43
Security assured despite buyouts
Police will still respond when you need them, the mayor and police chief say.
YOUNGSTOWN — The city police department will be reorganized following the recent departure of seven ranking officers and a patrolman with a combined total of about 250 years of police experience.
But Mayor Jay Williams said public safety won’t be compromised; and police Chief Jimmy Hughes said the public isn’t likely to notice any difference in police service.
“The Youngstown Police Department is going to be evolving to be more responsive, more flexible, more nimble and certainly as equipped as ever to bring the full weight of that department down on those who would be criminals,” the mayor said.
“We still have the most experienced police department in the Mahoning Valley,” even after the departure of the veteran officers, Williams added.
“The public will see the police as they always have, and that’s not going to be affected,” Hughes said. “Patrol will maintain its level of response.”
The mayor assured city residents that any caller needing a police response will still get it.
Hughes said he wants the department to maintain contact with the public, increase the quality of service and improve response times.
“If you dial 911, I am going to try to get a cruiser there as fast as possible,” Hughes vowed.
After the city offered buyouts to ranking police officers as a cost-cutting measure, seven of them, including four detectives, accepted the deal and left last week. One patrolman also left, but he wasn’t eligible for the buyout. Most of those who left had been police officers for 30 or more years.
The departures leave the department with a combined total of 172 ranking and patrol officers.
The city’s general fund has a $1.15 million deficit this year, and there are no plans to replace any of the officers who’ve left.
The buyouts won’t save the city any money this year, but they are expected to save the city more than $500,000 annually beginning next year.
A smaller department means officers can’t be as narrowly specialized, and they’ll have to be cross-trained in two or three specialties, the mayor said.
Some officers will be transferred from specialized units into the patrol division and into the detective bureau, the chief said, adding that some units will shrink, but no units will be abolished.
The department has a host of specialized units, such as planning and training, the fiscal office, internal affairs, the record room, the vice squad and various special task forces.
“Patrol is a priority. Investigations are a priority,” the police chief said.
“Ideally, we want to see an increase in patrol officers,” the mayor said. “We will still have units that perform special tasks, but we all will be multi-tasking.
“Our top policing priorities are service to the citizens, reducing response times, and getting as many officers on the street in cruisers as absolutely possible,” the mayor said.
Hughes said he doesn’t foresee any new hiring in the police department “in the immediate future.”
Reorganization of the existing officers comes with uncertainty concerning layoffs in the department, Hughes said.
“We are doing everything we can to avoid layoffs,” the mayor said, adding that the buyouts of ranking police officers will reduce the need for layoffs.
The mayor said he hopes talks with the patrol officers’ union will result in cost savings that will entirely eliminate the need for layoffs. “To reduce them, hopefully down to zero, requires everybody working and pulling in the same direction,” the mayor added.
Hardest hit by the buyouts was the detective division, the police chief acknowledged.
Capt. Kenneth Centorame, chief of detectives, said there were 20 detective sergeants in the detective bureau when he took it over in 2006, but the recent departures leave him with only nine.
“The workload has remained constant,” over the past three years, Centorame said. “We’re going into uncharted territory” with the recent losses, he added.