City councilors are likely next week to approve adding two more police officers to bolster the city’s growing police force.
“We know we need ‘em,” said city Councilor Frank Nicastro, who serves on the Police Commission.
The new officers would be added to the ranks in July, bringing the overall number of officers from 125 to 127.
Members of the Salary Committee said they also intend to approve two more officers to the ranks starting in 2009.
The police department is pushing for a massive increase in the number of officers.
Police Chief John DiVenere told officials this fall that he needs two dozen more employees to the 151 positions the department has now. Not all of them are officers.
Though the department already has 12 percent more police officers than it did in 1998 – 125 compared to 112 – and its civilian staff has risen from seven to 26, that’s not enough to meet the needs of public safety, the chief said.
“The police department needs to grow to keep up with the demand for service from the community,” DiVenere wrote in the Oct. 10 report.
In his report, the chief said that during the next decade, he needs to add a captain, seven detectives, two sergeants, 12 police officers, two dispatchers, a dispatch supervisor and two civilians.
The department is filling two officer positions created this year. It is sending the new recruits to the Police Academy this winter.
If the council agrees to back the Salary Committee’s approval for two new officers, the request would be included in the police budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Nicastro said that including it in the budget preparation process allows more time to review the request.
“We have to take a look and do what’s wise,” said Nicastro, who chairs the Salary panel.
The salary panel members are Nicastro and Councilors Cliff Block and Mike Rimcoski.
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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
16 comments:
More cops, less PRs = Good city
Less PRs? What do you mean by PRs?
I can't say for sure, but most of the time when I've heard people say that, they are talking about Puerto Ricans.
What if the cops are PR's?
What is not included, to complete the explanation of increased civilians, is that they replaced police officers who were working dispatch, which enabled the city to put those officers on the street.
Glad to see the city is following the approach that was started a few years back.
Talk about needing to be tolerant?
It is true that dispatchers were police officers until six or seven year ago (if memory serves). Hiring civilians instead added a dozen or more police officers to those available for more traditional police work.
That really means that the number of officers available to do something other than dispatch has skyrocketed during the past decade.
How about we hire two new cops and one new chief?
What the 9:38 poster "said" is intolerable. The PR community has done great things in Bristol, especially the west end. I think they have improved the area considerably over it was when those Italians, Swedes, Germs Irish, French and Polish people lived there.
3:26 - think that it might prove invaluable if you reviewed your posting and realized that your statement was as bigoted as the one which you were fretting about - double standard?
December 8, 2007 12:13 PM:
LOL... you fool.
The population of the City is stable and aging but the number of officers is increasing. At the same time the amount of police resources dedicated to non-traditional police activities such as community outreach (many feel good activities such as DARE - never shown to be effective) and routine building code enforcement has increased.
I would hope that our City Council would take a long hard look at the police department. How much of the growth of the police department is needed and how much is due to the expansion of the police department into non-police affairs (aka empire building)? How much police activity is dedicated to marginal activities like cruising the internet looking for unsavory folks?
I would also suggest that the people who complain about taxes realize that taxes are going up in part to pay for the expansion of the police department. Are we getting our money's worth?
To 9:23 poster, yes you are right. The same thing goes for the Fire department, maybe even more so. At least all the police officers on duty are doing something, even if it is just riding around looking to catch traffic violations.
But the Fire department? Unless there is a fire call, which there aren't many of, how much work are they doing? How many hours each week do they actually work? Almost every time I pass the Fire department they are lounging around and drinking coffee.
As long as our elected officials work for the Police or Fire Dept. or have immediate family working there, there is no way that Police/Fire will ever see cuts or be required to trim waste and be more responsible in spending.
December 9, 2007 9:23 AM:
I agree 100% with you. If the police officers are being hired for anything but patroling, it's wrong. Local police don't need to be surfing MYspace looking for perverts (randomly)or teaching classes. They need to be going after violent people, druggies and trailing other perps.
Empire building is a common-place in the public sector...good point!
We don't need a police officer for code enforcement?????
We need cops that are going to get the drugs off our streets.
The hiring of the two new officers should be seriously reconsidered. The overall cost to the city to hire new officers is enormous when you take into account the cost of hiring, paying for training, equipment, medical benefits, etc... Big business has learned that it is much more cost effective to pay employees overtime when you need them as opposed to hiring new employees who are working at times when there not needed. The real purpose to hiring the officers is to cut overtime in the budget, its to bad that city taxpayers have to pay even more in hiring new people so that they can say they cut the overtime budget.
If the city needs officers on the road so bad then maybe they should put back the three officers assigned to the schools full time. This is paid for out of the Police Dept. budget so lets get them back to work at the police dept. They can also take the officer assigned strickly to zoning enforcement and put him back doing police work. The city already has a zoning officer at City Hall, when he needs police assistance he can call for it.
Lets start getting police officers back doing police work.
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