Numerous Vacancies Inside Milford Police Department: Report

Milford CT

02 December, 2021

12:27 PM

Description

MILFORD, CT — The Milford Police Department will have up to ten openings by the end of February and has had difficulty recruiting new officers, which is a growing trend across the state, Hearst Connecticut reports. The department has had to reduce the size of patrols and also forced officers to work extra hours and also deny some time off requests, Hearst reports. All of the above has impacted morale Police Chief Keith Mello told Hearst Connecticut.>>>Read more at Hearst CT. ***The topic of staffing and other assorted topics was broached at the Nov. 8 police commission meeting. Here is a verbatim summary via police commission meeting minutes filed with the city of Milford: "With regard to the upcoming academy graduation which is scheduled for 11/17, Chief (Keith) Mello explained at this time the class lost one officer and there is one who has not yet passed his state test and he is waiting for those results. He added we will be having 9-10 openings by the end of this February and this is a trend seen in all departments. He explained with these openings we have fewer officers to be on the patrol and we have reduced special assignments as well. He stated officers want to take their time off as well as weekends and nobody wants to work overtime any longer. Chief Mello explained the department does not have enough officers to staff and it has become necessary to hold over many officers at the end of their shift. He stated this has a strong impact on the morale of the department. Chief Mello also noted people are leaving the police departments and there is difficulty recruiting good people. He stated there simply is not enough officers and we have had to cancel days off and he was certain there will be grievances due to this in the future. He referred to statistics stating crime is down based on numbers in 2010 but looking at years 2018 and 2019 there was a sharp increase in crime. He explained he has a plan on how to address that and there will be further discussion regarding that when the members review the budget as submitted. With regard to recruiting, Chief Mello is hoping to get 200 applicants but it is probable that there will be less than that. He noted test scores are down and he questioned whether we lower our academic or background standards. He added there is also officers that have tenure and are close to retirement but while still here they no longer have a desire to be an officer. Chief Mello stated administration is working very hard to keep people motivated and engaged and it is our responsibility to come up with a solution."