NEWBURGH – Leaders of CSEA, which represents City of Newburgh employees, Saturday called on City Manager Todd Venning and members of the city council to solicit feedback from city police dispatchers related to the proposal to hire additional dispatchers.
CSEA Southern Region President Anthony Adamo said the union agrees with police leadership that more dispatchers are urgently needed but said the hiring proposal doesn’t go far enough. Hearing from current dispatchers about the current challenges they’re facing would allow members of the city council to make an informed decision before voting on the hiring proposal, Adamo said. The proposal brought before council members Thursday night would allocate two dispatchers for each of the three shifts per day.
“To guarantee the safety of residents and safety of officers on the street, even more needs to be done,” said Adamo. “We were encouraged to hear that city council members agreed on a proposal to hire additional dispatchers, but there are many compelling reasons why the current proposal doesn’t go far enough.” He asked council members to speak with current civilian dispatchers “and hear from the people who are actually doing this work.”
Adamo pointed out that when the police department was previously accredited by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services in 2008, three police dispatchers per shift was the norm. Also on the agenda at Thursday’s work session was a proposal from police leadership seeking council members’ support in pursuing accreditation.
“The last time the department was accredited, operations were much smoother due to better civilian dispatch staffing levels,” said Adamo. “If the intention is to again pursue accreditation, it only makes sense that this short staffing is rectified now. That’s why I’m encouraging conversations to take place with the current civilian police dispatchers, all of whom have vast experience and knowledge of department operations over the last two decades.”
While overtime due to short staffing is often attributed as a source of worker burnout, Adamo noted that the stress on the current civilian police dispatchers in Newburgh stems largely from the impact of mass city layoffs that took place in 2009, at which time staffing in the police department’s Records Division was gutted. That department now has only one full-time civilian employee.
“Since then, dispatch has taken on a myriad of clerical tasks previously handled by Records,” said Adamo. “It’s been so long since 2009 that we’re concerned that city elected officials might be unfamiliar with the long-term impact those layoffs created. Is that added work and short-staffing impacting officer safety? Are emergency calls going unanswered? These are all questions that can be answered by hearing from the civilian police dispatchers currently doing this work.”
