WESTFIELD- The Westfield Police Department has confirmed that School Resource Officers will be pulled to fill normal patrol shifts after students return from holiday break.
Police authorities previously denied that such a plan was sure to be put in place. They said that it was only under consideration due to the dramatic staffing shortage the police department has experienced in recent months.
However, Westfield Police Chief John Camerota confirmed Wednesday that they would be using the SRO’s to fill out daily shifts.
“When school returns after the holidays the School Resource Officers will not be there,” said Chief Camerota, “We are going over many different scenarios to get them back as soon as possible.”
The decision comes after the City Council Finance Sub-committee voted to appropriate $100,000 to the police department’s overtime budget. The budget had been depleted because officers needed to work longer shifts to maintain minimum staffing levels.
The police department has been hit with an untimely string of absences due to injuries on the job, military leave, and some officers leaving to join police departments in other municipalities. Police officials have said that they will be seeking other measures to return to normal staffing levels.
“Once we get people back from injuries and hire new reserve and provisional officers this will be less of an issue,” said Westfield Police Captain Larry Valliere.
Efforts are being made to hire new provisional officers to be sent to the police academy in June. In the meantime, some officers may receive a waiver to begin working before being sent to the academy. Chief Camerota said he hopes to appoint six new officers at January’s Police Commission meeting.
Two more officers will be taking at least 15 days leave to attend the State Police academy in January. They originally requested 30 days of leave but were denied due to the staffing constraints. Police Commission Chair Karl Hupfer said that if they lasted 15 days in the academy, they would likely make it the full 30 days and would be leaving the Westfield Police Department anyways.
