From left: Capt. Redding, Asst. Chief Hensgen, Chief Limon.
The latest word from the police chief to lawmakers:
Middle schools will have six fewer security officers.
The bar squad and graveyard shifts will have fewer officers.
People may have to wait a little longer for a cop to respond to a fender bender.
The city still will have enough sworn officers to keep it safe in next year’s budget, and the 16 recently laid off cops are almost all in the pipeline for jobs in other towns’ departments.
But we do still want to fill all four assistant chief jobs.
So Police Chief Frank Limon informed city aldermen in a freewheeling exchange Wednesday night about the effect of the recent police layoffs and plans for staffing the police department in leaner budget times.
The occasion was a City Hall meeting of the Board of Aldermen’s Public Safety Committee led by Quinnipiac Meadows Alderman Gerald Antunes, a retired police captain. (Click here to watch a recent 36-minute exchange among Antunes, Limon and activist Barbara Fair about recent police controversies.)
The force currently has 434 sworn officers following the 16 layoffs. The chief estimates the number will fall to 424 in next fiscal year’s budget because of attrition.
The department has two assistant-chief openings the chief wants to fill.
From left: Aldermen Goldson, Colon, Paolillo, Antunes.
“We worked hard” to get police officers in the schools, Antunes said Monday night, expressing disappointment that the layoffs are resulting in middle-school reductions.
Security officers will remain at Hillhouse, Cross, Riverside and New Horizons high schools and Adult Ed, according to Limon.
Two officers deployed on truancy duty and with the Police Athletic League at the Boys and Girls Clubs and at Farnam Neighborhood House are also being reassigned. He said he plans to keep full staffing on investigative units because they pay off big dividends. He cited a rise to a 55 percent clearance rate on 2010’s two dozen murders and a 100 percent rate on this year’s four murders (not counting one that may have occurred Wednesday night.)
“There’s definitely a return on investment,” he said.
Antunes expressed general confidence in the chief and that the streets will be safe regardless of the number of cops on the job.
Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts said that the number of cops is continually in flux.
Nevertheless, “16 fewer will mean we do less,” said Smuts, to whom the uniformed services report.
He added that a force of 434 officers still has 50 more than the city employed in 2009.
He said he does worry that future federal budget cuts would force drastic layoffs and reduce the force to 384 members, which is what it had when he started on the job.
Enough Chiefs?
Redding and Limon in the aldermanic chambers Wednesday night.
Annex Alderman Alphonse Paolillo asked Limon why he wants to fill all four assistant chief slots. Because of retirements, the city now has two of those slots filled. The city never had four assistant chiefs until a departmental shakeup in 2009.
“I’m at a disadvantage,” Limon said. “I started with three” and has since lost another.
Limon added that to be more strategic in deployment and to be smarter in using more limited resources — the mantra for all organizations of the future, not just the police — he needs enough administrators at the top.
Paolillo questioned whether that makes sense when the city just laid off 82 people and will soon lay off more. “Some predecessor chiefs operated with one” assistant, Paolillo said.
“The department now is in a position to move forward. How do we look at [and create] a 21st century police force? Everyone’s lost personnel. What is a 21st century police department? And what does the community expect?” Limon countered.
To answer those questions, the department has also organized a needs assessment study and has received five or six bids from contractors looking to analyze the results and make recommendations, Limon said.
West Rock Alderman Darnell Goldson asked whether the city already paid for all that when it hired the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) to do the study that led to the 2009 departmental shakeup.
“The community doesn’t have money to shell out for more studies,” said Antunes.
Several beat cops in attendance refused to comment.
When asked if he has confidence in the chief, Paolillo responded, “I like working with the chief. He’s been very open and transparent.”