Union: Mayor taking cops off the street, blackmailing us
By George P. Hassett

    Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone is endangering the citizens of Somerville by consciously taking police off the street, Police Patrolmen‚Äôs Union President Jack Leutcher said this week.
   ‚ÄúThe citizens of Somerville are receiving inferior protection, because Joe Curtatone is playing politics with people‚Äôs lives,‚Äù he said.

     Five sergeants are expected to be promoted to lieutenant sometime this week, while three lieutenants are expected to become captains. There are seven patrol officers who scored well enough on the civil service exam to move up to sergeant, but Curtatone is not allowing patrol officers to be promoted because negotiations with the Patrolmen‚Äôs Union to re-organize the department are stalled, Leutcher said.
   ‚ÄúIt‚Äôs blackmail,‚Äù he said. ‚ÄúWhen the mayor and the chief first proposed re-organization, the Superior Officers Union rejected it. But at the second meeting when they were told there would be 20 promotions if they agreed to the plan they accepted it. We‚Äôre being told that these guys will be promoted to sergeant when we agree to the re-organization.‚Äù
   Curtatone said more sergeants are unnecessary until the Patrolmen‚Äôs Union agrees to a reorganization of the police department and it is fully implemented.
  ‚ÄúWe‚Äôre not holding these guys hostage, the community is being held hostage by the Patrolmen‚Äôs Union,‚Äù he said. 
  Curtatone and Acting Chief of Police Robert R. Bradley are proposing a dramatic overhaul of the department that would result in new substations and more community policing. In November, Bradley said the 20 promotions would be needed to staff the substations and they were never presented as a quid-pro-quo deal in exchange for the union‚Äôs endorsement of his re-organization plan.
  If the promotions go through as expected, there will be 11 sergeants on the force. The city ordinance calls for 18.
  ‚ÄúSergeants are the supervisors in the street,‚Äù Leutcher said. ‚ÄúThey‚Äôre the ones who get down and dirty in the streets with the patrol officers. We have nothing against the lieutenants and captains being promoted. But the Somerville Police Department has been stripped to the bare bones by Joe Curtatone, so every officer counts and the street supervisors are what we need now. But Joe has decided that the taxpayers don‚Äôt need protection unless the police do what he wants.‚Äù
  Champion said Bradley plans to hire 10 additional patrolmen in the coming year and the promotions of five new lieutenants will allow the remaining sergeants to focus on street supervision rather than serving as watch commanders.   
   For Leutcher, the stalled careers of seven men are most upsetting. He said politics is interfering with the lives of good police officers who have done everything they were supposed to do.
   ‚ÄúThese guys passed the Civil Service promotional tests, spent hundreds of off duty hours studying, attended and paid for seminars costing between $500 and $2000 and excelled in a highly competitive atmosphere. And then a politician like Joe comes along and plays with these seven guys lives,‚Äù he said.
   Curtatone said none of those qualifications guarantee an officer to be hired.