Pros
Outstanding insurance (except for retirees) and leave benefits, good equipment, camaraderie with co-workers, sense of accomplishment and making a difference in the safety of the motoring public.
Cons
Pay, pay, pay, pay and pay. There is no longevity/step pay plan. What you start at is what you retire at save for the occasional cost of living raise when the legislature feels generous. Your counterparts at the sheriff's offices or police departments will make several thousand dollars per year more that you with the exception of some very small so's and pd's in north FL. The gap gets wider the more years you stay. You can make decent money by working various OT programs that are available up to 72 hrs per week, but your quality of life, family and health will suffer obviously. Your only hope for a decent salary is to promote and that generally requires uprooting your family and moving unless you get lucky and/or wait until a local position opens up. The state does pay for the move but it can take a year or more to financially recover from a move, The moving expenses are also counted as income for tax purposes. You will still be making significantly less than your local department counterparts. That is the case from the bottom of this organization to the very top and the gap gets wider the more years you stay... Rotating shifts and days off every 28 days in most areas of the state. Very little back up/help. There is a super high turnover rate mostly due to the pay and working conditions. In the non metro areas expect to work alone and/or cover multiple counties alone or with maybe one or two other troopers if you are very lucky on a midnight shift. The other shifts you may have help depending on , court, vacations, training and mandatory offsetting of regular incidental OT (not specific OT programs). There is a culture of micro managing from the rank of Lieutenant (not all but most) and above. You will be watched by gps and your in car videos will be watched. You will be questioned about why you stayed in one place for too long no matter how much work you have done. Speaking of that, all this agency cares about are the numbers of tickets you write and beating the previous years stats. They don't want to hear that we are working with less people so naturally the stats go down. That is not an excuse. There is no written quota per say but there is an unwritten one for sure. If you are hired after 2011, which means you, you will get no cost of living raises while you are retired, have to work 30 years instead of 25 and your rate is based on your last 8 years average salary instead of the last 5 or top 5. There is no step plan, if you retire at the Trooper level you will retire at 75% of starting pay. To be fair some OT is calculated into your retirement but not all. Lastly, to keep your insurance after you retire will really cost you. It goes from $180 a month for family coverage to $1600 a month. You do get a $120 a month insurance stipend.
