ANSWER: My first reaction to this letter: Wow! Was this a joke? Believing the question could not be legitimate, I telephoned the writer and learned that, unfortunately, he was not joking. But before responding to his question, I had to ask one of my own. Why in heaven’s name would he leave the New York City Police Department to become a sanitation worker? (Incidentally, I began working for the NYPD one week after graduating high school as a police trainee.) I told the officer that I had spent over 31 years with the department, 11 as a patrol officer, and, although I enjoyed my entire career, my time on patrol in this city was the most fun. How could he give this up to pick up garbage?

His response made me feel old. Obviously, he said, I had not been a police officer for a long time since the word “fun” and “patrolling this city” are not words that can be used in the same sentence. He told me about five sanitation workers who belong to the same gym as he who are always saying how they love their job. They get days off whenever they need them, while he has a hard time getting even a Wednesday off.

They tell him how they’re left alone to do their jobs, while he feels the NYPD treats him like a child, with supervisors constantly on top of him.

I pointed out to him that he is paid more than sanitation workers. He corrected me, saying his friends are on two-man trucks and earn more than he does. He added that they usually have Sundays and holidays off and earn double time when they don’t. They also work days while he must work nights.

I asked the officer if there were other reasons he was leaving (was he the subject of charges or an investigation?). In his two-year career, he informed me, he has never been the subject of an investigation nor received a single command discipline. He did say however that he was on the list to be a Port Authority police officer. Although he didn’t know if he would ever be called, he did want that opportunity if that department ever reached his list number.

He added that his cousin, also on the NYPD, got to the investigation stage in his Port Authority application but he lost that opportunity because the NYPD refused to release his personnel records. The Sanitation Department would have no problem releasing the personnel records of its employees who want to join the PAPD.

Realizing the officer was determined to leave the NYPD, I felt compelled to inform him that the Sanitation Department does not have a Variable Supplement benefit. By becoming a sanitation worker, I told him, he would be giving up $12,000 a year for his entire retirement period. He argued that by becoming a sanitation worker, his quality of life would greatly improve over the next eighteen years, and that was worth the loss of the Variable Supplement benefit.

Finally, I answered his question: His two years in the NYPD would indeed count towards his 20-year sanitation retirement if he went directly from our job to sanitation and his pension contributions were transferred from the Police Pension Fund to the New York City Employees Retirement System within 12 months.