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Date: 11/9/2021
LUDLOW – With the fiscal year 2023 (FY23) budget process looming, the Ludlow Board of Selectmen met with Police Chief Daniel Valadas to discuss the police budget for the upcoming year during its Nov. 2 meeting.
To start the FY23 budget discussion, Valadas said the department, like others across the state, is facing challenges because of the police reform bill signed into law in December 2020.
“The post police reform legislation mandates have already begun as per statute this past July 1, 2021. These deadlines and mandates have caused a significant increase in administrative work for the department’s command staff and supervisors,” he said.
Because the training for special police officers would take up time on the police schedule that does not exist, Valadas said the number of special police officers would decrease significantly.
“The Special Police Unit has been in existence for over 50 years and currently has 19 remaining members; this unit will nearly diminish with the new state law. The Police Department has become overly dependent on the use of special police officers to cover patrol shifts or special event posts,” he said.
As of October, Valadas said the department has already spent $28,499 for special police patrol shifts, which is higher than $22,672 allotted in the FY22 budget.
Without adding the additional positions, Valadas said the department would have to fill shift vacancies through overtime.
“We will be spending overtime like you will not believe to cover minimum call response, so I am trying to hedge against that. It is the only thing I can do, is add staff to try help with fluctuations and increased training mandates,” he said.
That overtime increase would result in officers taking more time off and short staffing.
“Remaining at the Police Department’s current staffing levels is untenable and will not meet the needs of our community going forward. The current staffing situations will result in an increase in sick time use and an overall decrease in officer safety and wellness,” he said.
Among the list of staff positions included in Valadas’ request is a dispatch supervisor, which would allow a sergeant to move to more policework rather than supervising dispatch. Overall, Valadas requested to fill five current and upcoming vacancies and requested an additional six new positions.
When looking at the positions, Valadas said it was important to start with the request for a third lieutenant and the other command positions.
“I offer the best solution possible to ensure the town’s growing public safety needs, I am respectfully asking the Board of Selectmen to approve adding six police officer positions, two sergeant positions and a lieutenant position,” he said. “The positions I can do the most with are the supervisor positions because they can do everything, we can go out on patrol and do everything they can do,” he said.
Valadas said another significant cost increase would be from bodycams, which would cost the department close to $200,000.
Because of retirements across the state, Valadas said the police academies are backed up with training.
“The academies are completely overwhelmed right now, from the state police down it is constant recruits. Police officers are retiring, they are tired, they are facing mental health issues, they are beat up, anybody close is gone, they do not want to stay,” he said. “If you are anywhere near a percentage you can retire on you are leaving because you can go work somewhere else. The job is more stressful than I have ever seen it.”
Valadas added that it would be at least a year for any new officer to be hired between attending the academy and the additional training time.
Board member Derek DeBarge said the short staffing was a direct result of the police reform bill.
“With police reform, we all anticipated this. I think police reform is one ploy to lessen law enforcement around the country, I think it was brought in for some good things, but I think it will hurt more than it will do good,” he said.
Board member James Gennette said he was concerned about the lack of a school resource officer (SRO) at the high school.
“I am not a fan of not having an SRO in the high school, I do not know how to fix that, but with everything going on in schools right now, to leave the staff in charge of incidents an SRO should be taking care of really bothers me,” he said.
Because the budget process is just beginning, the police budget did not require a motion during the meeting.
The Board of Selectmen next met on Nov. 9 and coverage of that meeting will appear in the Nov. 18 edition of The Reminder.