Be honest, at some point of your childhood you dreamed of becoming a policeman and fighting crime. How exciting did it seem to cruise around in a police car, carrying a gun, and spending your day finding the bad guys? We all played the cops and robbers games, but somewhere along the road you changed your mind and started to aim your career aspirations elsewhere. Probably towards some desk job, in some skyscraper, for some cookie cutter company.

Maybe it is time to regain that passion for public service. That is because the New York City Police Department announced they are offering recruits out of college an ability to have some of their college debt paid off, if you enter the force. This offer can lower a recruits college debt up to $15,000 if they stay in the department for at least 5 years.

Before you start to tune up your gun and donut eating skills, are you aware that New York City Police Officers make about $25,100 for the first 6 months as a recruit? In New York City that barely buys you a cup of coffee to go with those donuts. I won’t sit here and waste your time criticizing the low pay for officers, teachers, and other public servants. That would be another entry for a completely different blog.

What I will say is that New York City seems to realize they need to do something to find educated officers, help reduce graduates college debt and keep them in their force for many years. I’m not sure how successful this offer will be for the city of New York to recruit new people, but at the very least it is bringing new attention to the student debt issue.

Many companies have policies in place to help reduce costs of secondary degrees, but not many employers have benefits in place to help pay off existing debt. With the amount of student debt most first year employees bring to their job, wouldn’t this be a better perk? Also, wouldn’t this be another great way too reduce turnover for entry level employees? Seems like this idea could solve a bunch of problems.