# Complaint filed re: overuse of part-time officers



## policelaborlaw.com (Mar 7, 2006)

*Police union files overuse complaint
*By Ellen G. Lahr, Berkshire Eagle Staff
Wednesday, August 02
GREAT BARRINGTON - The Great Barrington police officers union is seeking an investigation into the town's reliance on less-qualified, part-time reservists to staff full-time patrol shifts. 
In a statement released yesterday by the union's lawyer - the union represents 11 full-time officers, as well about a half-dozen reserve police officers - contends that "the town has been illegally using undertrained, part-time workers to cover up a significant and serious deficit in full-time patrol officers." 
While trained properly to fill a part-time role, the reserve officers do not have the extensive training of full-time officers. But union attorney Patrick Bryant of Boston claims that, in one recent week, 29 of 62 department shifts were filled by the part-timers. 
Bryant sent his request for an investigation to the state Civil Service Commission yesterday. 
"Frequently, the department has only part-time officers working a shift ... without the supervision and support of properly trained, full-time officers," Bryant stated in the request. 
"Part-time officers are only supposed to be there to fill gaps, they are not supposed to be replacing full-time people," Bryant said in an interview yesterday. 
Town Manager Burke LaClair is on vacation this week and the town's lawyer, Brian Maser of Boston, declined to comment. Police Chief William R. Walsh Jr. could not be reached for comment. 
The Civil Service Commission's legal counsel, Cynthia Ittleman, said she had not yet seen the union's correspondence and could not reply to questions. 
In his own statement, Officer Paul Storti, president of the police union, stated that "by relying so heavily on part-time officers, the town is hurting officer morale, making officers tired and generally failing to provide the level and quality of public safety that town residents deserve. 
"By refusing to fill full-time vacancies, the part-timers who actually desire a police career are losing an opportunity to receive the training and benefits of a full-time officer, even though they often get a full-time schedule," he wrote. "It's a lose-lose situation for everyone in Great Barrington." 
Part-time officers make $11 to $12 an hour, according to Storti. Annual salary for full-time officers starts in the low- to mid-$30,000 range. 
The Great Barrington Police Department has been adrift and understaffed for well over a year as town leaders decide how to best restructure the department. Since a $60,000 police study was released in the spring - recommending a variety of staffing, training and command improvements - no major recommendations have been implemented. 
The town budget this fiscal year includes funds for 16 officers - last year, there were 14 full-time patrol positions - and the town manager and Selectmen have been reluctant to fill job positions until larger departmental decisions are made. 
Presently, a part-timer has been tentatively hired to fill a full-time shift, bringing the current number of full-time officers to 12. If confirmed, he will be



































sent to the Massachusetts Police Academy for full-time training. 
Meanwhile, one officer has been absent for health reasons since the spring and officially retires this month. Another has been on medical leave this summer. Two retirements are pending within the next year. If no further staff is added, that would leave seven full-time officers - eight if the full-time recruit is confirmed. 
Bryant's letter to the head of the state's civil-service agency notes that civil-service law requires that a full-time sworn police officer position must be filled by candidates who pass a written examination and complete a six-week, full-time training program at the Massachusetts Police Academy. A one-year probationary period follows. 
Part-time officers, by contrast, attend a police academy program requiring 148 training hours, and receive no on-the-job training. 
Yesterday's letter to the state Civil Service Commission follows several others to which Bryant said the union had received no response from town. 
On May 8, the civil-service agency wrote to LaClair seeking documentation of the town's civil-service employees, a routine submittal filed by civil-service departments. 
The letter from Assistant Director Regina Caggiano stated that no such documents had been filed by the town for the past five years. Yesterday, Bryant said the paperwork had still not been filed, and "since that time, the town has not changed its hiring, employment and recordkeeping practices." 
In the consultant study completed last spring, record keeping was cited as a departmental lapse, as was the practice of back-to-back overtime shifts. 
In addition to filling shifts with part-timers, the town has also implemented a "forced overtime" policy for officers to fill vacant shifts when ordered to do so. Officers have told The Eagle that double shifts, or shared overtime shifts, have become routine, and that officers are stressed and exhausted. 
In a telephone interview yesterday, Storti said the civil-service complaint is not intended to undermine credibility for part-timers. 
"The purpose is not to make them feel inadequate - they are an important complement to the police force," he said. "But the part-time guys are jeopardized by vacancies not being filled." Elaborating, he said some of those officers would like to be hired as full-timers, and at least five have passed the civil service examination qualifying them for full-time consideration. The police union contends the equivalent of four full-time positions have been filled with non-civil service, part-time officers. "We're overusing part-time vacancies to fill full-time vacancies," Storti said.


----------



## csauce777 (Jan 10, 2005)

This is kinda funny...my union is made up from twice as many part time patrolman as FT. We dont quite have the complaining that this town seems to, but then again, our FT guys dont really like the normal OT and they hate the forced OT, so they value the PT'ers.


----------

