FPD.. and it's new contract

So we learn from the MWDN, FPD was not really down 22 officers. Mass hysteria from Councilwomen Grove would have us believe that gangs will take over the City.  The contract which has not been approved by the council also makes it more desirable for an officer to volunteer for an overtime shift, rather than do a detail instead. Who are they kidding, the detail rate is 57 bucks and hour, the OT rate is under 35, which one will be more attractive? They monitor FB for complaints?

 How safe is it to have an officer work 3 shifts and why is that even allowed? The Council just seems to be asleep at the wheel when it comes to questioning Public Safety.

Currently, there are only 84 patrol officers on the street, not the 106 the Framingham Police are allowed by contract.

FRAMINGHAM – Police officers are reading the comments on social media. They see the complaints from residents that they are taking too long to get to calls.

Officer Ryan Porter, head of the Framingham Police Officers Union, said he understands that frustration. The cops on the street are frustrated, too, but they say they’re doing the best they can as the department is battling a large shortage of patrol officers.

“It puts a lot of stress on our patrol division, which are the guys who show up at your door when you call us,” said Porter. “Our evening shift is pretty much going from call to call. Once they get in their car, they’re on their way to the next call, because we have calls waiting for us. It’s called stacking calls. It never overwhelms our guys, we always deliver when we need to, but it becomes cumbersome. We’ve seen complaints on Facebook that we’re talking too long. We don’t like it any more than they do.”

Currently, there are only 84 patrol officers on the street, not the 106 the Framingham Police are allowed by contract. There are several factors that came together all at once that led to the lack of officers available to work patrol, Police Chief Steven Trask said. Currently, there are five officers out on “injury on duty” leave, meaning those five officers are currently on the payroll but can’t work. An officer on that type of leave is typically out for six to nine months.

One officer is on long-time medical leave. Two are on military leave. One officer is almost done with field training, which means the officer is currently working with another officer and never alone. Five more officers recently graduated the police academy and have just began field training. “They won’t be viable for 12 weeks after they graduate,” said Trask. “They can’t be out by themselves.” The department has also recently had an officer transfer from Marlborough, and have three conditional offers of employment to recruits. That adds up to 102 patrol officer positions spoken for out of the 106.

“There are only four vacancies in the Police Department,” Trask said. “The problem is it only takes two weeks to lose someone, but it takes several months to replace them.” Add in officers taking vacation days, or comp time, or even a regular sick day, and oftentimes the patrol staff is stressed. Because of the shortage, two school resource officers were put back on the street, the traffic unit went from four officers to one, and two detectives were moved to patrol.

“It takes its toll on the patrol shift,” said Trask. “We force people on double shifts. On rare instances we make people work triples. We very rarely want people working 24 hours in a row, but 16 hours in a row is not uncommon – it’s not desired, but it’s not uncommon.”

Currently, the Framingham Police have at least seven cruisers out on the street between 8 a.m. and midnight, and six between midnight and 6 a.m. Ideally, Trask said, that number would be around 10, even 11.

That would allow for extra traffic patrols, or even officers doing a walking beat.

Although there is relief in the form of recently-graduated officers and the transfer officer in the near future, January is a time where there could be another dip. Typically, Framingham will lose a few officers to the Massachusetts State Police Academy as officers decide to make the move from municipal police work to the state police. The early part of the year is also when officers who are retiring typically put in their retirement paperwork.

“The Framingham Police did a lot of hiring between 1988 and 1995 and a lot of those guys are coming up on their 32 years,” Porter said.

Both Trask and Porter said a newly signed contract with the union and the department will help make things better. The new contract brings the department more in line with salaries of other departments of similar size, such as Waltham and Lowell, and makes it more attractive to potential hires.

The contract, which was agreed upon in September, has yet to be approved by the City Council.

The new contract, which includes a little over $1 million increase over three years, includes a cost-of-living adjustment of 1% and changes to the salary schedule at 15 and 20 years of service. The new cost-of-living adjustment goes into effect on July 1, 2020. There will also be several paid education incentives that go into effect on Jan. 1. An officer who has an associate’s degree will get 10% addition to their base pay; a bachelor’s degree would get an officer a 20% addition and a master’s or a law degree would get 25% additional.

There will also be four wage increases over the life of the deal, with the first taking effect on July 1 of this year. The new contract also makes the department’s paternity leave policy match the city’s policy and state and federal law. As part of the contract, the union will “revamp” the use of compensatory time, which will allow more officers to be available to be on duty, will reduce forced overtime and make it easier to manage time off, according to the city’s announcement.

The compensatory time, in particular, will help for staffing because it gives control to the department administrators. “Moving forward, they (officers) won’t be able to take compensatory time if it causes overtime,” Trask said.

The contract also makes it more desirable for an officer to volunteer for an overtime shift, rather than do a detail instead. Porter said the contract has drawn the attention of officers from other police departments, which he hopes will attract transfers of experienced officers. “It’s a very fair contract,” said Porter. “The ink on it isn’t even dry and I’m already taking calls from other officers about how to transfer here.” Mayor Yvonne Spicer said the new contract will help the department compete not only with other departments locally, but throughout the state.

“Staffing is always front and center,” said Spicer. “Like many other communities, everyone is on the hunt. During the course of the year, we know we may lose some people, and hopefully this will allow us to keep those vacancies filled.”

Trask is looking forward to having the ability to attract officers from other departments, something that was routine about a decade or so ago. “It’s more attractive for lateral transfers,” said Trask. “I’d like to have a healthy mix of new officers and transfers. I think it’s nice to have folks in the community who took the test to have an opportunity, and I like the ability to attract the best of the best from other communities.”

As for the officers, they want to get to being more proactive rather than reactive.

“We’d all like to see that ability come back,” Porter said.