LORAIN — Shots were fired in regards to police staffing issues at a hearing of the Lorain City Council’s Finance and Claims Committee on Monday night.
The matter of Lorain’s police dispatching was brought front and center when cuts to the department were being discussed, as the meeting focused on all expenditures unrelated to the general fund, which applies to the Police Department.
“Now that the rumor is out to our employees that this administration is considering moving dispatch out to Lorain County 911, you have an influx of dispatchers getting ready to leave because they aren’t sure that they have jobs,” Lorain Fraternal Order of Police president Kyle Gelenius said. “When we have staffing shortages in the dispatch center or the jail, those positions have to be filled, and they do that by pulling officers off the road.”
Gelenius said when officers are pulled off the road to cover support staff duties, it removes a level of safety from the city streets.
“They’re pulling officers out of your districts, protecting your citizens, to cover those staffing short falls,” he said. “It also causes issues when it comes to overtime in the Police Department. Say on a Saturday night we only have one dispatcher scheduled and the afternoon person is not asked to stay over and all of the officers who are scheduled get to stay on the street. They’ll call another officer in and pay him overtime, a cop’s time and a half instead of a dispatcher’s. When we don’t probably staff these support positions, there’s less people out on the road protecting your constituents. In fact, we continue to fill grievances over the matter.”
Chase Ritenauer
Mayor Chase Ritenauer had previously said that changes were coming in the city’s Police and Fire departments, and the possibility of moving dispatch services as the first major cut being considered in order to make up a $2.3 million deficit in Lorain’s budget this year.
“We all agree with the holistic approach (to policing), but it’s also got to be about what the affordable approach is,” Ritenauer said. “I got together with the chief and talked about dispatch going to 911 in 2011 before I even took office. These rumors have been going on for the last four or five years. I would agree with Mr. Gelenius on this. County 911: are they prepared and are they ready to start taking our calls? I mean, they’d practically be doubling what they’re doing right now.”
Gelenius said the increased call volume is just one concern the FOP has at the prospect of closing the city’s dispatching center.
“There’s a lot of problems with Lorain County 911,” he said. “If we were to send dispatching duties over there, there’s nothing to say they’re going to hire our dispatchers, so the dispatchers currently there might not know our areas very well or our high areas of crime. They don’t know our policies and our procedures. I understand the city’s in a tight budget crunch. The only real benefit is that I no longer would have to worry about pulling a cop off the road.”
Another option presented was closing the city jail, but that was met with more resistance.
“I would actually prefer we get to keep the jail than the dispatch center,” Gelenius said. “Since our shift times don’t line up with the county’s, we’d actually have to leave a cop out of service for about two hours depending on when he or she arrests someone.”
Councilman Brian Gates, D-1st Ward, said closing the jail was discussed about six years ago, but he remembered one major issue as to why it wasn’t.
“It would actually cost us more to close the jail than to leave it open due to all of the charges we’d have to pay to the county to use their services and to find transportation and all of that,” Gates said. “I don’t know if those numbers have changed, but six years ago, that was the case.”
Mitch Fallis
Councilman Mitch Fallis, D-at large, said regardless of what happens, the decision made needs to be the best one for the city.
“I’m not sure what the correct decision is here — whether dispatch stays or whether it goes — but I think what we need to focus on is making sure that we have the safest possible system in place for our officers and our citizens because both of them would be at risk if it is not functioning as best as possible,” he said.
Ritenauer said the decision is not going to be an easy one, especially because of the tight budget year.
“Ultimately, we would want to fund things they should be funded,” he said. “This year is going to be very difficult, and we’re going to have to look at new ways of funding. In our dispatch department there’s a high rate of turnover, and I think it’s a real problem, but I don’t think we’re sitting here turning a blind eye to it.”
Ritenauer said he feels as though it’s a catch-22 situation and that he shares several of the same concerns that Gelenius has regarding moving dispatch operations.
“Do we keep it here? And if we start even looking at the option of taking operations to the county will we start losing more people?” he said. “In order to move, I think it would need to make complete sense in order to do that, but I don’t think we’re at that point yet. I have several concerns right now about moving to 911. Are they ready to double their call size but aren’t really familiar with our streets? I think it’s a concern and something we have to work through but I’m not going to say it’s a nonstarter. I would prefer to look at dispatch before I look at the jail.”
City Council will gather for a regular meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at 200 W. Erie Ave., Lorain.
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