Milford Police Chief Asks For More Officer Positions

MILFORD, CT — Milford, like many towns, has experienced a significant increase in robberies and car thefts compared with pre-pandemic times.

Police Chief Keith Mello asked for four additional police officer positions in his budget request earlier this year, but the positions didn’t make it into the mayor’s recommended budget or Board of Finance approved budget. The Board of Aldermen will consider the final city budget in the coming weeks.

There were 110 officers in 1981 and the department now has 116, five of whom are school resource officers, Mello said at a recent Board of Aldermen budget hearing.

Morale has suffered as officers are held over to work additional shifts, Mello said. Many officers don’t want to work weekends and instead want to spend time with their families. In years past, officers would hold onto vacation time and cash it out, but nowadays, it is used for weekend shifts. Officers are held over nearly every day during the summer.

Alderman Anthony Giannattasio said the board should take a second look at adding more officer positions to the department budget.

“That sounds like the first step in the right direction,” he said.

Adding four positions would amount to one extra officer per shift and would be a long-term solution, Mello said. If approved, the department could start recruiting in July, but officers wouldn’t hit the streets until after next summer.

The number of applicants for open police officer positions has dwindled in recent years. Seven years ago, there were 1,200 applicants for seven or eight positions. Most recently there were 129 applications and of that only 11 candidates were able to pass all parts of the test, Mello said.

The department has 11 vacancies with three more anticipated in the near future, Mello said. There will be about five more vacancies later this year. There are 10 recruits currently in the academy.

Crime up compared with pre-pandemic times

Car thefts, robberies and purse snatchings have all increased by large amounts in the last 12 months compared with 2019 figures, Mello said.

“Those that perpetrate these crimes will pick and choose communities,” Mello said, “So it's not just your larger cities. It's not just those that are adjacent to our largest cities. It's normally communities that are accessible.”

There were 32 robberies reported in the past 12 months, which was double the amount in 2019. There were 15 purse snatchings, compared with none in 2019.

Auto theft was up 81 percent with 143 incidents in the last 12 months. Thefts from motor vehicles were up 10 percent. The majority of auto thefts are committed by juveniles and the cars are typically stolen to commit another crime, Mello said.

Catalytic converter thefts have skyrocketed; there were 260 reports in the last 12 months, compared with just one in 2019, Mello said.