Police Department Struggles with Staffing Issues

In the midst of a spike in petty theft and vandalism, Department struggles with a lack of manpower.

by Kate Fraher

In an interview concerning a recent spike in burglary and vandalism in Beacon, Lt. Glenn Scofield voiced frustration with the Beacon Police Department’s lack of manpower. “Typically we try to have somebody that’s on call to handle [incoming reports],” explains Scofield, “Sometimes it’s not possible due to man power shortage or they’re tied up on something else, but we would normally make every attempt to get a detective out.” These days, the BPD’s patrol staff is at shift minimum. The short-handedness naturally produces an overwhelmed staff; some detectives are carrying double the ideal caseload. “You can manage five or less at one time,” explains Scofield, “some of my detectives are handling ten or more, and as you’re working the cases other ones are coming in and you sometimes tend not to get caught up.” And normal detective bureaus don’t operate like the ones on television, where multiple team members simultaneously work a case. Beacon Detectives are cross-trained to process the scene as well as interview witnesses and suspects. “We have more detectives then some our size,” says Scofield, “but as far as I’m concerned not enough.” While stipulating that it’s not his job to decide these matters, he offers: “I’d like to see more officers to accommodate all the things that we’d like to do, but it’s costly to implement things like that. Overtime’s been an issue here, but at the same time where do you go? Do you have overtime because we’re limited on the number of officers we have or you have significant more hires and then you have to pay salaries and benefits.”

The problem is less complex from Councilman Lee Kyriacou’s perspective: “Every time a spot comes to the council with a proposed person to fill it, the council has done a job and immediately filled it.  So if you really want to know why there are all these open spots, go ask the manager [Chief of Police Richard Sassi]. It’s his job to fill the open ranks.” According to Kyriacou, who has long been calling for increased accountability of BPD use of tax dollars, the city has been spending half a million dollars in overtime due to the inability of management to get and keep people on the police force. In the mean time some officers have nearly doubled their annual income to over $100,000 by working overtime (see Beacon Dispatch Issue March 2005 for more information). Councilman Charles Kelly explains that overtime is not just an issue of expense, it may also deter some officers from stepping up the ranks. “The police have been understaffed for quite some time now and most of them do overtime and they just normally assume that this is part of their regular salaries,” says Kelly. “It would be a step down for them to take a managerial position.”  He speaks of a recently approved opening for a Captain, which some doubt will be filled soon because the Captain will not be entitled to overtime. Responsibility for the employment imbalance ultimately belongs to Chief Sassi. Councilman Kelly explains: “It’s pretty much the chief’s initiative we rely on in terms of coming up with the recommendations for appointments. We budgeted the lines, he just has to fill them.” He adds, “We would hope that he would be more proactive.”  At press time Chief Sassi—who is presently out on disability—was not available for comment, although he has been quoted in the past as faulting the city council for not allocating enough funds to the Police Department. But both Kelly and Kyriacou contend that the city council has approved the creation of positions that have then been left open sometimes for over a year.

A lack of manpower becomes a greater concern in light of increased criminal activity, which Beacon is presently experiencing. “Over the past few months we’ve had a rash of burglaries,” says Scofield, “particularly commercial related burglaries.” Much of the targeted property is small in scale and therefore both easily liquidated and difficult to trace. There is a documented link between this kind of theft and substance abuse; often burglars are using proceeds from theft to fund drug habits. The reported vandalism includes incidents of broken windows, keyed and spray-painted vehicles, and slashed tires. Though Scofield does attribute some of the criminal mischief to juvenile delinquency, he points out “I don’t think there’s any particular reason for it. Often times criminal activity increases when the weather gets nicer. It’s cyclical.” Unfortunately that’s no consolation for victims. Scofield empathizes: “Whether it’s your personal residence or your business you feel violated and victimized and rightfully so.” He would personally like to see the reinstatement of the in-house narcotics unit that operated in the 1990s. He’d also like more specialized units of one or two people to handle intelligence, professional standards, and internal affairs, as well as three person policing units, and patrol staff of one sergeant and five patrolmen. Scofield’s ideal is informed by the five years he spent as a community policeman developing an intimate knowledge of the east end of Main Street, which he credits with contributing to that area’s turn around. “I got to know everybody and I was a resource for people; if they had a problem, if they felt comfortable, they would come to me,” Scofield says. “Eventually when the department gets up to proper staffing I could forsee that that could happen again, and not just on Main Street… There’s some places here that could use more personal attention.”

Despite Scofield’s concern over staffing, he is pleased with the police department’s clearance rate, which indicates the number of cases closed through investigation or arrest. The 2004 and 2005 Quarterly Reports for both the Detective and Juvenile Bureaus indicate an average clearance rate of 65%. Many in the community would agree that the changes on Main Street over the past two decades have been remarkable. Scofield points out that when he first joined the Beacon Police Department in the 1980s, crime was “much more violent.” Today the majority of complaints are nuisance ones, such as loud music and loitering. “It’s not the robberies and shootings,” says Scofield, “we still have those, but, thank God, not nearly as often.” Scofield attributes the turn around to a cooperative effort: “The police department, the landlords on Main Street, businesses, the business association, everybody started working together toward a common goal of improving Main Street.” The city installed more street lights along Main Street which increased visibility and inhibited criminal activity.  The above mentioned narcotics unit made a dramatic increase in the number of narcotics related street level arrests.

