Click here to download the catalog as a PDF file. To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. SUZI hUNTINGTON INSIDER RuMiNATioNS l et me tell you a story. No need for a box of tissues and on. I was fed up with my career and life being affected by no sympathy cards please — this is a scratch-yourthe village idiots. Pushing a beat car, that alone was a scary head, no-shitter, what-are-they-thinking story about thought. I was no longer 25, but still tall and skinny, I had to an incomplete implementation of HR-218. be brutally honest with myself and my ability to hold I’ve always been a bit of a Don Quixote my own in a fight. I already had chronic neck throughout my life and tilted with and shoulder pain from injuries sustained more than my share of windmills during previous violent encounters — during my tenure with my the older you get, the longer it takes former agency, the to heal. I wasn’t willing to risk San Diego Police needing a drool-cup the rest of Department. my life just to net a slightly Hired in higher retirement percentage. December of It was time to pull the plug. 1985, I was barely I was 44 when I made the 22 years old. Young decision and would be and full of piss damn-near 45 when I reand vinegar, I gave tired in 2008, a not-quite absolutely no thought 23-year career, and I was of how long I’d be a keenly aware I would not cop or how old I’d start drawing my pension be when I retired. until age 50. Hell, retirement was I gave my notices somewhat of a foreign at work, talked word. I knew I’d be with the retireearning a retirement but ment planners that was about it. I knew and contracted Suzi’s gun I’d be “vested” after 10 my pension and stays in the short years, but wouldn’t health benefits. safe — she’s not worthy of carrying it — be able to collect until age The proverbial light according to her neer-do55 with anything less than 20 at the end of the tunnel well former agency. years — 20 was the magic mark was not a locomotive — or to be able to collect at age 50. so I thought. Through the process of Retirement was just a far away hazy arranging my exit — a deferred retirethought of old age. ment, because I was deferring the receipt of Man, time flies when you’re having fun — my benefits — I was led to believe this was just like next thing I know I’m looking at the 40-year old in the a standard service retirement. I was made to feel my years of mirror. Eighteen years of police work had come and gone service were appreciated by the administration and they valued and that retirement-word was no longer a distant thought, it me. All the paperwork I had been filling out and presented to was screaming at me, “Suzi, you need to get going on some the department the day I left indicated a Deferred Retirement. long-range plans!” By then the SDPD had implemented On that very day — cue needle scratch across the Girl DROP (Deferred Retirement Option Plan), but that meant I’d From Iponema record — the deferred retirement exit sheet be working until 55 in order to gain the maximum benefit. was taken away and replaced with the pink, Resignation No thanks; I’d rather retire earlier and still be young and exit sheet. The guy in Human Resources — fancy term healthy enough to do something completely different. for Personnel — told me, “You’re not 50 and are therefore In 2007 I’d been a Traffic Detective for about two years resigning. You won’t be eligible for your retired badge and and was quite comfortable with and enjoyed the work, but ID card until you’re 50.” I’m surprised he didn’t pin a scarlet the politics, games and city shenanigans were taking their “Q” on my shirt for all to see — I was now labeled a quitter. toll on me — work, as a whole wasn’t fun anymore. The What started out to be a really great day was now turning into good old SDPD had imposed salary take-aways in the form a nightmare, worst of all I wouldn’t get my HR 218 credenof higher retirement contributions, we were involved in a tials. Damnit, that was a locomotive at the end of the tunnel. couple of lawsuits against the city over pay and benefit isWhen all was said and done at the end of my last day, I felt sues, there was talk they were going to pull detectives from INSIDERRuMiNATioNS Continued on page 69 their jobs and put them back into the field and the list went reTireD — but no gun? INSIDERRuMiNATioNS 70 WWW.AMERICANCOPMAGAZINE.COM • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2009