Half of Providence’s Police Force Eligible to Retire

Tuesday, November 03, 2015

Kate Nagle, GoLocal News Editor

Roughly half to the Providence Police force is eligible to retire according to the new union President, as the city and the union is set to engage in wage reopener talks — and City Council President Luis Aponte says that Providence will need another class of officers as soon as this one is completed.

“We’re at 402, and two hundred are eligible for retirement,” said newly elected FOP President Robert Boehm, who noted the contract is up June 30.  “In terms of getting ready, we’re waiting to see what’s going to happen. [Police] are concerned about the city’s finances.  The [new] contract’s not going to mean anything if the city goes bust.”

Aponte expressed concern that in light of recent crimes, that the city has “probably taken too long” to expand the police department, in his opinion. 

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“The baseball bat incident, the murder in the high rise, the attack on the Brown worker, those are all things that shake a community’s sense of security,” said Aponte, of recent high-profile crimes in the city. “We need to get more of a presence, we need to get more officers on the street. When you have these random acts of violence on good citizens going about their lives, you can hear about the stats that somehow we’re safer, but what does that mean.”

Upcoming Academy

The city is scheduled to have another police academy in this fiscal year, as indicated by Mayor Elorza when he took office in January.

"The Mayor is committed to increasing staffing levels at the Providence Police Department, allowing us to increase community policing efforts and foot patrols," said Elorza spokesperson Evan England on Monday. "We expect to begin this year's academy class in the spring."

Aponte said however that he thought that as soon as the upcoming class graduated, the city would need to consider another. 

“We really needed a class of 60, we’ll get one for 30 this coming one. It was set for 34, and you generally lose a few,” said Aponte. “We need however 50-60.”

According to the City’s Internal auditor, the cost budgeted for a new class is $774,000 for 40 recruits.

Meanwhile, the city is embroiled in what will most likely be a protracted legal battle with the firefighters’ union following Elorza’s announcement that he was moving the city from a four platoon system to three, which he said could save the city $5 million starting in fiscal year 2017 — which the firefighters are contesting and could have major financial ramifications for the city if overturned. 

When Elorza made the announcement this past May, firefighters eligible for retirement opted out in record numbers -- four times the annual average.

According to the city’s internal auditor Matt Clarkin, the Providence paid $7.3 million for firefighter callback (overtime) in fiscal year 2015, and budgeted just over $5 million in fiscal year 2016.  

Clarkin said Monday that the city has paid $3.4 million in callback through October 23, less than a third of the way through the 2016 fiscal year, which would put the city on pace to have over $10 million in fire callback for the year, more than twice what was budgeted. 

Lower Numbers Explained?

City Councilman Sam Zurier spoke Thursday to the uncertainty of the city’s budget projections. 

“At a claims committee meeting that took place on October 13, the Internal Auditor presented his projection of what would happen if the city were required to pay time and half in excess of 32 hours,” said Zurier, of the scenario if the Mayor’s fire platoon changes were not upheld.  “The impact was 8 or 9 million [dollars] but the Administration does not agree with those numbers.”

In September, Zurier blasted the Administration for ending fiscal year 2015 with a $5 million deficit.   "It raises questions about the administration's ability to manage the budget.  A $5 million deficit represents a major failure," wrote Zurier.

Speaking to police numbers — and public perception — Zurier said he hears from constituents that they think the force is understaffed.  Zurier explained that the lack of federal government funding -- which had existed in the past to bolster the department -- has been in part a factor. 

“I think there are a number of residents who believe that the city would be served by a larger force, they are aware that the numbers used to be higher as recently as six years ago and they think that more officers would provide better public safety,” said Zurier. “Those positions were funded with federal grants and it’s not clear what that impact was on crime stats.  But federal grants were used for the community policing policies, which we just don’t have today."

“The budget as it stands has a number of pieces that are factors at different times,” said Zurier.  “I think the understanding was that we’d have a new [police] class this spring with new officers for next year.  If there was any decision to postpone the class this year, that would have major implications.”

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