Letter to the Editor: Lieutenant Retiring Makes Police Situation Worse

To the Editor:                        
Our Police Department is now down from a high of 52 patrolmen to a current staffing of 45, which will decrease to 44 on December 11th due to a lieutenant's retirement and down one dispatcher - all occurring at a time when crimes are increasing and are at all time high here.

Regrettably, nothing was accomplished on the 7th.  The Finance Committee introduced a resolution which on its surface is illegal.   In our Community, it is standard operating procedure for committees to review resolutions with other committees where jurisdictional issues overlap.  The Finance Committee withheld their resolution from the Safety Committee.  Committees' working against each other does not serve Summit's common good.

The Finance Committee's resolution directs the Chief of Police in the deployment of personnel.  Fortunately, under New Jersey State Law, this is not permitted.   The last thing any community needs is elected officials playing politics with the police department.  Then, the resolution went on to hire a "probationary" or "temporary" or "part time" employee only until an officer, who was severally injured during an arrest, returns to duty sometime next year (date unknown). There is a question as to whether or not NJ law permits such categories of police hires.  But more to the point, it does not make any fiscal sense to engage in a search, train an officer for 2 or 3 months, familiarize them with Summit, then fire them after having paid benefits including the ongoing unemployment costs - a complete waste of taxpayer dollars.  And it perpetuates the problem.

If you are a fiscal conservative, you should be extremely concerned over our current course of action.  We started last year off with 48 patrolmen and after incurring over $180,000 in overtime costs in the prior year.  This year, the Police and Fire Department OT budgets were severally underfunded.  The police alone may exceed the OT budget this year by $75,000 to $100,000.  Next year we will start with 44 patrolmen, down 10%.  Since OT is paid at 1.5 times base rate (as per state law) and a veteran officer makes on average say 1/3 more than a rookie, 1.5 times 1.33 = 2.00.  So, you pay a veteran officer on OT TWICE what you would pay a rookie – and still have one less patrolman.  So it is cheaper to hire a rookie and not pay the OT.   That is what the Safety Committee recommended.  Hire one officer immediately and one when a lieutenant retires in December to keep staffing at 46 and save OT costs.  It is the cheap way out.   With a compliment of only 44, every injury impacts the OT more than at 46 or 48.  It is simple math.

If you care about Safety, there is no question that we need more patrolmen.  Crimes have almost doubled here in Summit since 1992.   There were several crimes involving guns this summer.  Domestic violence cases have resulted in homicides and recently hospitalized 3 residents.  When did our policemen and firemen become the sole issue in the property tax debate?  Why are we demonizing our first responders who put their lives on the line to keep us safe, many of whom live here?  We need to take corrective action immediately or the ensuing years will get worse and worse.  We are on a path that will cost you more in taxes and make you less safe.  We need to act now.

-Councilman Michael Vernotico