By MARIANNE SULLIVAN
Shore Publishing Staff Writer
Published on 7/21/2005

The Board of Police Commissioners will begin a series of special meetings to investigate and discuss long-term planning issues in the Police Department. The board is inviting public comment.

The first of the special meetings has been set for Thursday, July 28, at 7:30 p.m. at the Police Department.

At the Police Commission's meeting last week, Commissioner Michael Heaney explained, "This will be the first of a series of special meetings to address the long-term planning issues that are important for the department. I see these as important. We need to establish some time away from our regular business meetings to begin discussing and investigating long-term issues."

Commission Chairman Robert Cerosky said the July 28 meeting will be the first of five planning public meetings that will stretch out over the next several months. The first will deal with staffing and manpower within the department.

"We will be actively seeking public input," he said.

Cerosky said the commission will also spend time at the meetings providing the public with information.

"We will be providing the public with substantial information. We will be providing facts, instead of myths. There are a lot of myths, a lot of hearsay, out there now. It's information without a factual basis. We will be putting a substantial amount of information--the facts--out there for people."

He continued, "There are some people who are saying that there has been no loss of police service because of reduced manpower. There is, however, deterioration--and we will speak to that. And we will speak on the record."

The chairman said the meetings would set aside time for public input as well.

The Police Commission has raised concerns about the decreases in staffing within the department, contending that the decreases are leading to excessive overtime and impacting the services residents believe they should be receiving from their police force.

First Selectman Tom Scarpati, some members of the Board of Selectmen and some members of the Board of Finance, however, have contended that the department can operate safely and adequately with its present 24 authorized positions.

When Heaney said the topic for the first special meeting "should be the staffing issue," it raised an objection from fellow commissioner, Emile Geisenheimer.

"Departmental staffing is a function of operational strategy and structure...What we need to determine first, before any discussion of staffing, are policy questions."

These, he said, would include a discussion and agreement on the department's priorities. The priorities need to be agreed to and established before discussions on staffing and numbers could begin, he said.

"Our weakness in the past, as I see it, is that we have come to these discussions with our opinions already in place...I, for one, would like to get the facts first," Geisenheimer said.

Heaney agreed, saying, "I do not intend to pre-judge anything. I see this as a discussion based on information and an opportunity at information gathering. I, too, would like to get the facts."

He said other town boards, such as the selectmen and finance boards, "repeatedly as us to provide a better rationalization or justification for our staffing requests. I see this as one way to begin that discussion, and to include the public." 
 

© The Day Publishing Co., 2005