Police staffing shortages a concern for Councilman Rivera

Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Buffalo's police union president has penned a letter to the Buffalo Common Council regarding staffing concerns within the department, which has one city lawmaker and former city police officer concerned.

In his letter to the Common Council, Buffalo Police Benevolent Association president John Davidson says there are currently 98 sworn officers positions that have not been filled within the department's budgeted staffing level. Davidson also says the department is months away from falling below the minimum requirement for patrol officers.

As soon as Niagara District Councilman David Rivera received the letter from the PBA president Monday, he shared his concerns with the city's Department of Human Resources to find out exactly what's happening, in terms of filling these positions that are vacant.

"We want to know is there a list to fill these positions? If there is no list, when will there be a test so we can have candidates to backfill those positions?" said Rivera in an interview with WBEN.

Rivera's main concern with the department's current shortage is the longer it takes to fill positions, the more retirees the department will have, and the greater the shortage of manpower.

"If we have a shortage of manpower, it means we're going to end up paying out more overtime to staff it, and it goes to officers being worn down and tired, trying to backfill all those empty positions," Rivera said. "Especially going into the future, where you're going to see more people retire, and there's going to be more vacancies in those positions. And then obviously at the very end of this, we're not going to have enough officers to respond to 9-1-1 calls, to investigate cases. So that's a concern that I have, and we're trying to figure out exactly where we are in terms of a list that we need to go to to select candidates so they can go into the academy."

Rivera knows the academy, itself, takes months for officers to graduate and be eligible to join the force.

"Even if we have an academy - let's say six months - that means it's going to take that much time before we're able to backfill those positions. And if it takes that much time, it means more officers are going to retire during that time period," he acknowledged. "I don't know the average of people that retire every year, but I imagine it's more than 35 - let's just assume for that. So assuming there's another 35 people retiring, it puts it close to 130 vacancies."

Rivera questions how this shortage right now will impact policing in the short-term, whether it's answering calls or investigating cases.

"The general public, I don't want to alarm them, but it is a concern of mine, and I'm sure it's a concern of other Council members to make sure that we fill these positions," he added.

The one thing Rivera is hopeful not to see is any other factors that can worsen the shortage of officers within the Buffalo Police Department.

"Worst case scenario - assume for a moment - that officers are injured, then they're off duty. God forbid that accidents and sicknesses occur, and then the staffing level continues to fall. So there are a lot of factors that we have to weigh in here, in terms of staffing," Rivera said. "Right now, according to the PBA, they're at 715 out of 813. That's a concern of mine, and I'd like to see how this administration and human resources are going to deal with this problem that the PBA president says is happening now. We're going to ask our human resources to come before the Common Council, I sent an email to them this afternoon requesting that they show up at one of our committee meetings to discuss this."

Rivera also extends the invite to Davidson and other members of the PBA to discuss the staffing issues in committee.

"We want to make sure that we do have recruits in the academy that aren't going to hit the streets in shortest amount as possible. So we'd like to find out when is the next class and the class after that to shorten the gap," Rivera added.