Police Staffing Remains a Problem

Posted by Shore Publishing on Sep 25 2008, 03:13 PM
By Marianne Sullivan, Source Senior Staff Writer

    Three weeks ago Justin Stysly, 23, graduate of the Connecticut Police Academy, was wearing a Madison police uniform and on the road with other officers in the department, all part of his 14-week field training. Last week he resigned. He will go back to college and finish his undergraduate degree.

    Acting Chief of Police Robert Nolan said, “I had a couple of conversations with Justin. He has submitted his resignation. He is not going to another police department. His intention is to go back to school.

    “After our first conversation, I suggested he think about what he wanted. He came back about a week later and said he was resigning,” Nolan said. “This was definitely his decision. He leaves this department with a clean record.”

    Stysly said he intended to return to Eastern Connecticut State University to complete his bachelor’s degree. When he was hired in January, he left school just one semester shy of a degree.

    “On my letter of resignation I said it was for personal reasons. I’ll leave my explanation at that,” Stysly said. “There are no hard feelings and I will go back to school. Getting my degree is my goal right now.”

    His departure leaves an already-understaffed department with one more position to fill. There are presently 19 officers working in a department that has been approved for 26 including a chief.

    Although the Board of Police Commissioners and the department continue to advertise for police officers and in fact have hired several over the last several months, bringing the staffing numbers up still seems to present problems.

    The process can also be costly. When a new recruit is hired, the department puts him or her on the payroll at a starting salary of just over $50,000 a year. The recruit then heads to the police academy for 22 weeks of training. When that is complete, the recruit returns to Madison for an additional 14 weeks of field training before he or she is considered fully qualified for patrol duty.

    “If you add up academy training, salary, uniform expenses, cost of background checks and exams–both psychological and physical, and other costs, the total is about $60,000 to $65,000 to put a new officer on the street,” Nolan said. He hopes to see some improvement in the department numbers shortly.

    “We will be testing four or five applicants this week. They will be taking agility tests at the police academy. If they pass, then we can proceed with background checks. All these applicants would be lateral moves,” the chief explained. These applicants, all certified officers with other police departments, could then join the Madison department and the patrol rotation “almost immediately …We could be ready to hire within two weeks.”

    The current understaffing is also delaying promotions within the department. There are currently two openings for sergeants but the Police Commission is reluctant to fill them because it will take two officers out of patrol ranks.

    “It’s a manpower consideration,” Nolan said. “I know the commission is anxious to fill these openings. When our numbers increase, they will revisit the issue.”