Workers for Youngstown face more oversight
Sammarone
YOUNGSTOWN
As part of his accountability policy, Mayor Charles Sammarone said all city cars will have GPS tracking systems and every department will have time clocks.
“It’s about accountability so we know what’s going on,” he said.
If all goes according to plan, the time clocks will be in place by July, Sammarone said. It may take a bit longer for the GPS [global positioning satellite] systems, he said.
The city plans to seek purchasing proposals shortly on the GPS systems and time clocks.
The mayor doesn’t have a cost estimate on the GPS systems.
The city also is still gathering information to determine a cost for buying time clocks, said Rebecca Gerson, the city’s first assistant law director.
“We have to determine how many employees we need to cover,” she said. “We’re not expecting a major expense.”
Some departments have time clocks, but most don’t. Also, GPS systems are in some cars, including marked police cruisers, but not in others.
“There’s no reason why everyone isn’t using the same system,” Sammarone said. “Not only will we get better accountability, but we’ll have consistency.”
The GPS systems will benefit city workers, Sammarone said.
“When people call complaining about city cars out someplace for a few hours, some of the complaints are legitimate and some aren’t,” he said. “We’ll have a system to track them. If people are falsely accused, we will have evidence to clear it up quickly.”
Sam Mosca, president of the city’s police patrol officers union, said most officers were “very reluctant” to have GPS systems put in patrol cars late last year.
“The guys felt it was an invasion of privacy or a mistrust [by management that] they’re not doing their job,” he said. “We thought we’d get called continuously into the boss’s office or the law director’s office. But most guys are doing what they’re supposed to be doing, and it hasn’t been a problem. Guys have grown to accept it more.”
The systems are commonplace at police departments nationwide, Mosca said.
“It’s primarily for safety reasons; whether guys believe it or not, I don’t know,” he said. “It wasn’t treated with open arms. There was resistance. But it works, and it’s an accountability issue. It’s not used to initiate an investigation but for follow-up. It helps determine what’s true or false.”
Police Chief Rod Foley said the GPS is a “good tool for officers’ safety. Some officers were concerned about it, but we’re not constantly watching them.”
There wasn’t a GPS system in the patrol car of Patrolman William Burton on Sept. 22, 2011, when two Steel Street residents called police to complain that a cruiser was parked in their driveway with a woman.
The internal-affairs investigation determined the woman was simulating a sex act on Burton, who passed a polygraph test, according to a disciplinary letter recently obtained by The Vindicator, when the newspaper asked for letters of reprimand for city employees.
Burton admitted what occurred and was suspended without pay for 30 days beginning Oct. 22.
“That’s something I wish I could forget,” Mosca said.
A GPS device on all city cars would make investigations like this easier, Sammarone said.
“If someone sees a police car at a cemetery or a McDonald’s or some other place, the old way is to call the police, the police check it and the officer could deny it,” Sammarone said. “It becomes he said, she said. When we have conflicted stories, the GPS will tell us most of what we need to know.”
It was the fourth time Burton was disciplined since Jan. 1, 2010.
The others were for operating a city vehicle improperly, failing to complete a police report, and for clearing calls without completing a report. The latter issue, on Sept. 28, 2011, led to a five-day unpaid suspension for Burton. The first two resulted in his losing 12 total hours of accumulated time.