After 26 years as a Howard County police officer, Joseph Collins retired one Friday. The next Monday, he began working for the Howard County sheriff's office, immediately boosting his annual income by roughly $6,000.
The instant pay increase came from adding his new salary as a sheriff's deputy to his police pension.
The potential for that sort of quick gain is partly responsible for drawing 12 retired police officers from the Baltimore region to the county sheriff's office, or more than one-third of its 25 sworn deputies and eight security officers. Six are from Howard, four from Baltimore County, one from the city and one from the Maryland State Police.
It's a good deal, those involved say. Howard County Sheriff Michael Chiuchiolo says he benefits from hiring experienced officers.
And the retirees make more money working better hours in less stressful, less dangerous jobs.
But it's a deal that's barred in Baltimore County, where the police and sheriff departments fall under the same local pension system.
"That's double-dipping," said Baltimore County Deputy Sgt. Neil Pigott, of the Baltimore County Sheriff's Research and Planning Office. "We can't do that."
And in Baltimore County and Baltimore, new hires by sheriff's offices must take a test to qualify for jobs -- unlike Howard, where the county sheriff decides whom to hire.
"The people with the best scores, no matter what their previous employment, are chosen," said Baltimore Deputy Capt. Wayne Cox. "We're obligated to follow state rules." But the same rules don't apply in Howard. The Howard sheriff's office is under the state pension system -- different from the local pension systems that serve police officers in Howard, Baltimore County and Baltimore. Howard officials say that allows retirees to augment their local pension system checks with pay from the sheriff's office.
And the powers given to the sheriff in Howard County allow him to handpick his employees, who only have to pass a physical and be tested for drugs. "They have to meet standards," Sheriff Chiuchiolo said. "I can't just put someone in there who's limp, lame and lazy."
That relatively free hand pays off, the sheriff said. Hiring retired police officers means he doesn't have to pay for their training.
Many of the retirees he's hired have at least 20 years' experience, he said.
"If we don't keep them, somebody else will take them," Sheriff Chiuchiolo said. "They're experienced. They know what to do, where to go and they have the respect of people."
The sheriff himself was a Howard police lieutenant who retired after 25 years on the force. He receives $39,500 a year in his present job in addition to his police pension, which he says is about $26,000 -- for a combined income of more than $65,000.
The allure of an easier job at a higher total pay isn't drawing so many former Howard County police officers into the sheriff's office that it's a particular problem, county police spokesman Sgt. Steve Keller said. "Sure, it's a loss whenever you lose experienced police officers," Sergeant Keller said.
"But it's not especially unusual. What you lose in experience, you gain in enthusiasm," he said of young police recruits who fill most existing vacancies.
Those who left police work for the decidedly less demanding Howard sheriff's office also are enthusiastic.
"I still feel I have a lot to offer the county and myself," said Deputy Collins, 49, who once worked as a detective under Sheriff Chiuchiolo in the Police Department.
"I already know the roads and have the training."
The opportunity for his new job came in February 1992, while he worked in the county's Circuit Court as a police liaison with the state's attorney's office. Sheriff Chiuchiolo, looking to fill two new positions, passed him one day and asked him if he ever thought about continuing a law enforcement career after retirement, he said.
"I weighed the pros and the cons and decided, 'Why not?,"
Deputy Collins said.
His deputy's schedule allows him more free time in which to attend church activities and coach Little League baseball, he said.
Deputy Collins said he made about $41,000 a year when he retired as a police corporal three years ago. He began earning about $25,000 at the sheriff's office, he said, on top of his beginning police pension of about $22,000.
Court security officer Martin Johnson, a 35-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department who retired as a sergeant, likes both his new job and the extra money.
He said his last five years of working for the Howard County sheriff are "like a dream come true. I feel good about what I do. I don't know what I'd do if I stopped working. Just how much fishing could you do?"
But to get by on his annual city pension of $29,000, he said, "you'd have to cut your standard of living. That would be foolish."
Retired Howard County police Sgt. Randy Roby, now head of the sheriff's Fugitive Warrants section, also went immediately to his new job upon retiring in 1991.
"I didn't even miss a stroke," Sergeant Roby said. "I just changed hats with a different agency and applied my skills.
"The only pressure I have here is the pressure I put on myself."
Veteran officers' street-smarts and contacts sometimes prove useful when the officers serve warrants and subpoenas, provide court security and perform other duties.
Last December, while tracking a Baltimore man wanted on five burglary warrants, Howard County Deputy Michael Ensko was nearly run down in Catonsville by the suspect when the man noticed he was being followed.
The suspect got away. But the deputy, using tips from street sources he acquired while working 21 years on the Baltimore County police force, found him days later.
"It's been great," said Deputy Ensko, a former police sergeant who led a 10-member tactical team through barricades and high-crime areas in Baltimore County. He said he retired at age 43 in July 1988 because "I just got burnt out."
Deputy Terry Chaney, a retired 25-year veteran of the Howard County police, said job stress and the internal politics in the county's 301-member police department led him to trade in his blue uniform.
But the costs of rearing a 2 1/2 -year-old and a 6-month-old made another job necessary, he said. "I don't know when I'll retire from here," said Deputy Chaney, 46, the last retired county police officer to join the sheriff's office. "Right now I'm having a lot of fun."