By Patrick Adrian
Staff Writer
NEWPORT — Newport police officers are using social media to convey their concerns about their department’s ability to attract or retain experienced police officers amid a collective bargaining impasse between the town and the police labor union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local #3657.
The Newport Police Benevolent Association, a fraternal order of officers, launched a new Facebook page this week along with a pair of posts aimed to engage the community about their compensation concerns.
The most recent post claimed the total loss of seven highly experienced officers in less than two years.
Of these seven officers, four have retired and three have accepted positions in other departments. The latter includes former Newport Lieutenant Charles Rataj, who took over as police chief in Hinsdale last year, and two current sergeants with 38 years of combined experience who will depart in the coming weeks.
In an interview with The Eagle Times, Officer Paul Beaudet, president of the Newport association, and Detective Alex Lee, said these posts were meant to convey the union’s concerns about entering the new fiscal year without an active contract.
“If we can get the conversation started, people on both sides of the issue can be heard and the selectboard and the administration can make the decisions that are in the best interest of the town,” Lee said. “But the conversation has to start first.”
The opportunity to reach a new agreement expired on Tuesday, May 11, when the town voted to approve the fiscal 2022 budget.
Though some provisions in the expired contract will continue, Newport officers will not receive a pay raise nor cost of living increase this coming fiscal year.
Most importantly, according to the officers, is the loss of built-in pay adjustments and incentives based on a police officer’s overall experience or longevity in the department.
“We had a step scale where, even if your starting salary is not competitive with other towns, we could at least offer applicants a path for growth,” Lee said.
Prior to the contract expiration, Newport officers could receive an incremental salary increase every 18 months of service in the department. This mechanism, according to Lee, was meant to promote recruitment and the retention of highly qualified and experienced officers.
“There’s no way to attract someone who has four years of experience in another agency and time in that step system to come here for the [same] starting pay of $22 per hour as people right out of the academy,” Lee said.
In policing experience is valued almost like a commodity, according to the officers. An uncertified applicant fresh out of the police academy is typically unready to handle complex situations or emergencies like vehicular homicide investigations or a barricaded or armed standoff.
“It’s the police officers with the significant training who are called upon to handle the most serious investigations or incidents,” Lee said. “Without those people in your ranks you don’t have the ability to handle those situations the way the community expects us to.”
Speaking hypothetically, a department with shortages in experienced officers may sometimes have to pull their officers from one assignment to fill another based on priority or need, according to Lee.
“We do whatever we can to make it work [when short-staffed],” Lee said. “But that does come with a cost. As we lose experienced people, and particularly as we lose front-line sergeants and supervisors, it also means that one person we have on duty may be an inexperienced police officer right out of the academy or field training, working by themselves at night without an experienced officer on duty with them to guide them through calls or investigations.”
This problem of department turnover is neither new nor exclusive to Newport, according to Newport Police Chief Brent Wilmot.
Wilmot, a former longtime officer in Claremont, is well acquainted with Claremont’s similar history with officer turnover.
“It has become harder in recent years to attract people into law enforcement and it is even harder to attract officers to rural communities,” Wilmot told The Eagle Times.
While rural and urban departments both have their unique draws, the benefits offered by rural departments, such as smaller, tightly knit communities, tend to attract a narrower and less diverse candidate pool, according to Wilmot.
Policing in more populated or urban districts often provide a more diverse range of police experiences, greater demographic diversity and maybe more promotional paths, Wilmot said.
Wilmot, as a department supervisor, is not a member of the police union and not involved in the contract dispute. He said he hopes the union and the town can come to an agreement that works for them both.
Wilmot, as well as Lee and Beaudet, emphasized that the contract dispute has no bearing on the professional commitment of Newport’s police officers to the community.
“They are also focused on serving the citizens of the community,” Wilmot said. “They are doing good police work in the community and still making this a better place to live.”
In regard to the contract negotiations, Town Manager Hunter Rieseberg said the town is currently barred by law from considering a new contract until preparations begin for the next fiscal budget.
“Our hands are tied,” Rieseberg told The Eagle Times. “But we look forward to renewing our conversation with them as the law and process allows.”
Rieseberg said he does not anticipate the lack of a contract to pose a problem in hiring new officers or the department’s delivery of services, as the department has historically managed similar overturn.
While acknowledging a nationwide challenge to recruit police officers, Rieseberg noted that these have been ongoing issues and not necessarily driven by pay. Four of Newport’s seven officers retired, which is more reflective of the aging workforce, as many of those officers were high on the pay system.
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