In order to be truly effective the police department relies on community assistance. For businesses Scofield recommends sturdy doors with at least one deadbolt and a security system. If you use a surveillance system, make sure there’s a tape in the recorder. Keeping exterior lights on all night helps increase visibility and deters would-be thieves. At home, no matter how proud you are of your landscaping, make sure shrubs don’t grow so high as to obscure windows and doors. During long absences, inform a select few neighbors that you’ll be away, have someone pick up your mail and papers, and use a timer on lamps to make the home look occupied. You can also call the Beacon Police Department to let them know when you’ll be on vacation and for how long so they can keep a closer watch on your house. Should you become the victim of a crime, be careful not to disturb anything at the scene and report it immediately from a different location if possible. “What we need is obviously cooperative effort with the public,” says Scofield. “They’re our eyes and ears…. A lot of our crime is solved by somebody just being diligent—seeing something they don’t think is right and reporting it to us.” Referring to recent tension between the community and the police, Lt. Scofield expresses hope that relations will improve. “It’s important to work together, try to understand each other,” he says, “because obviously, we’re working for the common goal.  We can’t do our job without the respect of the community. And obviously the community deserves respect from us. I’m hopeful that things will get back to where we’re all on the same page.”

Comments

[I.B. of Beacon]

In response to the article of the Police Department's concern with staffing issues. Within the past three months, I contacted the police department twice to assist me. Each time I was told "we have no officers available". When you hear these words more than once, you would almost swear it is a recording. I called once because a stranger was on my roof. Thank God it turned out to be a harmless situation. I had to play detective myself and go downstairs to the back of the building where I took my cellphone and photographed the intruder (a teenager) and then subsequently called the police department, who told me to put the boy on the phone so he could talk to him. I was later told by bystanders how brave I was. I am not an officer and I did not attend bootcamp. Neither myself, nor the rest of the citizens should ever have to hear "we do not have any officers available to respond to your call". I am beginning to think this is the City of Beacon Police Department's way of trying to justify the payment of $124,000 salaries. It's a great tactic on their part, just tell the citizens we do not have manpower and do not show up when a call for assistance is made and maybe they will pay us $124,000 per year. There was an additional incident subsequent to this one, where I told the same thing, almost as though it were like a police recording. This is unacceptable. Thank God, I wasn't being mugged, raped or shot. This type of response from the Beacon Police Department is unacceptable. With many visitors (strangers) coming from outside into the area on weekends to see our quaint little city and people migrating from the City of New York and elsewhere, we need to have a police department who can handle the concerns of its citizens and live up to their job duties which is to serve and protect the citizens of Beacon. All too often I see them cruising around in their cars waisting gas, doing nothing but driving. I appreciate their presence, but I wonder they are either afraid of the citizens they are serving and prefer just to drive back and forth up and down Main Street, and do nothing else. And if they do increase their staff I sincerely hope that it is increased to represent the diversity of the City of Beacon's population.

[TC]

The police department strikes me as being pretty useless. I've only lived here for a few months, but whenever I've contacted them, I've gotten no satisfaction. The police chief, Mr. Sassi, should either resign, or be fired, as he is clearly not doing his job. I'm starting to lose my patience with various quality of life issues that are not being addressed by the Beacon PD

[KR]

We have called the Beacon Police several times to complain about teenagers dealing drugs in the open on our quiet street, with car stereos thumping away at midnight, and have consistently gotten the response that there are no officers available. Several of my neighbors have noticed an increase in gang graffiti on the playgrounds, and when I bring my young son out to play, we increasingly see a litter of broken liquor bottles and dime bags. My husband and I moved here 8 years ago, thinking that this community was diverse, interesting, and on the rise, and that it would be a good place to raise our family. Now, when I see frequent articles in the paper detailing incompentence and corruption in the Beacon police department, I seriously wonder whether we made a mistake. I appreciate that Lt. Scofield and many others in the police department are trying their best, but this is of little use when the department cannot be reponsive to the changing needs of this community. My husband and I will certainly take these factors into consideration when we vote this November.

[Retta]

Just a note, it's 2007 and the Beacon PD response is just the same, "we do not have any officers available to respond to your call". The school closest to us is regularly riddled with crack/meth baggies, trash and broken glass. It is cleaned up frequently but to see that it disheartening. I've called to have an officer do a routine drive by and have a had neighbors call about the same. Same response.

[Nadia Austin-Armstrong]

My stepfather was just thrown in the jail at the police station and had our car be towed away. It's Easter, and we're supposed to go to my uncle's in Milton to celebrate his girlfriend's new baby. My stepdad went out to get cigarettes and was tossed in jail and our car is impounded. It's Easter and we can't go anywhere or do anything.It seems like the police department aren't very well trained.

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