LONGMONT, Colo.-
Crime doesn’t pay but making the effort to prevent it apparently does as a police sergeant nearly broke into the top ten of the city’s highest paid employees.
Sgt. Alan Baldivia earned $112,700 last year, $36 shy of overtaking city clerk and director of administration Valeria Skitt for the tenth spot, the Daily Times-Call reported Monday. As head of the anti-gang unit in this city of 81,000 people, Baldivia earns a base salary of about $83,000.
Baldivia worked many hours of overtime following the unit’s full-time activation following a gang-related slaying in April, 2006. Baldivia’s boss, Police Chief Mike Butler, earns $125,000 per year.
“There were many pay periods where I was putting in 80 hours in a 40-hour work week,” Baldivia said. “It was a critical juncture. The only way to do that was to have people out there.”
Overall, the city spent about $250,000 in overtime for extra patrols. Baldivia said he expects to see his pay drop back to its more normal level this year.
The rate for crimes reported to the federal government—aggravated assault, arson, burglary, homicide, forcible sex assault, robbery, larceny and theft, and motor vehicle theft—dropped by 30 percent last year, Butler said.
