Saint John police force understaffed, officers burned out

The Saint John's Police Commission is warning city councillors the force is understaffed and its officers are being burned out.

Nicole Paquet, the commission's chairperson, told city council on Monday nightthat understaffing is one reason the department isprojected to be under budget by between $100,000 and $125,000 at year end.

While salary and wage costsare down, overtime payments areover budget by $131,000 as ofAug. 31.

Paquet said the amount paid out in overtime is largely because there are not enough officers to staff regular shifts.

Since the beginning of the year, she told councillors, eight officers have left the force and only one, police chief John Bates, has been replaced.

Over the past five years, says Paquet, 20 positions have been lost.

"There is a huge cost to continuing down this path of not replacing officers," said Paquet.

"Twenty officers over five years, an escalating overtime budget, really it's not a good situation. And we are at a point where our officers are burned out, not able to come in. So we are scrambling."

Bates also spoke to councillors, telling them the staffing shortage is hurting different areas of the department.

The police chief said shifts for patrol officers on the street is one area that cannot be understaffed.

"The rubber meets the road at the front line and that's been our emphasis, try and keep those numbers up on the front line," said Bates.

"We're having to do that bysupplementing the front line through overtime and callouts."

The discussion over the force's budget comes a few weeks before councillors begin debating the annual budget.Saint John's police budget for 2015 is $24.2 million.

But, while the chief and commission chair spoke of staff shortages, some councillorswerelooking for new ways to save money.

Coun. Greg Norton suggested there is no need to have a police polygraph technician on both the Saint John and neighbouring Kennebecasis Regional Police forces.

Sharing that service, said Norton, would offset both costs for both police forces.