“We’re at the point where we are a totally reactive department,” said Rell. “Now we’re trying to refocus and build up to a point where we can become proactive.”
For Tinti, the solution to the manpower crunch in the patrol division (in addition to hiring more cops) is to encourage the two sergeants and lieutenant who supervise beat officers to get more creative in assigning a shrinking pool of resources. In the past, Tinti said, if a supervisor had a few officers over the shift minimum, they would generally be assigned to routine patrol. Now, Tinti is encouraging supervisors to maintain minimum levels for patrol while using any extra officers for proactive details.
The special assignments could be anything from traffic enforcement in response to complaints about speeders in a school zone to a foot patrol uptown to a plainclothes detail to keep an eye on a suspected drug house.
Tinti has also encouraged his supervisors to study detailed crime data compiled by Marist College professor Ling Zhao to focus resources more effectively. The data, which was collected as part of the statewide Operation IMPACT anti-crime program, offers a rich picture of the times and places where problems — from gang shootings to nuisance crimes — are most likely to occur.
New approaches
Tinti’s approach was on display on a recent Friday in Uptown Kingston where two officers assigned to a single car (traditionally one car on each shift carries two officers) split up. One member of the team set up a traffic enforcement point while the other walked a foot post around the business district. Tinti has also created a Street Crime Unit which pairs whichever patrol officers are available with a detective to carry out special operations in high crime areas. In recent moths, the detail has carried out sting operations targeting prostitutes on upper Broadway and a reputed drug house on St. James Street. But Tinti acknowledged the catch-as-catch-can approach is a far cry from a single group of officers dedicated full-time to proactive operations in high-crime neighborhoods.
“In a perfect world I would have the same people out there full-time doing that kind of work,” said Tinti. “But I just don’t have the bodies right now.”
Like the patrol force, the KPD’s Detective Division has felt the pinch from declining manpower and overtime. A few years ago, the division had 14 members. Now they’re down to 11. In 2009, discretionary overtime, used, among other things, to call out detectives to investigate crimes during off hours, was slashed from about $700,000 to its current level of $400,000.
It isn’t a matter of doing more with less but rather maintaining the status quo level of services with less. The two percent property tax cap places limitations on municipal spending which could very well translate into personnel cuts by lay-offs or attrition.