Acting chief says he can fix it

By George P. Hassett

Acting Chief of Police Robert R. Bradley is touting his plan to reorganize the Somerville Police Department as “a way to do more with less,” but leaders of the patrolmen’s union contend it can not realistically be implemented because of severe understaffing in the department.

Bradley’s plan would change the geographical system officers follow from the current ward-based system to a district system with boundaries drawn up so that each area is roughly equal in calls for service. In 2004 and 2005, Ward 1 had twice the calls for service of Ward 7, Bradley said. With such a disparity in activity, officers patrolling the busiest wards are often overwhelmed and forced to call for help, leaving areas such as Wards 5, 6 and 7 without a single officer on duty, he said.

A system of six districts determined by crime data to have an equal burden of calls for service would keep patrol cars in all parts of the city and improve response times, he said. Under the district system, Bradley said there will be increased flexibility with up to six officers free to walk a beat or patrol an area on bicycle.

The proposed reorganization follows the recommendations of an advisory group commissioned by Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone and consisting of former Lowell Police Superintendant and current Boston Police Chief Ed Davis, Massachusetts State Police Colonel Thomas Robbins and Superintendants of the Boston Police Department James Clairborne and Patrick Crossen.

Currently, patrolmen bid each day to establish which region of the city they will cover, Bradley’s plan would change that to a yearly bid.

“Officers will be able to gain a better knowledge of an area and its problems and will discuss their plan for solutions with the community,” Bradley said. “Yearly bids will keep officers more in tune with what the community needs.”

Under Bradley’s plan, two new police substations would also be created using existing city buildings. The substations would cover the two new districts of each half of the city and handle only the business of that district, he said.

Bradley said his plan will make all officers community police officers, interacting with children in the schools and other members of the community in the streets. He also said he will change police work schedules in order to increase productivity and institute a new ‚Äúpower shift‚Äù that would work from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., ‚Äúthe peak hours.‚Äù  Bradley said his reorganization plan is, in part modeled after the work in Lowell of Davis, who is now the Boston Police Chief.

“Ed Davis did this in Lowell and had a lot of success with it,” he said. “And Lowell’s challenges and makeup are similar to Somerville’s.”

Overall, Bradley said his plan will help evaluate the departments success in preventing and solving crime by creating accountability for crime trends within parts of the city. But Patrolmen’s Union President Jack Leutcher said the possible reorganization is just the latest in a long line of proposals by new police chiefs in Somerville.

“Every chief has had their reorganization plans, but the question is what will this really do for the city?” he said.

The patrolmen’s union must agree to the shift changes outlined in the reorganization for the plan to be implemented. Union and city officials are currently negotiating a new contract and are including reorganization in their discussions, Bradley said.

Leutcher said Bradley’s new plan misses the biggest challenge facing the department now.

“What he’s proposing looks good on paper but this department just doesn’t have the number of officers to support it. Our biggest problem is manpower, we need at least 115 patrol officers on the street, right now we only have 85, and the city hasn’t shown any indication of hiring more officers in large numbers. Eighty five officers for a city of 80,000 people is not a good ratio. With the minute number of officers we’re working with now there just isn’t much he can do,” he said.

Leutcher said shifting officers daily bids to a yearly process will cut down on the flexibility that a small department needs. Leutcher, who said he thinks Bradley is doing “a pretty good job,” said a reorganization of the department is inappropriate at a time when Bradley has yet to be selected as the permanent chief.

Bradley said the reorganization will happen regardless of who the next chief is because Curtatone has mandated the department follow the advisory group’s recommendations. That, according to Leutcher, is the problem.

‚ÄúThat shows you right there the mayor is running this police department. Why are we doing a nationwide search for the next chief of police if the mayor is just going to make all the decisions? In the next election, it should read mayor slash police chief on the ballot,‚Äù he said.