Most of the public discussion about Police Department staffing in the city revolves around budget issues -- overtime, benefits and the like. But we also need to seriously address staffing itself.
City officials announced plans last week to hire 10 new police officers this year, which would be the largest hire since 2007.
Sounds great, and good news considering our still-tight budget situation. But a second look raises a question about what actually would be accomplished. According to Stamford Police Chief Robert Nivakoff, 10 officers are expected to retire this year as well. So, even if everything goes according to plans -- a big if with governments of any size -- the best Stamford will do is break even.
And "even" in this case is pretty odd.
The Stamford Police Department currently has 273 police officers on staff. The department is authorized to have 307. Nine years ago, the number of cops in Stamford was 315.
That's a pretty stunning drop-off in a short period of time.
The obvious question generating much less talk -- and ink -- than overtime is how low can the department go before safety is at risk -- for the people of the city and the police officers themselves?
Any attempt to seriously build the ranks back up is going to smack head-first into budget constraints, but this issue needs to be addressed. Stamford remains one of the safest cities of its size in the nation -- a credit to the police force. But how long will that remain true if the department continues to shrink?
We'd suggest a good project for Bobby Valentine, the city's new director of public safety, health and welfare (assuming the Board of Representatives approves him next week), would answering that question.
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