Crime & Safety

Lawrence Township Police Study Released to Public

The $37,500 study, conducted by a consulting firm from Massachusetts, examined the staffing levels, work scehdule and command structure of the police department.

The much-anticipated study of the Lawrence Township Police Department conducted by an independent consulting firm from Massachusetts was released to the public on Tuesday (July 5), with a representative of the firm offering to township council members a general overview of the study’s findings during their regular council meeting Tuesday evening.

A copy of the 94-page report can be found in the PDF box at the right, or can be downloaded directly from the township’s website. An audio recording of the meeting is also available at right.

During the meeting, council members asked township Police Chief Daniel Posluszny to review the study and provide a written response to the study’s recommendations in time for the council’s first meeting in September.

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Also during the meeting, Iwona Smith – a transfer from the Trenton Police Department – was sworn in as a new Lawrence Township police officer, and newly-promoted Sgt. Joseph Lech IV was administered the oath of office for his new rank.

The study, for which Lawrence Township paid $37,500 to Matrix Consulting Group, began in January and included extensive interviews with police department staff – from rank-and-file officers all the way up to the chief – as well as township council members. The goal of the study was to examine whether the department has adequate staffing to handle its many responsibilities, whether any changes need to be made to the department’s chain of command, and whether any savings could be made by altering the department’s work shift schedule.

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Councilman Bob Bostock last year requested that such a study be conducted in light of the township’s ongoing budget crunch and because as many as 14 police officers would be eligible for retirement over the next three years. “I wanted to make sure that our staffing was at an appropriate level and that, since public safety is the number one function of local government, that we were providing the resources we needed to make sure we were providing the service that is needed,” Bostock explained.

“In terms of key findings, not a surprise to anyone in this room, the department recognizes that the expectations placed upon it are for very high levels of service,” Matrix Vice President Travis Miller said as he launched into his summary of the study. “That understanding was echoed by every single person that we talked to. Universally, there’s an understanding that this community expects a lot out of its law enforcement agency, and not just sort of the standard response to calls for service and criminal investigations. This is a nice community and people expect certain nice-community types of services. You’ve got some challenging communities around you and there’s an expectation that the department will be equally prepared to deal with those issues as they appear in the township.”

Among the findings contained in the study’s executive summary, and outlined to council during the meeting by Miller, are:

  • “The entire Lawrence Township Police Department is clearly committed to providing high levels of service to the community.”
  • “Staffing is generally appropriate in all of the department’s organizational elements, with no findings of over-staffing by the project team.”
  • “The department is well-organized to address community issues.”
  • “The township has focused on primary law enforcement functions: patrol, investigations, communications and records.”

 

Among the recommendations made in the executive summary, and detailed to council by Miller, were:

  • “Through attrition, the township should eliminate either the Deputy Chief or the Captain positions from the organization chart. A new Sergeant position should be created to serve as Training Officer and to provide additional support to the Lieutenant – Internal Affairs.  This will result in a net savings to the township of $44,000 per year in salaries and benefits once implemented.”
  • “Maintain current staffing levels of Officers in the Patrol Division.”
  • “Shift targeted staffing and personnel to redistribute proactive time.  Maintain at least four personnel in the field on midnights, six personnel on day shift and eight personnel on evenings.  This will require some changes in the scheduling of personnel.”
  • “Make no changes to the current deployment.  If funds become available, add one Sergeant to fill in rotation S8 (allowing the days and evenings to be covered with two scheduled Sergeants). If funds become available for an 11th Sergeant, fill rotation S9 which would enable the midnight shift to have consistent coverage by two scheduled Sergeants.  The cost of the first position would be $161,000 per year and the cost of filling two such positions would be approximately $322,000 per year.”

 

During the public participation segment of the meeting which preceded Miller’s presentation on the police study, council members were addressed by R.J. Anderson, labor counsel representative for the New Jersey Fraternal Order of Police. FOP Lodge 209 is the bargaining unit for Lawrence Township police officers.

“I represent the police officers,” he said. “The question I have is I see [on the meeting agenda] that below the public portion you have a presentation about the Matrix study of the police department. Are you going to permit questions and answers afterwards? Is there going to be formal action taken tonight or is it going to be held on another date? And is this the total presentation, including the employee survey?”

 “It’s my understanding – and I can’t speak for the council – that there’s no intention of any formal action on this report; that the report at this point would act as a benchmark and a resource going forward because of the fact that the 2011 budget has been adopted and it will have no immediate impact, as you are aware, this year,” Township Manager Richard Krawczun answered. “So the council can use this as a resource to think about decisions in the future, to think about budgeting in the future, to think about how they want to provide resources or accept the resources as they are. So it’s really going to be a document that has some life to it, but nothing immediate.”

“So I will assume, then, that if there are questions or comments that I have on it or suggestions that might be included I can present it to you at a future council meeting?” Anderson asked.

“Yes,” Mayor Greg Puliti responded.

Anderson went on to request copies of the report and the survey of police department employees that was conducted by Matrix.

“Mayor, I’d like to point two things out,” Krawczun answered. “The report is on our website, so you’re free to see that. There is a question about the surveys. Right now that issue…we do not have control of those items. Our labor attorney, also from the same firm as Mr. Herbert [Township Attorney Michael W. Herbert], has advised that we should refrain until he has an opportunity to further research whether or not they should be released.”

An Open Public Records Act request for a copy of the police department employee survey conducted by Matrix was filed with the township by Lawrenceville Patch on June 21, but was denied last week for the same reason outlined by Krawczun to Anderson during the council meeting.

At the conclusion of Miller’s presentations, council members praised the members of the police department for their cooperation with the study and for their ongoing professionalism in serving the residents of Lawrence Township.

“As the person who suggested we have a study like this – driven by a concern of resources and decisions that we’ve had to make over the past couple years and possible decisions we’ll make in the future, particularly with a lot of potential retirements coming up over the course of the next few years – I just want to say that I think this study has been very valuable for me in terms of helping to identify some of the challenges we’ll face if the economic climate continues to be less than favorable,” Bostock said.

“I would just like to echo that this will be a tool, this will stir dialog and it will serve us well into the future,” Puliti said.

Councilwoman Pam Mount said, “I think everyone pitching in and being up-front and honest and trying really hard to make this worthwhile to everybody is a good sign that we’re all in this boat together.”

“The level of cooperation we received from everyone, I think, shows that everybody shares the same goal – not holding ourselves to a high level of service, but to the highest level of service,” Councilman Michael Powers said. “People choose Lawrence Township because of the safety that our police provide. We have a very strong reputation for being a safe community and that’s due to the officers that are out on the street every day.”

 “In closing, I’d say thank you to the people on the department,” Miller said. “In the beginning of a project everybody loves to get along with the consultant and that’s not necessarily the case in the end. And we certainly had some good old fashioned family Thanksgiving Day arguments on occasion. And I promised we would have those when we first started this project. There were a wide range of viewpoints at the table in that steering committee and, in general, people were respectful and were interested in hearing what each other had to say, even though they widely disagreed and strongly disagreed with each other’s opinions. It’s to the department’s credit that they were able to sort of sit down and go through that process with us, a total stranger.”


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