they'll claim that they were planning to do it anyway and that it has nothing to do with your claim. Then it becomes your burden to prove that it's in retaliation for exerting your rights.

They also have to pay you time and one-half for all time over 40 hours/week. If they try to reduce training time they're laying themselves open to liability for "failure to train." Find out what the standard is in your neck of the woods and let them know. That puts them on notice.

If you want to stand up for your rights, it sometimes becomes an adversarial relationship.

Lou,
I sent you a PM.

If you have any particular numbers, I wouldn't mind taking a look at them. We are looking for a general pay rate rule of thumb, from everything to large agencies like ours with a high K9 call for service ratio, to smaller agencies who are duly compensated for the risks involved in this line of work. I would be interested in those types of stats from agencies outside of California as well. If you know of certain agencies that get hazard pay, I would be happy to do the legwork and get in touch with them myself if you could drop me a line with their names.

Thanks,

Ian Carver

We have to negotiate a contract through our union for hazard pay. Being as we only have 5 teams we are told that they have bigger fish to fry.

As per Lou's comment concerning suing the agency...Our county dog handlers did just that about ten years ago. The unit was disbanded and as a result (my feeling) a deputy was killed by a burglar in a school when the bad guy got the deputy's gun because he was caught unawares. A dog would have found this guy. A public uproar was made when it was discovered the unit had been disbanded. The unit was reinstated and currently they have 14 teams. Too bad someone had to die over it.

I get paid Roughly $200.00 extra a month for k-9 pay, which is actually $2,464.00 more per year (per our contract). This is only for k-9 handlers that have their dogs living at home with them (which we all do). We have 5 dogs, only assigned to one handler. Sioux City Police Dept. Sioux City, Iowa