nothin Chief: Sorry. And We Saved Money | New Haven Independent

Chief: Sorry. And We Saved Money

Markeshia Ricks Photo

Interim Police Chief Anthony Campbell and Assistant Chief Ontoniel Reyes pitch their budget to alders.

Top city cop Anthony Campbell came to City Hall bearing an apology as well as some good news about the police department’s budget.

Interim Chief Campbell and his officers had been a no-show earlier this week at a Board of Alders Public Safety Committee meeting that ended up with delay of approval for a $1.5 million grant application needed by the police department to purchase body cameras. Alders decided not to vote on the request because the cops didn’t show up and because of confusion over police officials’ handling a second pilot program underway for body cameras. (Read more about that here.)

Campbell did show up in City Hall’s alder chambers Thursday night at a hearing of the board’s Finance Committee to discuss the police department’s request for a nearly $43 million total operational, special funds and capital budget for fiscal year 2017 – 2018. He called police brass’s prior absence this week completely unacceptable.” He had been on vacation and communication snafus” resulted in no one attending the meeting, he said.

Before I get into the finance part, I wanted to take a moment to apologize to the members of the board who are members of the Public Safety Committee,” Campbell said. Had we been here we could have answered the questions that you had.”

This is Campbell’s first year presenting the budget to alders in the role as acting chief. Despite the misstep two days ago, his debut at Thursday night’s hearing featured none of the tension and tough questioning that greeted his predecessor, former Police Chief Dean Esserman, who retired last September.

The absence of fireworks seemed to be mainly because Campbell had pretty good news.

He reported that the department is on pace to replace its patrol fleet in two years. A recruit class of 30 new officers is ready to graduate May 12, putting the department closer to full staff of nearly 500 officers, and likely reducing overtime. Only two cops have retired over the last seven months, slowing a troubling trend. Ranks such as detective are back to full strength. And with the the upcoming promotion of seven sergeants and the completion of the lieutenants exam, the rank and file has had room to advance.

The biggest update for alders concerned one of the largest new expenses to hit the department in recent years —and it turns out the expense will be less than expected.

Last year, with only two months notice, the budget-strapped state government informed the city it would have to take over management of — and the cost of running — the pretrial detention facility at 1 Union Ave. At the time the police department estimated that staffing would cost as much as $2 million in overtime. Now, Campbell reported Thursday night, that annual cost estimate has come down to about $520,000.

Marchand questions the chief.

Westville Alder Adam Marchand said he was heartened” by Campbell’s optimistic assessment.” But he asked for more details about how the department has been operating the detention center and why the chief was confident that the department had figured out the best operating model.

My fear is that we approve this amount and then we see you in four or five months and you say, We need another million dollars,’” Marchand said.

Campbell said he based his estimates on weekly staffing breakdowns he receives as well. To run the lock-up, he said, it takes a supervisor and four officers a shift. He said the incoming class of officers next month and the recent promotion of sergeants mean that the department will have more flexibility in staffing the lock-up rather than pay so much overtime. In fact, Campbell said that he believes that the the $520,000 amount could come down in the future.

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