I think this one is easy to sort out despite the thunderclouds of political spin that dot the Hour article. Management 101 says if you are paying overtime you are under scheduled. Finding the sweet spot of labor hours and staffing needs is what employs legions of management layers world wide. But that’s not quite how Rilling and Moccia chose to tackle this 12 officers after 3 am issue:

“A lot of times, they’re out there with only eight guys manning the street. That’s not safe for the city and that’s not safe for the men,” said Officer William Curwen, police union Local 1727 president. “We’re at a really dangerously low situation. We’ve been running on luck on the seat of our pants for so long, it’s become the norm for us. There’s going to be a time when that luck will run out.”

Curwen said members of the midnight shift were angered by statements from Mayor Richard Moccia and Police Chief Harry Rilling, published Oct. 7 in The Hour, that staffing levels after 3 a.m. were adequate based on call volume.

They told him they wanted the union to “rebut” those claims, Curwen said.

“I don’t want my guy walking into a situation where he ends up getting killed or seriously injured,” he said. “You have one guy in South Norwalk 3 a.m. — how is that safe? Our guys are very angry and upset about it and I’m upset about it.”

Curwen said staffing levels for the day shift were dropped from 14 to 12 nearly a year ago, and midnight staff, which used to be at 12, was cut to 10 about a year ago and more recently to eight or nine.

At 4:30 p.m. today, the union will hold a non-public meeting at which mayoral candidates will campaign to the union membership and the issue of staffing could come up, Curwen said.

Mayor Moccia, who is running for a second term, said he didn’t know the typical number of officers on patrol after 3 a.m.

Even so, he disagreed with Curwen that staffing as low as eight patrol officers is unsafe, saying facts don’t support such allegations because violent crime hasn’t increased overall since last year. He characterized the union president’s remarks as political axe-grinding.

“I find the timing interesting. It’s two weeks before the election,” Moccia said. “Mr. Curwen is upset because he made a bad deal on a contract and … lost in arbitration. I have treated this department well — they have more men, they have more equipment, and they have more resources. Bill Curwen is trying to get Walter Briggs the mayoral endorsement.”

(Briggs is the Democratic candidate who is made putting more police officers on the streets a campaign issue.)

The mayor added that he doesn’t “recall any specific conversation” about nighttime staffing levels with Curwen.

According to 2006 Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics, the average New England city of 50,000 to 99,999 inhabitants had 2.1 officers and 2.3 law enforcement personnel per 1,000 residents. That means if Norwalk were on par with the average, it would have at least 193 law enforcement employees and 176 sworn officers.

Strangely it is Fire Chief McCarthy who brings up the issue of overtime as part of his calculations of staffing needs. The reported $1.4 million in Police overtime raises the flag. The salary ranges for patrolmen are between $52 and $63k a year, which should approximate to $30-something an hour. (yes I’m doing themath in my head and rounding up, down sideways etc.) So at time and a half, per the contract, 1.4 million is somewhere in the ballpark of 15000 hours. Ahem, you do the math.

source: The Hour, Union: Not enough police on duty during night shift, by Noelle Frampton, October 17, 2007