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Date: 4/11/2023
SPRINGFIELD — “Fragile” is the term Police Superintendent Cheryl Clapprood is using to describe the Springfield Police Department at this time.
A City Council Public Safety Subcommittee meeting was called on April 4 for Clapprood to discuss her roles and responsibilities with the Police Department along with the Board of Police Commissioners.
Clapprood said the commissioners have “a little bit of a difficult task,” as they are responsible for the discipline of officers in the department and cases they foresee being a five-day suspension or greater. If the command staff and Clapprood review a discipline case and it is at a standstill, it is then the commissioners’ responsibility to determine the outcome. Clapprood said it is currently set out this way based on her contract, which includes hiring, promoting and a piece of the disciplinary process.
“I continue to do that,” Clapprood said. “It is a full-time job.”
She continued, “Hiring in and of itself is quite the arduous task.” To assist, she uses a couple deputies or captains with years of experience to ask questions during the interviews. Typically, this allows some candidates to be weeded out from the beginning.
“[The] last thing I want is someone to sneak through with any nefarious reasons for being on this Police Department,” Clapprood said. She emphasized the importance of the hiring aspect of the job.
Another difficult situation for the commissioners is what they discuss. For instance, Clapprood said most personnel matters are in executive session and cannot be talked about elsewhere. To ask the commissioners to go out in the community and not share something they hear or hearings they plan to host “is a tough spot to put them in,” she shared.
She went on to say that the commissioners did host a hearing in which a termination was made, however, Clapprood agreed with the decision and said they did “quite well” with that case.
In terms of the Police Department, Clapprood said the best word she can use to describe it at this time is fragile. “It’s fragile because we are shorthanded. No one’s coming around the corner to help us … We are having a hard time retaining and recruiting,” she said.
After looking for an academy of 50, only 26 or 27 individuals might graduate at the end of May, Clapprood shared. “That’s not really [going to] help us — by the time I get them trained and street certified — to go out and join in a busy summertime when we’re looking at events like Ironman, Fourth of July and enshrinement, etc.”
Clapprood said young officers feel a lack of investment to a particular law enforcement agency. In Massachusetts, the system is set up that if you are post certified there, you can go to any police department in the state. In Springfield, there is a residency requirement. Clapprood said police officers must reside in the city for 10 years. If you are starting a family and this is not where you want to reside, you have some choices you can make, she said.
“My best guesstimate is 40% of the Springfield Police Department at this time have 10 years or less on the job and do not feel they have an investment in the department,” Clapprood said. Whereas in states such as Florida and New York, there are departments that offer a sign on bonus, she noted.
“To say we’re fragile, I think is putting it nicely,” she said.
Currently, the Springfield Police Department is 26 officers short and is expecting to lose about six more over the next few months.
“There are some difficult situations that are going to have to be made and I’ll do it but I’m not happy about it,” Clapprood said. “One of the answers is to disassemble the Traffic Bureau.” She noted that Springfield used to have a Traffic Bureau with more than 20 officers on days and about 12 officers on evenings. “We now have a total of eight,” she said.
Recent statistics show that fatal accidents, injury crashes and pedestrian fatalities are higher last year than in the 16 years prior, shared Clapprood. “It’s not an area I take lightly to say, ‘I will disassemble the Traffic Bureau and put them into the squad,’ when down in my heart of hearts, I truly believe traffic enforcement is needed more not less, but I don’t find myself in the position to do that.”
She continued, “We’re down officers and we’re trying our best to keep morale up and it just seems like this consent decree is a constant battle for us to meet the agreement as we said we would — we are — we’re doing well with that … We have not missed a deadline. It asks a lot of the officers … Policies and procedures are changing [and I am] trying to implement training [the] best I can being short staffed.”
Clapprood noted that the overtime budget “will go up a bit” because she cannot afford to train people separately.
Clapprood told the committee, “Your call volume has not gone down.” Days are averaging around 350 calls a shift, evenings are 350 to 400 calls a shift and midnights are around 250 calls.
“We are up a bit in felonious assaults,” Clapprood shared. “Last month, the country was up a lot more than we were. We’re holding our own and we are down in some property crimes and [breaking and entering] crimes but there are still a lot of guns on the street and guns on most cities’ streets.” However, in Springfield, over 50 firearms have been seized this year by the Firearms Investigation Unit, without complaints being made against the officer.
After sharing these facts, Clapprood noted that the overall purpose of this meeting is for the Public Safety Committee to be aware of the current state of the Police Department.
“I think we’re going to have a busy summer … I’m scrambling to hold on to people,” Clapprood said. She has spoken with the Massachusetts State Police, and they are in the same boat — shorthanded. Although the state police cannot guarantee help to the city, she assured that they will try, and the department has already secured them for some upcoming events.
Clapprood went on to say, “I wanted to let you know that I am actively involved in, and I still have the hire, promote and part of the discipline package for my contract that goes on every day here.”
In August, there will be another hiring process — conducted through Zoom — for the next academy. Clapprood said she is aiming for 50 people again, although residency and qualifications sometimes stand in the way.
She also shared that she would “love” to have C3 officers and units in many of the Springfield neighborhoods, but at this time it is impossible.
City Councilor Michael Fenton said he recognizes the challenges that have been posed to the department. “This is an important issue for us to monitor,” he said. “I acknowledge this as a material issue for public safety in something that we have to have a conversation about.”
As a member of the Residency Compliance Commission, Fenton shared that they have been meeting monthly for the past 18 months. At its April 6 meeting, Fenton said they would hear from department heads — not just police — about issues they are seeing in recruitment. From there, he said they will create a full report on what the impacts of that requirement has been on the operations of various departments.
As the budget season approaches, City Council President Jesse Lederman asked what the conversations have looked like around the existing issues with the Police Department and if there are any specific requests or recommendations to assist with this.
Clapprood said they are submitting a budget for level service. “Level service is still going to be up I believe 13%,” she said. Clapprood asked the council to realize that overtime is her department’s survival mechanism. “It’s the line that keeps us going,” she said. She explained that the training budget is low, and the overtime is what she depends on for training. For instance, if a supervisor goes to training on a Thursday, it is replaced by overtime as most of the training is done between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., and a lot of officers’ work off hours.
Due to the lack of people joining the police force — in Springfield and across the country — City Councilor Zaida Govan and Public Safety Committee Chair Lavar Click-Bruce brought up the idea of planting the seed earlier for high school and even middle schoolers about the need for it, among other professions.
With the summer approaching and the events that come with it, Click-Bruce asked if people should be worried about the lack of officers. Clapprood said people should not be worried, but the topic should be of importance and on the committee’s radar so that they know where the department stands.
Clapprood emphasized that the city has a good Police Department — she just wants to promote it.