Providence Police Force Has Shrunk to Its Lowest Staffing Level in 50 Years

Thursday, August 05, 2021

GoLocalProv News Team

Providence Police responding to a demonstration PHOTO: GoLocal

It is no secret that Providence is a city in crisis. In the past week alone there have been five separate stabbing incidents, a 24-year-old woman who recently earned her graduate degree was gunned down by a drive-by shooter, a woman with her child in the car was assaulted by an ATV gang and beaten, a man crossing Broad Street was run down by a speeding pickup and five men were shot.

And this all happened at a time when the Providence Police are at their lowest staffing level in 50 years.

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Union officials, city officials, and former elected officials tell GoLocal that the city's policing staff levels have not been this low since the 1970s.

Today, the police staffing is just 403, down from a number of times under Mayors Vincent Cianci, John Lombardi, and David Cicilline when the police force was approximately 500 or more.

“The police staffing level when I served as Mayor was 497 and we worked hard to get officers who were out for injuries and leave back on the job,” said now-State Representative John Lombardi and served as acting Mayor of Providence in 2002 to 2003.

In 1980, the City began to build the staffing levels of the Providence Police Department.

By the early 2000s under then-Mayor David Cicilline and Police Chief Dean Esserman, the agency was able to secure substantial federal funds under initiatives of the George W. Bush administration. The Department sustained staffing at approximately 500.

But under Mayor Angel Taveras and Jorge Elorza the staffing has plummeted.

Providence City Council President John Igliozzi says that the majority of the council has supported trying to keep a sustained staffing level but points out that his predecessor -- Lt. Governor Sabina Matos and some members of the Providence City Council --have opposed new police academy classes.

In recent weeks, two separate disturbances have required that all officers on duty respond. A melee on Sayles Street lasted upwards of two hours and for a significant portion of that time left much of the city without any officers.

Another incident last week required 25 officers to respond, again leaving much of the city exposed without police to respond.

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Councilor Helen Anthony announcing she was voting against the budget over $48,500 in police funding

Defund and Underfund

In 2020, six members of the Providence City Council, including Matos, called for the defunding of the police and the transfer of dollars to other uses.

Councilors Helen Anthony, John Goncalves, Kat Kerwin, Nirva LaFortune, Rachel Miller and James Taylor voted against this year's budget.

Anthony, who represents Ward 2 on the East Side announced she was opposing the budget over a $48,500 expenditure targeted to recruit the next academy class. "I will not be voting for this budget — when it was amended at the last finance meeting it was amended to add an additional $48,500 for the recruitment of the next police academy," said Anthony.

"I think that amending the budget to include the additional amount this year, while the amount isn’t really what is the issue, in my mind, it’s more a message that we have not delivered on our word that we would create police reform, some accountability. We’ve been listening to, and it’s been a nationwide discussion, it’s been a city discussion on how we need to reform our police and rather than do anything through the budget, which is what I hoped would be done, we actually added an additional amount, which I think really just says to the people who have been asking for this reform, it says we’re not interested, and that we’re just going to continue doing business as usual. So I cannot support this budget," she added.

Councilman Nick Narducci fired back at Anthony, "I don’t know if anybody’s been watching the news or listening to the news, but I said it earlier — our shootings and our murders in the city of Providence are up 150% — we need more police officers."

"The 50 we’re putting on, the chance are, as we all know you lose a certain percentage, you might make 38 police officers this time around. We’re already in the process of losing like 28 from this year ‘till the next year on retirement. We can’t keep taking from the police department. You heard from the chair…about how many programs we’re setting up, how many programs we’re funding to try and help people that are looking for help," added Narducci.

"Let me just say it this way — if you don’t think we need the police, then you know what, what I don’t really want to say…but when stuff happens in your neighborhood, don’t call them. We need more cops, we don’t need less. We need more ops — they’re the ones keeping our city safe. I am sick and tired of my community meetings that people are saying they’re afraid to go outside their own front door because of the way the shootings are going on. I don’t want the people in my community to live that way," said Narducci.

The last time staffing level was this low Providence's population in 1980 was just 156,804 — 13% lower than it is today.

Igliozzi says the root of the low level of staffing is "the [Elorza] administration's bad politics, makes bad policy."

Providence Police Force Has Shrunk to Its Lowest Staffing Level in 50 Years

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Providence Police Force Has Shrunk to Its Lowest Staffing Level in 50 Years

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