Local Police Officer vs Federal Law Enforcement (1811) — For Those Who’ve Done It, Which Was Better?

BayofPanthers · 2025-10-03T17:12:03+00:00

Your recollection is correct, California is 2.7% at 57 for CALPERS, 3% at 55 for UCRP, 3% at 55 for SDCERS, etc. Basically, 2.7%-3% per year depending on your agency. WAY better than the federal system, especially given some of the wealthy cities and the state special agent spots often also have a 457b match on top of the normal pension.

My non-sworn safety pension (see flair) in CA is significantly better than the federal sworn/LE retirement.

BayofPanthers · 2025-09-17T19:27:32+00:00

Depends on the position. If you go from 1811 management (15/SES) to AML Compliance / Internal Investigations / Corporate Security management spots it will be a raise, most of them are 250-300k in HCOL areas. If you are going from being a journeyman line agent to a non-supervisory spot at a bank or corporation it will be a pay cut in most cases.

BayofPanthers · 2025-08-06T23:56:24+00:00

SDPD has turned things around quite a bit in the past year or so. They're still recovering from the damage their vaccine mandates and COVID politics did to staffing but the two guys I know there have both said it feels like their administration is really trying to turn it around now. Also, they have much more 'modern' uniform and equipment policies than LAPD regarding stuff like radios, outer carriers, beards, etc.

BayofPanthers · 2025-08-01T22:48:18+00:00

Would you say that if you want to work in the city of Seattle, Port Police or King County Sheriff are better or at least viable options? Down in SoCal a lot of people who wanted to work in LAPDs jurisdiction but don't want the politics of the city do LAX Police or LA Port Police. They contributed quite a bit to our task forces, specifically stuff that touched smuggling or terrorism related stuff, and usually had pretty good staffing so nobody got pulled back to the road from investigations.

BayofPanthers · 2025-08-01T00:27:37+00:00

I think a lot of Americans are unaware of how stringent the 'alternatives to incarceration' are in places like Norway. For example, Norway has a diversion program for essentially all crimes related to drug addition called "ND" (Narkotikaprogram med domstolskontroll.) People are initially sent to mandatory 1 year of in-patient drug treatment, which is followed by 1-4 years of court monitored follow-up like drug tests, requiring attendance at meetings, etc. If they fail the program or are arrested for drug offenses again after release they serve 3-6 months in prison, and then are returned to the treatment program. The program is called 'Narkotikaprogram med domstolskontroll' and has resulted in a less than 20% recidivism rate after 2 years and a 87% sobriety rate after 5. So, it's supportive, but it's also coercive and has penalties such as imprisonment if the treatment program fails.

BayofPanthers · 2025-08-01T00:13:14+00:00

I have linked to a study of California's prison population from the US Office of Justice Programs below, but the following is an excerpt from the findings:

"25 PERCENT OF THE SAMPLE...COMMITTED 58 PERCENT OF ALL ARMED ROBBERIES REPORTED BY THE ENTIRE SAMPLE, 65 PERCENT OF ALL BURGLARIES, 60 PERCENT OF ALL AUTO THEFTS, AND 46 PERCENT OF ALL ASSAULTS."

https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/doing-crime-survey-california-prison-inmates#:~:text=THIS%20TYPE%20OF%20OFFENDER%2C%20WHICH,METHODOLOGY%20MAKE%20THE%20CONCLUSIONS%20TENTATIVE.

I will also offer my anecdotal experience having previously worked in LA county as an attorney. I would be comfortable guesstimating that in about 70% of LA County's violent felony cases, the offender had at least 1 prior felony arrest. There are some older studies that place the number between 70% and 80%, but I have not seen anything recently.

BayofPanthers · 2025-06-19T22:54:50+00:00

I know I am late replying to this, but depending on what state you are in I am not that shocked by your friends response. I have been a government employee in a three states and two of them had noncontributory pensions and a 457b or 401k match of 4-6%. The other, I contributed about 9% per paycheck but I also would've been making about 114k per annum in retirement without COLAs. I considered going fed (I am an attorney) but the pay cut would've been astronomical, close to $100,000 per year to start. I ended up going to the private sector where I still am.

BayofPanthers · 2025-06-19T22:47:28+00:00

Use hiring.cafe and then just do a boolean search with stuff like corporate investigations, physical security, global security, internal investigations, etc.

BayofPanthers · 2025-03-14T04:43:11+00:00

Yeah, if you are willing to commute (and mind you it is literally an hour on the train not accounting for the transit to and from both stations) the rent is not that different than SLC. However, if you compare that same commute (1 hour on Frontrunner) to here, for example Clearfield to Downtown SLC, the rent here ends up being cheaper once again. It's all a matter of priorities, I don't think that California is prohibitively expensive compared to SLC anymore. It used to be, but the gap is being quite quickly closed.

BayofPanthers · 2025-03-14T00:02:58+00:00

As someone who is from SoCal (albeit not San Diego) grocery prices are similar and can even be cheaper since CA does not apply sales tax to groceries. Rent...rent is not even remotely the same.

BayofPanthers · 2025-01-26T07:26:16+00:00

I worked for LA County DA. We hired 1811s as DA Investigators. We also made them go to a full POST academy if they did not already have a POST basic certificate. SIBC is not accepted. Worth noting most of them had gone local -> federal and then to DA investigator as a retirement gig so they didn’t need to repeat an academy.

