Fewer good men and women?

Commanders in the Omaha Police Department are leaving their jobs in the prime of their professional lives, pulled away by a generous pension system that provides a big incentive to leave.

Chief Eric Buske, who will retire today after exactly 25 years on the job, is one of 13 officers who reached the rank of captain or above who have retired since July 2007. That's in addition to 11 lieutenants and 20 sergeants who have retired since then.

And with major changes in the pension system looming, more of the police department's leaders and senior officers could leave to take advantage of the pension program while it still offers prime benefits. Of the department's 776 sworn officers, 56 have 20 years of experience or more, and about a third of those are sergeants or higher.

“What you see happening here in Omaha is an absolute promise that pension benefits will be less, the retirement age will be higher and you will be paying medical,” said Mark Sundermeier, a deputy chief who retired in February after 25 years.

All those people leaving with all that experience is a loss, said Aaron Hanson, president of the Omaha police union.

“Clearly, maintaining that level of experience and long-term perspective is important,” Hanson said. “You never want to lose that prematurely.”

Buske said one of the biggest challenges he faced during his time as chief was the turnover. “You just have so many new people that have to get trained and have to get up to speed, and it takes a little bit of time to get it.

“As a new officer, you just don't know as much as a more experienced officer. So you have kind of a learning curve,” he said. “And then, along with that — and I think we have very, very good people — but it's not just the incoming officers. You end up promoting newer sergeants and newer lieutenants and people who don't have as much experience moving through the ranks.”

Training new officers won't be a concern for some time, as Mayor Jim Suttle has just delayed the next class of police recruits as part of budget-cutting measures. The class already had been delayed twice.

Hanson said city officials decided five years ago to offer pension incentives to senior police officers and command officers so they could be replaced with newer, lower-paid officers.

“If you want a younger police department,” he said, “you're going to save some money in the short term. But you have to balance that out with other issues.”

Sundermeier said that when he started in 1984, officers could retire after 30 years with a pension providing 69 percent of their pay. Today, officers who are at least 45 can retire after 25 years with 75 percent of their pay.

Because of deductions and other calculations, he said, it “actually does get to the point where you're paying to work.”

“There's zero incentive to stick around longer than 25 years,” said Sundermeier, now assistant public safety director at Metropolitan Community College.

Mike Butera, who retired as a captain in July 2007 after 23 years with the department, said he sees more good than bad when looking at the retirements. He did note some challenges, however, on the administrative side.

“It's hard to replace the experience of dealing with budget difficulties,” Butera said. “It's hard to replace the experience of relationships with the Mayor's Office, with the City Council, with the (police) union. Those kinds of relationships are established over time.”

John Crank, a criminal justice professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, said the retirements are a mixed bag.

“On the one hand,” he said, “you're losing a lot of experience that is very useful for up-and-coming commanders to understand the structure and dynamics of crime in the area.”

On the other hand, Crank said, “You've got Young Turks moving up in the organization with new ideas and fresh blood. They'll bring energy to it — energy and perspective.”

Butera, now a professor at Bellevue University, said there's a difference between experience and talent, and the department remains loaded with talent.

“Chronological experience is one thing,” Butera said. “Utilizing the experiences that you acquired and incorporating them into moving forward is a whole different thing.”

Technology has softened the blow felt when experienced hands retire, Butera said.

Twenty-five or 30 years ago, “when experience walked out the door, so did the knowledge of who the bad guys are,” he said. “Today, you have more information stored there that helps you in just the day-to-day crime-fighting capabilities of the Police Department.”

In addition to access to computer records and mugshots, Hanson said the newly promoted sergeants, lieutenants and captains “have a recent and fresh perspective of doing the job in the trenches, because they very recently did it themselves.”

For example, Hanson said, “Knowing about gang activity in 2008 or '09 is a whole different ballgame than knowing about gang activity in 1992. It's different players, different cultures, different trends.”

A task force has recommended changes in the police and fire pension fund, including a reduction in benefits for retirees. Suttle, who plans to implement the task force's recommendations, said the city must “make sure we put incentives in that fit (officers') professional career objectives.”

Hanson said city officials face a balancing act.

“If we want to alter the pattern and promote longevity again,” he said, “we have to understand it's going to be at a cost to the general fund. Because you can't have it both ways.”

Contact the writer:

444-1109, bob.glissmann@owh.com

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