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04/10/2018 02:30 PMLast week the town’s new seventh constable started filling policing shifts, and if all goes well, an eighth part-time constable will start work before July 1. That’s important because on July 1, the town reduces its police coverage from three state troopers to just two. The Board of Selectmen (BOS) last week urged Resident Trooper Wayne Buck to hire an eighth constable to ensure adequate shift coverage in the busy summer season.
The BOS decided in deliberating this spring’s budget that the cost of a third state trooper had become too expensive. In the last few years, the state has shifted more of the costs of state troopers to the municipalities that rely on them for policing coverage. The move has forced the leaders of towns like Westbrook to re-consider the policing model they have used for decades.
In the current 2017-’18 fiscal year, the Town of Westbrook contracts with the state for three state troopers. The terms of the deal require the town to pay 85 percent of the first two resident troopers’ fringe benefits and 100 percent of the third troopers’ costs. First Selectman Noel Bishop recently estimated that the town could save as much as $200,000 a year by dropping the third state trooper from the contract.
This shift in policing model was a change discussed in several open BOS meetings and recommended by the town’s Police Advisory/Traffic Authority. To make the new model work, however, requires the town to have more part-time constables available to fill open policing shifts. Even now, with three troopers, Resident Trooper Wayne Buck told the selectmen last week that some policing shifts—especially busy weekend shifts—go unfilled.
The BOS recently adopted a new town constables contract that kept in place a long-standing provision allowing town constables to pick their own shifts rather than having shifts assigned to them. In practice, this provision has meant that some shifts, especially those on the weekends, are not picked, and therefore, are left unfilled.
At the April 3 BOS meeting, several current town constables raised concerns about shift coverage and officer safety. When only one constable is on duty on days and some evening shifts, for example, there is no back-up when an officer needs support. They asked for restoration of extra shifts on Monday and Tuesday evenings so two constables could be on shift.
Buck responded to the constables’ concern, saying, “I would disagree...about Monday or Tuesday shifts. We need coverage on the weekends. In January, there were only three occasions when a constable worked alone on Monday or Tuesday. But on weekends, there are open shifts...Adding another constable will help. If they [divided] it evenly among themselves, I think if we hire another part-timer, we would fill the shifts.”
Buck said that because there was money in his budget for shifts left unfilled, that money can be used now to support hiring another part-time constable.
“The money is there because there are shifts not being covered,” said Buck.
Buck confirmed to the selectmen that he would try to hire the eighth constable as quickly as he can, though he cautioned that state processes for getting a certified officer on board could slow the hiring process.