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Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The Mismanagement of Municipal Manpower Continues

Is the command staff of the Westfield Police Department attempting to undermine Mayor Skibitsky's claims that Westfield government is providing more with less during the current fiscal crisis?  You be the judge.

The Westfield Police Department responds to a wide variety of "calls for service."  Some of the more common calls that police officers respond to are motor vehicle accidents, reports of theft, alarm activations, domestic disputes, and noise complaints.  Westfield is broken down into four patrol districts with a car assigned to each district during each shift.  It is not uncommon, when manpower permits, to have additional police units patrolling Westfield's neighborhoods.

Past practice has revealed that when a call for service comes into the dispatch center, the patrol unit covering the district that the call originated from, is sent to the address or location.  It is not uncommon for a police officer to be busy with paperwork from an arrest, domestic dispute, motor vehicle accident, or other reason that would negate his/her availability to handle a non-emergency call such as a noise complaint or minor motor vehicle accident without injuries in his/her patrol district.

In such cases, if the police officer is busy and unable to handle the call for service in his/her district, another patrol unit would be summoned to cover the call.

Not anymore.

Mayor Andy Skibitsky
The command staff of the Westfield Police Department has instructed the supervisory staff to hold non-emergency calls for service until the unit covering the district, where a call for service originated from, is available.  What does this mean.......if a Westfield resident calls the police to report a loud party next door or in the neighborhood, and the police officer patrolling the district that the call originated from is busy with an arrest or report from a previous call for service, the loud party complaint might not get answered for up to several hours later.

No longer are patrol officers in other districts being dispatched to cover the non-emergency calls of another district, even if the other patrol officers are free to handle the call.  Are Westfield taxpayers getting the most out of their money?

Is the command staff of the Westfield Police Department attempting to undermine Mayor Skibitsky's claim that Westfield must do "more with less?"

Why has past practice been thrown to the side at a time when resources must be allocated appropriately to support the Mayors claim?

So the next time the volume of your neighbor's stereo is blaring at a decibel that provokes you to call the police, it could be hours before the issue is addressed and it's not because an officer wasn't available.

Don't blame the police officer responding to the call, question the motive of the commanding officer that gave the edict.

6 comments:

  1. Mismanagement is at it best in the Department of Public Works. Town parks are in the poorest condition in the county compared to the taxes we pay. The basketball court down at Gumpert has three foot high weeds growing, I see one guy working on the baseball fields while another is deep in conversation on his phone. I saw 9 guys working on one pothole and the roads also the worst in the county.I see two guys driving around a blue van that I have never seen do anything and I also see a guy sleeping in a truck at the dump on Monday and Tuesday. Plus the supervisors are probably too stupid to insult but there not doing a good job.

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  2. What a sin. Leave it to the current management team to ruin years of good work. Years ago it didn't matter the nature of the call it got answered immediately. The idea was the taxpayers of Westfield were to be respected and taken care of. I guess this is what happens when a Chief never was a cop and a Captain never cared for Wallys. His nickname for the residents. Isn't that right Dave.

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  3. Dave, do you think that your plan may have backfired? Skibitsky tells everyonewe are doing just fine with the amount of cops we have and you try and make it look like we don't have enough cops to handle the call volume. Way to try and screw the Mayor and backstab him. I agree that we need more cops but telling us to stack calls is not right.

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  4. Tax Paying WallyThursday, June 16, 2011

    Hey Mr. Mayor. Seems like old Tuba Lips has turned on you.

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  5. The best is when the guy that works for the DPW that works on the fields (tamaques, Houlihan, Gumpert) is hanging out with his girlfriend for hours at these locations while the other guy is working ..... most cases that guy isnt working either....... WHEN IS THE MADNESS gonna stop..... why is it that everyone see's this stuff going on but nothing is done about it..... These DPW workers steal time, use town equipment to do work outside of the DPW (plowing general public's driveways) working at their private homes, allow their kids to drink at DPW functions....The list goes on and the complaints by residents are made ....... but none of them ever get fired or get docked days ..... everyone in the town complains to the mayor and administrator and nothing gets done..... These guys i guess will be allowed to commit murder soon and the Police department will be turning there heads...The DPW workers son who crashed after drinking at DPW party was trying to get away from scene of accident with help from his drunken father (DPW worker, who allowed son to drink on Town property) & mother but none of this was made public...... The whole town is CORRUPT... Who is running this town the Workers employed here ?????

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  6. Pull those damn scuzzbuckets out and tar and feather them. Bring back the guillotine.

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