BY TIMOTHY LAROCHE
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CLAREMONT — Despite the recent departures of two former Claremont police officers amid a state attorney general’s investigation — and strained resources — city officials say the Claremont Police Department has adequate staffing to ensure response to all calls.
Police Chief Mark Chase confirmed last week that former officers Ian Kibbe and Mark Burch “no longer are employed” by the department following accusations that they allegedly falsified documents while acting in their capacity as police officers. He said he could no comment further on personnel matters.
The departure of the two has added some strain to the department’s resources, Chase said. With two fewer officers able to work patrols, the department has had to scale back some of its recent proactive policing efforts. Still, staffing remains high enough to ensure that call volume is met.
“There’s no doubt that recent events have created an impact on some items … but business is as usual,” Chase said Tuesday. “There’s not a single call that we do not go to based on our staffing.”
The department currently employs 22 officers, three short of its budgeted 25-officer capacity.
Of the 22, 19 are actually on the job because one officer is scheduled to graduate soon from the New Hampshire Police Academy and two more will attend the academy at the end of the month.
Current staffing levels mean that the department maintains a minimum of three people on shift at any time, with more officers available during peak hours.
“With recent events, it has been impacted,” Chase said. “We may have to readjust some shift scheduling.”
Even with the departures, staffing has risen from mid-June 2017, when the department had 11 officers on patrol. The staffing shortafe triggered an emergency clause in the department’s contracts, allowing officers to be scheduled outside of their contractual hours.
For six weeks last summer, the department used the clause to stabilize its shifts, with department administrators working several patrol shifts each week.
By mid-January, staffing at the department began to climb back to levels that allowed officers to begin more proactive policing efforts.
Rather than using the department’s entire resources to react to calls, officers were freed more to conduct routine traffic stops and maintain a broader community presence.
The proactive policing efforts resulted in an uptick of DWI arrests by early-March. According to call logs from the first three months of 2018, 11 arrests had been made this year for driving while intoxicated, nearly doubling the six arrests in that same time period last year.
Although the recent departures have resulted in slower call response rates during peak hours, Chase said, the department has been able to respond to even lower priority calls – such as vehicle inspection number checks and fingerprinting.
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