The police department is trying out new strategies for deploying cops and vehicles on the street. The police union’s president isn’t happy.
Melissa Bailey File Photo
Police Union Local 530 President Louis Cavaliere Jr. (second from right in photo) registered that dismay by filing a grievance this week to protest the decision not to “backfill” some daytime patrol positions that opened up over the past month.
Traditionally, when daytime patrol spots open up, they have been “backfilled” with officers who work overnight and want to switch.
For now, the department, which faces a serious shortage of cops, has kept officers on overnight rather than fill the several spots that have opened up in day shifts.
Cavaliere argued Wednesday that the failure to fill the spots endangers public safety. He also called it a “slap in the face” of veteran officers eager to be home more at night and “see their families again.”
“This has been [in place] for 30 years,” Cavaliere said. “People know if they’re on nights, they’re next in line.”
Asked about the grievance, Assistant Police Chief Luiz Casanova said the department needs the officers at night right now because that’s when more crime happens. The department, which was down 50 officers over the past year, has been moving swiftly to refill its eviscerated ranks: It has just sent 40 rookies onto the street and plans to graduate another 67 officers over two classes this upcoming year.
Melissa Bailey File Photo
Casanova (pictured) noted that no contract provision or department policy requires backfilling.
“I’m going to work with the union” on the issue, Casanova said. “We’re going to move things along. We have a great understanding.”
He said the same about a second complaint Cavaliere raised: The department’s decision to cut down on the number of prisoner transport vans it puts on the road.
The department has for years had two vans on the road per shift. It recently switched to one per each of three daily eight-hour shifts (8 a.m. to 4 p.m., 4 p.m. to midnight, midnight to 8 a.m.); with an additional van on the 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. shift, meaning that at the busiest times of night a second van will still be on the road.
The decision compromises public safety, Cavaliere argued. If cops are busy transporting arrestees in a van on one part of town, officers on another side of town will have to wait longer if they a have a group needing to be locked up.
“There have been two wagons [per shift] as long as I’ve been here,” said Cavaliere, an 18-year veteran of the force.
Casanova said police brass studied the stats and discovered two vans weren’t needed all the time. That money could be better spent on more cops patrolling the streets, he said. “A lot of times the wagons are sitting around idle.”
Under the new system the department has reassigned some tasks traditionally carried out by prisoner-van drivers — like picking up some arrestees to appear in court or delivering paperwork to court — to beat officers, Casanova said.
“This is an experiment,” he said. “If this works, it gives us more cops in the streets.”