Detective: Mayor can't close bureau

Only the police chief can assign police officers.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- The head of the two-man police detective bureau says there is no way Mayor James J. Melfi is going to eliminate the bureau, forcing them to patrol duty.
Capt. Frank Bigowsky said Thursday that if he and Detective John Norman are ordered by Police Chief Anthony Ross to patrol the streets, they would go.
"It will be a dark day in hell before Frank Bigowsky and John Norman go back into uniform," if ordered by the mayor, Bigowsky said.
Bigowsky was reacting to comments Melfi made Tuesday during a meeting of the fiscal oversight commission.
Melfi said that if the 3-mill police levy is defeated Nov. 2, there will have to be transfers in the police department and the detective bureau would be eliminated.
Can't assign them
The mayor said Thursday that he realizes he can't assign police officers since only the police chief can make assignments.
"We are hoping the levy passes," Melfi said. If not, he added, Ross will be forced to accept layoffs of younger patrol officers.
Ross is on vacation and not available for comment.
Bigowsky said he has no idea how eliminating the detective bureau will solve any problem. It would put an increased burden on patrol officers who would have to use overtime to conduct follow-up investigations.
Cuts in the police department have reduced its manpower level from 29 in 2001, when the city went into fiscal emergency, to the current 17.
Because of the reduction in force, Bigowsky pointed out, the department has lost a juvenile officer, school resource officer, transport officer and a member on the Mahoning Valley Drug Task Force.
Lost share of money
Because drug investigations are being done on a case-by-case basis, he said, the city has lost a share of money that is seized from raids and forfeited.
If the levy fails, the police department will lose three more employees, Bigowsky noted.
On the other hand, the captain said, police have used grant money to make major purchases and establish a youth court at the Girard Multi-Generational Center.
Police, like other city employees, are working under a wage freeze, the captain added.
yovich@vindy.com