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 Commission convened Monday at 5:30 p.m. for its first regularly scheduled meeting since Police Chief John Camerota returned from a leave of absence.
The meeting began with a public participation section. At-Large City Councilor Matt Emmershy spoke up to ask the commission if applicants for the Police Chief position would be asked about their stances on gun ownership and the issuing of new gun licenses in Westfield.
“We have already set the parameters for the position,” said Commission Chair Karl Hupfer.
Hupfer also took the time to layout the plan for the hiring of a new Police Chief. He said that letters of intent must be sent by applicants by February 1st of next year. Candidates will be interviewed on April 1st and a final decision could be made that same night. Current Chief of Police, John Camerota, is set to retire next June.
The commission voted to confirm Spenser Afonso as the new Animal Control Officer. Afonso, who originally grew up in Agawam, attended St. Mary’s High School and later, Westfield State University. She has a Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice. She was an intern for public defenders in Washington, DC. The commission voted unanimously to confirm her appointment to the animal control position.
The commission then moved on to a discussion of the overtime budget for Westfield police. Chief Camerota said that the police department had requested an additional $100,000 from the Mayor for their overtime budget.
“We are at dangerously low staffing levels,” said Camerota, “We are doing our best to pull people from special units to cover the line.
A number of officers are either sick, injured, on military leave, or leaving for other police departments. This causes other officers to work more overtime to make up the manpower.
“We are praying that some of our injured can go back to duty soon. It doesn’t look too well at this time,” said Camerota. “We have two officers joining the State Police Academy in January. We have another officer going to the Springfield Police Academy in January, and two officers scheduled to be deployed for a year.”
Camerota said that the next police academy session is not until June 2019. He emphasized that appointments, interviews, and medical exams must be done so that Westfield can send people to the academy and not fall further behind.
“We still have other military members who we don’t know if they will receive orders,” said Camerota,” we’re in a tough spot.”
Hupfer said that in the 25 years he has been on the commission, he has never seen staffing issues this bad.
“It’s a nightmare,” said Hupfer.
Captain Michael McCabe, who was in attendance, said that the overtime payroll budget will be down to about $36,000 after the next payroll period begins. Camerota noted that public safety is not currently at risk due to budgetary and staffing constraints.
“We have minimum manpower levels we have been able to maintain and we will continue to do that,” said Camerota, “we’re pulling out of community police units, the traffic bureau, and specialty units just to work the line.”
