First-Time Bonus for Unit 614 Members

Criminalists and Forensic Identification Specialists have been serving the County of Los Angeles for decades in the role of crime scene processing. This duty requires lots of hours of training, in addition to discipline and mental toughness. But what this duty requires more than anything else is qualified and motivated individuals to answer the request for service.

When the negotiation team for Bargaining Unit 614 set out to closely examine the participation of Criminalists and Forensic Identification Specialists in the Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) program, we were not prepared to see the results we discovered. We looked at how many employees on the team had zero to five years of experience, five to 10 years of experience, 10 to 15 years of experience and more than 15 years of service. We were shocked to find that we lost a significant number of members during the zero-to-five-year and five-to-10-year ranges. We also found that if members achieved 10 years of crime scene response, they all made it to 15-plus years. This was extremely eye-opening. We only lost participation in the Crime Scene Investigation team among members under 10 years of experience. Team members left for a variety of reasons — some due to injury, some to promotion, some to leaving the Major Crimes sections, some to leaving the Department and some left the field altogether.

Once we gathered this data, the next step was to give the County a thorough presentation of all crime scene responsibilities. Not every case is the crime of the century. Conversely, not every case is a walk in the park. It is a mixed bag and range of complexity that can have members walking a city block one week and in a house full of blood the next, or even on a plane headed to another state. Our professional members aim to give their very best to the victims and to the subjects for every case we draw from in that mixed bag of CSI responses.

In an attempt to retain that professional, hardworking, high level of experience, the negotiation team submitted a request for a crime scene retention pay bonus to the County. The County agreed that the need for a retention pay bonus made sense and we got our very first bonus in the history of Bargaining Unit 614 added to our Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Though the bonus is relatively modest now, its inclusion in our MOU is a step in the right direction and an accomplishment that we all should be proud of. 

I would like to thank the negotiations team, which includes Tiffany Shew, Luis Olmos, Sue Baker, Eucen Fu, Courtney Castellano, Ryan Forte, Stephanie Sandoval and Mark LaVigne. I would also like to thank the County CEO’s Office for listening to our proposal and taking the steps to make it a reality. I want to thank Captain Ernest Bille and Director Jim Carroll for their role in approving those in the first round to receive the CSI Retention Pay Bonus. I would also like to offer a special thanks to Assistant Director Micah Anozie and Acting Supervising Criminalist Christine Pinto for their role in gathering names of eligible members and submitting them for approval. Supervisors are the conduit to upper management, and Christine Pinto represents a source of compassionate support for those on the CSI team. It takes collaboration and cooperation between management and Unit 614 members to ensure that the citizens are served with professionalism and accuracy. And this same collaboration and cooperation is required to pursue additional compensation that makes sense for all parties involved. Lastly, congratulations to those who qualified for the first-ever round of bonuses paid to Unit 614 members. The acknowledgment of service is well deserved.