Three years after they're sworn in on the force, in some cases with little more than the minimum high school diploma and 12 weeks' training, London police officers get a base salary that tops $80,000.
That wouldn't surprise other police and firefighters in Ontario, whose salaries are closely tethered by unions that demand it and police boards that often give in.
But south of the border, jaws drop.
In U.S. cities where there are more murders in a month than London has in a year, police are surprised when told how much police are paid here and how that has changed so quickly over time.
"It's really a death spiral," said Dewey Bartlett Jr., mayor of Tulsa, Okla., where senior officers max out at $62,783 US.
Bartlett, too, deals with police unions and did so last week without an arms-length police board or provincial arbitrator to get in his way.
With Tulsa facing a budget crisis and needing to cut $7 million from its police budget, Bartlett gave cops a choice: Agree to a 5% wage cut and rollbacks or he'd lay off 155 officers -- nearly 20% of the force.
The police association said no.
Last Friday, police administrators were preparing pink slips.
"In this part of the country, unions aren't a way of life. (The police association) was selfish and greedy, rather than what people expect of a police officer," Bartlett said.
Not all American police associations fall prey to budget pressures -- their power varies from locale to locale.
But an informal survey by The Free Press of cities similar in size to London revealed all but one paid less to their police officers than what London and other Ontario cities pay.
After three years, most officers made between $46,904 US and $65,000 US, in cities from the Gulf Coast of Florida to the foothills of Colorado.
Only in Orange County, Calif., where the average home costs $500,000, do salaries rival those in London -- $82,020 US.
Whether that's a concern or a point of pride depends on one's perspective.
Andrew Sancton, a political scientist at the University of Western Ontario, sees both good and bad.
Cities that short change police can end up with a corrupt force, he says. But, he adds, those that pay too much will struggle to hire enough officers to satisfy public expectations.
"The higher the salaries, the more difficult it will be to afford more officers," he said.
His point is borne out by the numbers: Tulsa, before budget cuts, spent about as much as London but had 223 more officers -- nearly 40% more.
How much Londoners can afford is hard to gauge, but consider this: A three-year officer is paid nearly 2 1/2 times more than a typical London adult. According to Statistics Canada, the median income for adults between 25 and 44 here during the last census in 2006 was $32,545.
Outgoing London Police Chief Murray Faulkner agrees Canadian police are paid much better than their American counterparts, but defended that difference.
"I don't want to cut up our brothers to the south, (but) we have extremely high standards." he said. "You get what you pay for."
Faulkner argued London has to keep pace with police salaries elsewhere in Ontario or the force would lose officers. In the year before police awarded retention pay to officers in 2004, the force lost 24 officers, he says.
But his claim is at odds with police statements and data at the time: In 31 months before retention pay was awarded, the force lost 21 of 500 officers, including those who left for personal issues unrelated to pay.
While Faulkner defended parity in one breath, he questioned it in the next, saying almost all other professionals get paid more in the Greater Toronto Area than in the rest of Ontario.
"The cost of living is so much higher, so there should be higher compensation in Toronto," he said. "Police are the only profession that is not. Isn't that bizarre?"
Asked whether London police were overpaid or Toronto police were underpaid, Faulkner balked.
"That's irrelevant," he said.
The bottom line, he said, is Canadians have always placed greater value on the order delivered by police and are willing to pay for it.
But where Faulkner sees cultural reasons, others point to structural reasons and politics.
Sancton said he believes city governments struggle to control police spending because city hall doesn't oversee police operations, budgets or collective bargaining.
Politicians on police boards often use their position to show they support police, while those critical of budgets are accused of undermining public safety.
"(The province) should abolish police boards," he said.
That's not the approach recommended by Tom Galloway, a council member in Waterloo Region who's chaired its police board since 2001.
For decades, police and firefighters have played leapfrog when collective bargaining, pushing ahead salaries and benefits, usually with the backing of provincial politicians and the support of police boards.
"All (provincial) governments want to cozy up to police unions," he said. "It's all done by the treasury board. There's no transparency at all."
Civic politicians on police boards may do that too but at least their conduct is on public display.
"There might be a tendancy on many police boards to go with flow," he said.
Galloway hasn't heard an outcry from citizens yet. But if salary increases continue, he believes the day may come when residents demand changes that would empower cities to contract out services that are performed here by police but elsewhere in the world by private companies, such as security for events.
"The (police) associations have to be careful," he said. "There could come a tipping point. It doesn't appear to be now and it doesn't appear imminent, but if police are making $120,000, people will say that's enough and there will be a taxpayer revolt."
While retention pay and salaries have proved challenging, a bigger threat looms -- the provincial government promised and is delivering pension enhancements to OPP that will soon be demanded by police associations across Ontario.
"Pension issues are going to be immensely expensive, making retention pay look like a tea party," Galloway said. "Woe is the day they start to roll that through the province in the way retention pay did."
The costs of pensions and benefits shouldn't be ignored when comparing the costs of policing, London deputy chief Brad Duncan said.
While The Free Press investigation focused on salaries, it down find a wide range of pension benefits in the U.S. and one in particular that would be the envy of police here.
In Santa Ana, CA in Orange County, police retire with a full pension after 30 years that is equivalent to 90% of their best year's earnings.
In London, officers with 30 years earn 60% of their average earnings in their best 5 years averaged while those who work 35 years get 70%