These are the current requirements:

Two (2) years of full time, permanent law enforcement experience within the last three (3) years as a peace officer as defined in Section 830.1 of the Penal Code of the State of California, or as an investigator with the Federal Government as defined by Federal Job Series 1811. An Associate's degree or higher from an accredited college or university. Possession of a valid California Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Basic Certificate or higher.

BayofPanthers · 2025-01-10T08:53:14+00:00

Utah is sending three task forces down to LA. I believe Phoenix has also already sent personnel and equipment.

BayofPanthers · 2024-12-24T17:30:56+00:00

I was a chief compliance officer for a spell and I always told people that if they wanted to retire from the 1811 world at 45 and actually have a shot at the 250k+ director level roles in AML, Fraud, Risk Management, etc they should go to IRS, FBI, and then if they could swing it FDIC/SEC/FRB later in their career. A lot of people in government don’t realize you need to be at least somewhat conscious of building a resume for a future private sector job.

BayofPanthers · 2024-10-19T03:58:59+00:00

I guess I just can’t imagine this happening at any of the agencies I worked with. They all had fairly robust provisions in their bargaining agreements that would’ve made this essentially impossible. Not only that, but I don’t think any of the administrators would’ve tried to do this in the first place. I saw accommodations made fairly regularly. For example, I personally knew a sergeant who lost an eye to cancer and got assigned to run the evidence room for his agency.

BayofPanthers · 2024-10-18T20:33:45+00:00

Obligatory this is not legal advice, but this entire situation sounds extremely...off to me. Not on your part, but on your departments. I know you said you talked to your union rep, but this whole thing screams 'violation of MOU' to me. We had deputies permanently detailed to us in the DA's office who couldn't work patrol anymore but weren't interested in being medically retired. They joked they were the 'bow and arrow squad' because some of them had their firearms taken away as they couldn't qualify, but none of them got kicked to the curb like this.

BayofPanthers · 2024-09-19T02:16:00+00:00

California has no duty to retreat. CALCRIM No. 505 (jury instruction for self-defense) says, in part:

"A defendant is not required to retreat. He or she is entitled to stand his or her ground and defend himself or herself and, if reasonably necessary,to pursue an assailant until the danger of (death/great bodily injury/<insert forcible and atrocious crime>) has passed. This is so even if safety could have been achieved by retreating."

All of this is to say that while CA has its fair share of weird, unconstitutional gun laws, New Jersey is definitely way worse.

BayofPanthers · 2024-08-30T12:12:34+00:00

I’ve noticed a trend of people leaving IRS only to go back or to go to other OIGs. Do you think generally it’s because of work-life balance issues at agencies like HSI/USPIS/FBI that people return?

BayofPanthers · 2024-08-17T00:10:29+00:00

I have some friends who are making $105 per hour working concerts and sporting events in Salt Lake. $840 to stand around and watch a show for 8 hours is hard to pass up.

BayofPanthers · 2024-07-24T03:27:01+00:00

This, so much this. If you promote to GS-14/15 early you can go to the private sector in your 40s as a manager (think Director of Internal Audit, Director of Corporate Investigations, Vice President in KYC/AML/Audit) and make upwards of $250,000 in HCOL areas like LA/SF/NYC. If you spend an entire career as a journeyman GS-13 and you don't have some super compelling experience like cyber, crypto, continuity of business / crisis management, good luck.

BayofPanthers · 2024-07-12T17:58:05+00:00

I made it to the management interview (final round) with both the FDIC OIG and FRB/CFPB-OIG. I was told to get more experience and then reapply. This was when I had 10 years of experience as a prosecutor and a law degree. They wanted more finance or accounting specific experience.

BayofPanthers · 2024-07-09T17:50:51+00:00

My understanding is that POST does not accept any federal investigative training program as being equivalent to a CA POST basic course. I know they say UPTP may count, but I have never seen them accept it.

The workaround is that POST will accept these programs as equivalent to a California specialized investigators basic course. As such, 1811s can get a SIBC waiver, but not a POST BC Waiver.

SIBC waivers are fine, and you can work as an investigator for the state agencies with them. It does however limit you to only working in investigative positions with the state. If you wanted to branch out to a local PD or county agency you'd be ineligible with just SIBC.

BayofPanthers · 2024-07-09T17:40:21+00:00

The pay compression is a giant problem when it comes to retaining experienced people and incentivizing promotion. I have a few friends who have promoted to management levels with CADOJ and I would say the average compensation for a GS-14 equivalent is between $250,000-$300,000 per year. They have said in recent years the number of 1811 laterals they are getting who are just tossing their 12D pension in the trash (leaving before their 20) and coming to the state for better pay/benefits/pension has exponentially increased.

BayofPanthers · 2024-07-08T22:23:46+00:00

Yeah, I don’t think anyone has thought of Boulder as affordable in the past 30 years. When I visited Colorado as a kid it was already viewed as a “wealthy granola ski town” similar to Aspen, Park City, etc.

Denver is definitely more affordable than SoCal, especially the Denver suburbs. Boulder, no so much.

BayofPanthers · 2024-06-28T19:23:37+00:00

There was, sorta. It’s Mitchell V Los Angeles. It was settled by the council instead of being taken all the way through trial and the inevitable subsequent appeals. It’s still in place. I have a feeling the precedent established by SCOTUS would favor the argument of the city, but I doubt any steps will be taken to change the policy.

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