Crime & Safety

July Report: Darien Police Staffing

Patrol statistics, July 4-31.

Deputy Police Chief David Skala presented a report Thursday at the meeting on staffing statistics from the July patrol shift, which ran July 4 to 31.

During the shift, there were nine occasions when dispatchers had to stack calls because officers were tied up with other incidents, Skala said.

Seven of those calls came on July 24. Skala said officers were occupied responding to numerous calls associated with severe thunderstorms that day, as well as a hit-and-run accident and a report of a crash.

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A caller with a noise complaint had to wait 45 minutes on July 15 because all four officers on duty were responding to other incidents, he said. One caller also had to wait on July 28, but Skala did not elaborate.

The department worked with four on-duty patrol officers on eight occasions, according to the report. Five of those instances were a result of officers calling in sick, two were because of comp time and one was for military leave.

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Under the , which has been in effect since January, the department no longer calls in a fifth officer on overtime pay if the number of on-duty patrol officers drops below five because of sick days or other reasons.

The department saved $1,600 in overtime pay in July because of the plan, according to the report.

Supervising sergeants still have the discretion to call in additional officers at any time if a situation mandates more manpower.

During July, the department worked with a minimum of five officers on all weekend shifts because of the higher number of incidents traditionally associated with the summer, Skala said.


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