Left to right: Commission Chair Karl Hupfer, Commissioner Felix Otero, Commissioner Leonard Osowski, and Police Chief John Camerota at Monday’s Police Commission meeting. (Photo by Peter Currier)
WESTFIELD- The Westfield Police Department has recently been struggling with staffing constraints and a depleted overtime budget according to police officials.
Police Chief John Camerota said that, as of the 2nd week in January, 17 officers will be unable to fill shifts as they are on leave for various reasons. Nine officers are currently out for injuries suffered on the job. Two officers are on military leave for more than one year, while four will be attending the State Police Academy in January.
Of the four attending the academy, two are full time officers and two are reserve officers. During the November 13th, 2018 Police Commission meeting, the two full time officers requested 30 days off in January to join the academy. Officers Timothy Fanion and Jeffrey Vigneault were granted just 15 days due to the department already being short on officers. Commission Chairman Karl Hupfer said that in his experience, if a recruit has made it 15 days in the academy, they will likely finish it.
“I have never had this issue before,” said Chief Camerota, who has been on the police force since 1976, “we have had to pull officers from special units to run regular shifts.”
Camerota said that the department is still meeting at least the minimum shift requirements. However, many officers have had to work more overtime to compensate. The extra overtime has drained their allotted overtime budget.
“We will be lucky to make it to January 1st,” said Camerota, “hopefully people will come back from injuries soon.”
The police commission has asked the finance committee to give the department an additional $100,000 towards the overtime budget. The committee will vote on the measure on December 11th. In the meantime, efforts are being made to send possible new hires to the police academy in June. Although the academy is not for another six months, Westfield Police are working to get new recruits in beforehand.
“We are planning to get a waiver from the Massachusetts Police Training Council to allow trainees to begin working before they attend the academy,” said Camerota.
