End of Understaffed Police Department Around the Corner

Following the promotion of to Chief of  in Oradell, the department has been running without an additional sergeant to oversee a platoon's 12-hour shift. On Tuesday night, the Mayor and Council moved forward will backfilling two open patrol positions by offering conditional employment to Kyle Costa and Brennan Page.

Both men could be sworn in at the February meeting and potentially lead to a decrease in the current overtime costs.

"When the Chief was promoted it left a void in the rotation," Council President and Police liaison James Koth said. "Due to the current PBA contract, we must have three patrolmen per sergeant scheduled for each shift."

The department with three sergeant's in place currently, pulls one patrolmen off the road to fill the position of acting sergeant to oversee a 12-hour shift. There are currently 12 patrolmen in the department and when one member is pulled from the streets, it results in one of the four platoons without the contractually required third officer on patrol.

"We're in the position where we have not managed the overtime well and the Chief is in the process of performing an anaylsis of the 2012 overtime costs," Koth said.

By adding two entry-level patrol officers, it would free the department to promote one officer to sergeant and another to lieutenant and fill out the police table of organization later in the future.

According to Koth, the department which advertised for the two positions, received over 100 applications. All candidates were required to already possess a PTC (Police Training Commission) certificate from a police academy. Only 25 candidates were invited for a first round interview and the pool was narrowed down to six candidates.

Both Costa and Page's employment are pending on the completion of their psychological exams and background check. Each would receive an annual salary of $38,395 as entry-level patrolmen.