This is a tale of two departments within the same agency where one is treated much better than the other. In this case, the reference is to the State of Georgia, where the Georgia Department of Public Safety (DPS) is split into three entities–the Capitol Police Division, the Georgia State Patrol (GSP), and the Motor Carrier Compliance Division (MCCD). That relationship is about all the two have in common.
According to The Georgia Virtue, the two departments have several similarities but are treated quite differently. Those who work in the MCCD are subject to significantly lower salaries, a terrible retirement plan, and lower death benefits if killed in the line of duty. The MCCD program, which is federally funded, has been offered additional funding to help with some of those disparities, however, the current leadership of the Georgia Department of Public Safety shot it down.
Because of the lack of an enforcement arm in the federal government, the MCCD is responsible for enforcing federal motor carrier regulations. For FY-2020, the state of Georgia received $10,029,890 to fund 240 sworn officers with a goal of 77,000 inspections statewide. Those officers are distributed across the state, and only 152 are in "non-supervisory roles." They perform inspections on Georgia highways and roads as well as on interstate highways. Increasing the safety of Georgia's roadways by reducing commercial vehicle crashes is their mission.
The Georgia State Patrol, meanwhile has 890 troopers deployed across the state. Their primary goal is traffic enforcement and investigation of crashes on Georgia’s roadways.
In 2017, the DPS created its own MCCD training school which is based on the foundations of trooper school. MCCD requires more hours of training in some cases, however, there are huge disparities in pay and benefits between the two divisions.
As an example, MCCD officers earn 12-26% less than troopers of the same rank. That disparity continues as officers progress through the ranks.
In retirement, MCCD officers are not classified as members of the “Uniform Division of the Department of Public Safety and are therefore treated differently than any other sworn officer in the state of Georgia, including troopers, GBI agents, DNR wardens, probation officers, and Department of Revenue agents. That disparity makes MCCD officers ineligible to apply for disability or receive a monthly monetary allowance if they become disabled due to violence or injury in the line of duty.
MCCD officers must also work longer to be eligible for retirement. For example, a vested trooper who applies for retirement before 30 years of service can receive retirement benefits at age 55, while an MCCD officer must work an additional seven years.
In the event of a line-of-duty death, MCCD officers receive lesser benefits than those paid to troopers' families.
Those disparities have led to a recruiting crisis for the MCCD, which operates with far fewer officers than needed to carry out its mission. While recruiting has been a problem for agencies nationwide over the past few years, it is especially true for MCCD since many people choose to become troopers instead of MCCD officers, primarily due to the sharp contrast in pay.
Some argue the reason for this is because MCCD officers tend to work a Monday through Friday schedule, while troopers have to work various shifts. However, MCCD enforcement is data-driven and is based on when commercial vehicles are out on the highway. Most commercial vehicles are on the road during the week and not on weekends. That is based on data.
The Georgia DPS discourages MCCD officers from conducting duties similar to that of troopers, such as conducting traffic stops, and are prohibited from working crashes, even those involving commercial vehicles.
MCCD officers can, however, be called out to perform the same high-risk duties as Georgia troopers. For example, if civil unrest is anticipated, the entire Georgia Department of Public Safety is put “on call” to respond to major incidents in larger cities, including Atlanta. In 2023, a tornado tore through Spalding County, and troopers and MCCD officers were deployed to assist the community.
Troopers and MCCD officers are also assigned to crime suppression duties and SWAT details, standing alongside one another. In fact, during the highly publicized shooting of a Georgia state trooper at “Cop City” in Atlanta, an MCCD officer dragged the trooper to safety. While both were injured and were lying alongside one another in the hospital, the trooper was collecting nearly double the disability pay as the MCCD officer.
MCCD officers are exposed to the very same threats that other law enforcement officers in Georgia are, including an MCCD officer exposed to fentanyl who had to NARCAN himself, an MCCD officer who located six 2.5 gallon containers of methamphetamine, and the arrest of an FBI “10 Most Wanted List” fugitive.
Since MCCD is a federally-funded program, the State of Georgia would be responsible for filling in any gaps. However, money doesn’t appear to be an issue in the Peachtree State, with the state boasting a $6.2 million budget surplus since September 2022.
Despite that surplus, proposed fixes to the disparity between MCCD officers and state troopers has not been rectified. One legislator responded to questions about the disparity during 2023 budget deliberations where the body was considering giving the troopers even more money, along with every other state law enforcement officer while passing over MCCD officers:
When we were moving the Trooper school monies to figure out how we would allocate increased raises, we were not trying to say anyone’s better than others. That was not our goal. Uh, what we were looking to do is to, um, compensate those who have had increased duties. I think there is a valid argument that [the] MCCD division has had that. What we focused on mostly were those who were having to respond to riots and chaos during the pandemic and I look forward to talking with you more offline and in conference if there are others we left out. It was not intentional.- Senate Appropriations Chairman Blake Tillery
Tillery seemed unaware that MCCP officers were responding to the same riots and unrest as Georgia state troopers.
Then Colonel Chris Wright received a $15,000 raise to nearly $200,000 annually.
The state has been working on plans to fix the retirement disparity, however, lawmakers said in 2022 that an actuary study and fiscal impact analysis was necessary. That study took a year to complete and the bill languished in committee.
In 2023, the legislature tried to push standalone legislation but the bill failed to pass out of either chamber. In 2024, the bill made it out of the House but died before it reached the Senate floor.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp could simply sign an executive order amending the retirement classification and the changes would go into effect immediately, which would ensure MCCD officers are treated equally with their peers.
Other proposed fixes include combining the two separate departments under the Georgia Department of Public Safety into one and classify everyone the same. That would also reduce the number of separate “schools” the agency runs each year since only one such class would be necessary.
Florida used to have the same problem, however, around ten years ago, 280 DOT officers statewide merged with the Florida Highway Patrol and became troopers. That streamlining saved an estimated $1.3 million the following fiscal year. Last week, the Iowa State Patrol did the same thing.
As a point of information, the MCCD ranks as follows nationwide:
- #1 for distracted driving enforcement and impaired driving enforcement
- 4th for the number of inspections
- 3rd for the number of inspections for violations
- 1st in the percentage of inspections with violations (at least 75%)
- 1st in the number of inspections with moving violations and the percentage of inspections with moving violations (36%)
Comments
2024-07-09T13:23-0500 | Comment by: William
All law enforcement agencies whether it be city police departments or county sheriffs departments perform similar duties, but each of them have different primary duties and responsibilities and because of this officers receive different types of training. The MCCD and the George State Patrol are two separate agencies just like the Capital Police is a different agency, but they all fall under the “umbrella” of the Department of Public safety. There are two separate academies for these departments because each academy provides training specific to what the troopers/officers primary duties will be. MCCD officers are not trained in accident investigation and other tasks is because that is not part of their primary duties. The SWAT Team, crime suppression units and any other special assignments are volunteer positions and officers are not just randomly assigned to. The job description for each department is listed in the application along with all information related to salary, retirement benefits, etc. but your article suggesting the lives of employees at GSP are valued more than those at MCCD is very unprofessional on your part. Nationwide all LE officers are underpaid, but each department/agency has different pay and different benefits, but it does not make the lives of officers at one department more or less important than an officer at another department.