UPDATE:  I have been informed that a pay raise for the Superdome detail is official.  The detail rate for the Superdome will increase by $5.00 per hour effective July 1, 2015 – just in time for the Essence Festival.  Click here to see the email announcing the increase.

Looking for a way to make a little extra money?  Don’t really feel like completing trip sheets feeling out hot spots?  Wouldn’t work for OPSE if the world was coming to an end?  Just completed field training and can only work supervised details?  There is an option.

The Mercedes Benz Superdome, Smoothie King Center, and Champions Square need you.  In the past year, about 250 police officers have worked the Superdome for various events.  The major events are coming up and they need more police officers.

For the 2014 NFL season, the detail lineups looked like this:

Interior – 138
Parking – 48
Traffic – 86
Champions Square – 10
Total – 282

SMG is committed to using as many NOPD officers as it is able to secure.   During a recent meeting with SMG execs, they stated definitively that if they could fill the entire detail with NOPD officers, they would.  The problem is that historically, they have been unable to do so.  That being the case, there have typically been a few positions given to LSP and a few positions for OPSO.  The Sheriff’s Office positions were previously manned by Civil Sheriff Deputies and that has carried over to the current arrangement.

You may wonder how many detail positions are available.  The answer is lots.

For the 2014 NFL season, the following positions went unfilled:

Titans @ Saints – 45
Ravens @ Saints – 36
Vikings @ Saints – 49
Buccaneers @ Saints – 29
Packers @ Saints – 62
49ers @ Saints – 65
Bengals @ Saints – 58
Ravens @ Saints – 49
Panthers @ Saints – 58
Falcons @ Saints – 62

Wait.  It gets worse.

This season’s Saints egress routes include some on-ramps that are closed due to construction.  That translates to about 40 more traffic positions.  That is 40 on top of the positions they already have trouble filling.  So, what to do?

The Superdome contacted the FOP and requested a meeting on this very topic.

Here are some things you may want to know:

1. Officers who work the Superdome do so as employees of SMG.
2. Officers are paid weekly by SMG.
3. Workers comp and liability insurance are provided by SMG.
4. Officers contribute to Social Security on their SMG checks.
5. Officers can even participate in the SMG 401(k) program if they want.
6. Officers are scheduled by Commander John Thomas or Capt. Ernest Demma (not OPSE).
7. SMG details count as supervised details for anyone freshly out of the academy.
8. There are PLENTY of positions available.

What else?

SMG is committed to raising the detail rate for the Superdome, Smoothie King Center, and Champions Square.  For a Saints game, the Superdome currently pays $29.33/hr plus a $3.00/hr premium for a total of $32.33.  That is going up.  The premium pay is going to remain, but the hourly wage is going to increase.

The SMG execs really want to fill this detail up with NOPD personnel.  If they can’t fill the detail with NOPD personnel, they are going to be forced to seek additional outside agency personnel, which may include JPSO.

SMG feels that the vacancies last year impacted the ability to provide efficiency and safety to employees and patrons of the Superdome.  So, they are making this plea to NOPD officers – please consider working a detail at the Superdome.  SMG believes in the ability of NOPD officers to work with large crowds.  They really want NOPD officers on the detail.