By Keith Whitcomb Jr. [email protected]
PITTSFORD, Vt. — The towns of Pittsford and Proctor plan to explore their options for sharing police coverage.
Select Board members from Proctor, Carrie Dougherty and Ben Curtis, pitched the idea to the Pittsford Select Board at its regular meeting on Wednesday. It was decided that both boards should form respective committees to identify their capabilities and needs, then have a joint meeting later.
The Proctor Select Board plans to hold a special meeting on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Town Office to discuss the matter, along with “Beaver Pond Shared Use Path” and “Town Manager Search.”
“We’re coming up on budget season and I would say we are looking at our options as to how we’re going to police our town,” said Dougherty at the Wednesday meeting. “Currently we have the (Rutland County Sheriff’s Department), and I would say that maybe some of the people in town are unhappy with our coverage and the coverage we’re basically not getting. So, I guess we’re here to talk about if that’s a feasible option, if that’s a possibility, what that would look like; it’s just an open discussion I wanted to have regarding the police force and if that’s something we might be able to unify on.”
She said Proctor is currently under contract with the sheriff’s department for 40 hours per week of coverage.
Pittsford Police Chief Mike Warfle said the issue, from his perspective, would be equipment, not personnel.
“At this juncture we wouldn’t have enough people to cover it,” he said. “We do have the ability to hire, but that also puts us into an equipment dilemma as far as cars. We’re obligated to Chittenden for 10 hours a week, we’re obligated to Omya for truck detail two days a week, and Pittsford is our first priority.”
Pittsford Town Manager John Haverstock floated the possibility of Proctor using a mix of sheriff’s hours and shared police with Pittsford. Pittsford Select Board Chairman Thomas Hooker said Proctor could by a cruiser and equip it, then pay Pittsford for an officer to use it.
“As a representative of voters, it is something we have to look at, because our townspeople, our citizens, are not pleased at all about our coverage or our response,” said Dougherty.
Pittsford Selectman David Mills said Vermont State Police tend to leave smaller crime issues to local police agencies while focusing on traffic laws and major crimes.
“As we go further into the future, this type of agreement is going to be what, if we want police, what we’re going to have to do,” he said.
Proctor Select Board Chairman Bruce Baccei said in an interview Monday that the actual work the sheriff’s department does is less of an issue than the number of hours deputies are in town, and the amount of time it takes them to reach Proctor when there’s no one on the schedule.
Rutland County Sheriff Stephen Benard said in an interview on Monday that he wasn’t aware of Proctor and Pittsford conversations regarding police coverage and thus had little to say in regard to them. He said virtually all police agencies across the United States are finding it hard to hire personnel given the stress of the job and the strict vetting process for new officers.
Benard said the advantage of contracting with an agency like his is that the costs to the town are basically fixed. If a cruiser becomes damaged or a deputy gets injured or otherwise incapacitated, both are replaced in short order. The town doesn’t have to worry about replacing equipment, health insurance claims or legal liability.
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