In a year when police union employees are due a 3% raise and the town is demanding a level-funded budget, something has to give. In the case of the Police Department, it will be about $20,000 in funding for overtime, a necessary resource for keeping two officers on duty 24/7. Unless additional funds are allocated to the department, it will have to cut 1.5 shifts per week, meaning an officer will be working alone during those shifts in fiscal 2022.
In his responses to budget questions from the Finance Committee, Chief Ed Denmark said the town is “already operating a bare-bones police department, and further reduction in shift coverage presents training, safety, and call response concerns.” He added that lone Harvard officers would have to rely on backup from other towns, where the officers “have no ties to the town, do not fall under my authority for disciplinary issues, and do not know the residents.”
Denmark’s budget includes a salary for a new employee, and the committee asked if that might help the situation. The chief clarified that the position is not for a new officer, but to fill a vacancy for an officer who left last year, leaving the department with only seven full-time patrol officers. Committee members also wanted to know if the department might consider hiring another officer to cover shifts. Denmark said that would help, but it would be more expensive to pay salary plus benefits than it would be to cover the extra 77 shifts a year with overtime.
Asked if he could maintain shift coverage by cutting administrative staff, Denmark explained that the department’s two staff members also provide support for the Fire Department, Ambulance Service, and Department of Public Works (DPW). He added that the DPW could probably use its own administrative support person, so rather than having too many administrative employees, there are too few to cover the work that needs to be done for the four departments.
The committee asked if Denmark’s officers will see the reduced overtime hours as pay cuts. He replied: “Officers do not rely on this overtime. Frankly, sometimes they do not want to work, but have no choice due to staffing limitations.” The bigger impact, Denmark said, is that they will have to work alone at times. “This is more of a concern to them than any monetary loss.”
The Finance Committee’s previous meetings with the DPW director and the fire chief yielded so few follow-up questions that the committee decided it could drop in-person discussions with department heads in many cases. As a result, Chief Denmark’s appearance at the committee’s Jan. 27 meeting was deemed unnecessary, and the meeting was canceled.
