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Youngstown traffic stops down
Officials blame staffing shortage for drop; calls to YPD remain the same
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Police department traffic stops are on pace to be down 60 percent from 2018.
Officials say that is because of a shortage of officers due to a low starting wage.
The number of calls coming in and needing to be answered, however, remains about the same.
Statistics provided by the department show that officers recorded 6,337 traffic stops in 2017, 4,789 stops in 2018 and 1,944, as of Aug. 12.
Capt. Kevin Mercer, head of planning and training for the department, said projections show the department expects a 60 percent decrease in stops from 2018 by the end of the year.
Youngstown’s starting police salary is $14.92 an hour, and it takes 12 years for an officer to achieve the maximum salary of $54,000.
The department has seen 18 officers leave since the new salary schedule was implemented about eight years ago. Other officers have taken entry-level exams with other departments but have not yet been hired.
This year several young officers have left and that has caused others to work double shifts.
In addition, five officers have been moved from other units to patrol, including two from the Community Police Unit.
Statistics for 2018 show the department answered 72,934 calls, an average of almost 200 a day, up from 66,953 calls in 2017.
Chief Robin Lees said that officers do not have as much time to make traffic stops because they are busy answering calls. He said because of that, they are getting more selective in some of the stops they do make, to be sure they are not bogged down and fall behind on calls.
Lees said traffic stops are very important because they can lead to seizures of guns and drugs. Several big crimes over the years, including the Oklahoma City bombing in 1993, were solved because of a traffic stop.
The department presently has 137 officers, 94 who have the rank of patrolman. Of those 94, 64 are assigned specifically to the patrol division.
The Community Police Unit is also feeling the manpower crunch.
Formed when Lees became chief, it’s supposed to consist of one officer for each of the city’s seven wards who answers and investigates calls or complaints such as blight or animal complaints – items that would often call up a patrol officer.
But because those officers were moved to patrol and a third officer was promoted and never replaced, the unit now only has four officers.
Detective Sgt. Patton, who heads up the unit, said calls for the unit have been backing up but so far his officers have been able to keep up with them.
The remaining four officers now have an enlarged territory, Patton said. Instead of a specific ward, they are each assigned a specific side of town.
The department gave a civil-service entrance exam July 13 and expects to hire 12 to 15 officers off that list this fall. Patton said he expects the CPU to be back to full strength when those new offices join the department.