By AMANDA PINTO
apinto@thestamfordtimes.com
STAMFORD — In it's latest effort to bolster an understaffed police force, the city is actively recruiting a new batch of officers to apply by Jan. 12.
The police department, approved for 313 officers, currently has 280 officers available for full duty. Eighteen others are undergoing training at the academy, and unable to count toward the city's minimum of 18 officers per shift until May or June, Assistant Police Chief Susan Bretthauer said.
Reaching the department's budgeted number of officers is crucial, Mayor Dannel Malloy said.
"It's a high priority," he said. "It's getting very special attention, we need it done."
The new recruiting class, sought out as part of Police Chief Brent Larrabee's plan to run two academies per year to boost staffing numbers, will not count toward the minimum until October.
"We want to try to get up to our full strength, but we're not close," Director of Public Safety Health & Welfare Bill Callion said. "We hope this [recruiting effort] will help us."
Stamford Police Public Information Officer Lt. Sean Cooney said the department hopes to attract an academy class of 20 to 30 potential officers, all of whom must pass a February written exam, rigorous physical testing and background checks.
"In order to get 20 qualified candidates you'll need hundreds of applicants," he said.
The starting pay for officers is listed at $47,042 the first year, but Director of Human Resources Dennis Murphy said the number should climb to more than $49,000 once arbitration is complete and the police contract is approved.
Murphy said he considers initial salary to be competitive — recruits in Hartford make $34,814, New Haven's new officers earn $37,276, and Bridgeport first-years make $41,000, officials said.
Like Stamford, these municipalities also struggle to fully staff their police departments.
Bridgeport Police Department Spokesman Lt. Jim Viadero said the city is 60 officers below the maximum number. In New Haven, Police Department Spokesperson Bonnie Winchester said the force is short 47 officers.
The lagging numbers reflect a national trend away from public service that began in the 1990s, said Nancy Mulroy, spokeswoman for the Hartford Police Department.
Thirty-nine officers below the authorized maximum, Hartford has run two academies each year for four years, in order to play "catch up," and is actively recruiting in order to accommodate the 90 officers due for retirement in the next two years, she said.
"Recruiting is very, very competitive and very difficult," Mulroy said. "We could have 1,200 applications and if 25 make it to academy that's a success."
Although other city's departments are experiencing problems similar to Stamford's, "The City that Works," may be the most in need of new hires, as it's police to citizen ratio is decidedly lower than the state's other major cities.
Stamford's 280 officers on active duty make for one police officer per every 429 residents.
Even without their maximum strength, there is one police officer for each 303 citizens in Hartford, one for every 308 citizens in New Haven, and one for each 324 citizens in Bridgeport, according to data provided by department officials and the U.S. Census Bureau.
If Stamford reaches it's maximum of 313 officers, that totals one officer for every 383 residents, still lower than the ratios in the state's other main cities.
At a recent meeting, Callion suggested that the city's budgeted number of officers might be outdated, as it was established more than 20 years ago, and the city, then a town, has since grown 30 to 40 percent.
Murphy and Cooney said officials are currently discussing raising the authorized number of officers.
Malloy said his office is taking a serious look at the issue, and will review studies to see if Stamford in fact needs to increase the police force above the current maximum.
"With the city on the very positive trajectory we're on, we need to start asking questions like that," he said.