By Zach Lowe
Staff Writer
May 16, 2007
STAMFORD - The police department could lose 40 officers to retirement and other job offers in the next six months, setting off a shortage that could increase overtime spending, officials said.
In what appears to be a display of poor morale, at least a dozen officers have applied for jobs at the state police and other departments, Chief Brent Larrabee and others said at Monday's meeting of the Police Commission.
Dozens more might retire when the new police contract is proposed if officers believe benefits are better under the existing contract, Larrabee and Officer Michael Merenda have said.
"There is a crisis in morale," said Merenda, the police union president.
The loss could leave the department with 240 officers, about 60 below the number for which it is budgeted, Larrabee said at the meeting.
But he said many officers might stay.
Larrabee and other city officials have said the department is understaffed now, with about 300 officers on the payroll and 280 on active duty.
Some city officials said the department may need 350 officers, according to memos sent to Mayor Dannel Malloy last year.
The city hopes to hire 15 recruits from a current class of applicants, but the number of recruits is down for police departments nationwide, experts have said.
About 350 applicants took police exams offered in Stamford last year, down from more than 1,000 a decade ago.
"We're very short-handed," Larrabee told the Police Commission.
The department is short officers on many shifts, and must hire officers at overtime rates to meet the requirement that 18 officers patrol during most shifts. That hiring pattern sent overtime spending to a record $4.8 million in the 2005-06 fiscal year.
The city pressed Larrabee to cut overtime. Last month, Larrabee cut the number officers on the street to the minimum required levels and suggested other budget reductions.
The cuts and a series of labor battles have soured morale among many officers, Merenda said.
The police union has been without a contract since June 2005, and the union and the city have clashed over several labor issues.
The cuts have reduced overtime to less than $400,000 per month, Larrabee said Monday.
But any shortage of officers likely will send overtime back up, officials have said.
"If you had 315 officers working, overtime wouldn't be as great, right?" Police Commission Chairman Mark Denham said at the meeting.
The city likely will know how many officers plan to leave by the fall, Larrabee said at the meeting.
The new police contract, in arbitration, likely will be finished by September or October, Larrabee said. The benefits outlined in the contract probably will determine whether a host of officers nearing the retirement age of 55 will retire, Merenda said.
If the arbiter lowers the retirement age to 50, even more probably will retire, Merenda said.
The department is not sure how many officers applied to be state troopers. State police could not say how many Stamford officers are among the 3,600 who sent applications that were due last week.
State police plan to hire about 75 troopers, and it is common for municipal police to apply, said Lt. J. Paul Vance, a state police spokesman.
Merenda said he is counting how many officers sent in applications. Some officers are interested in joining the Norwalk Police Department, which offers the opportunity to transfer and maintain seniority, he said.
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