NH Police Departments: Challenges North Country Police Departments Face.

NH Police Departments: Challenges Rural Police Departments Face.

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Challenges Rural Police Departments Face.

Challenges North Country Police Departments Face.

Edward J. Samson III is the Chief of Police in Whitefield. Including himself, he manages a department of 5 F/T officers, 3 P/T officers, a P/T prosecutor, a F/T secretary and a budget of $475,000. He's grateful to the community. They have nice, new, up-to-date office facilities and he reports that his department has great community relations, often getting positive feedback from citizens. Like almost all towns in the north country his busy seasons follow the tourism industry - when tourism's hot, he's busy. He's noticed a large up-tick recently in drug crimes, selling, possession and the thefts people commit to support their habit.

Andrew Shagoury has been Police Chief of Tuftonboro for 16 years and manages a department of 4 full time officers and a budget of approximately $340,000. A small community on Lake Winnipesaukee, his town has very little retail, and only one restaurant & bar that closes at 9:00pm. Tuftonboro has a much older median age than most NH communities and virtually no drug issues. When the lake thaws and flowers bloom, summer residents return and the town population more than doubles.

Both communities have a handful of hours each night when officers are not on duty, only on call, just like most other towns in the north country.

While the challenges for small town departments in upstate NH vary somewhat from community to community we discovered that the primary difficulties follow these common threads:

Staffing

For small town departments, staffing is always an issue. There are no detectives; officers do their own investigations. Investigations, depositions, and court appearances all take time away from patrols or other proactive policing, or another officer has to cover. Then there is paperwork, training, mandatory recertification requirements and recertification testing. Stolen property often leaves town, requiring officers to follow their leads. (Chief Shagoury recently had to send two officers to Chelsea, Massachusetts to follow an investigation.) There are budgets to be drafted, meetings with budget boards & selectmen, school community resource visits, and occasional meetings with vendors and various other community committees.

Remedying staffing problems isn't easy. Getting someone part-time is tricky. Trained and certified officers are usually already serving another department that will need them during the busy season(s) also. Plus they come at a high cost. Police insurance policies usually charge per sworn officer, not per hours worked. You have to provide uniforms, firearms, and possibly another cruiser. And the person has to be the right fit: large department officers usually have just one job: patrol, investigations, community outreach, etc. A small department officer is a 'jack-of-all-trades'. When a part time officer is called to a crime or makes an arrest, who does the follow-up? Part time officer availability for necessary court appearances can be a nightmare.

There is another staffing dynamic at play: poaching.

Hiring and Retention

While he hasn't faced it quite as much, Chief Samson acknowledges that retention is a huge problem for small departments. "It's a competitive market," and larger departments downstate can sometimes offer $15k-$20k more a year in wages. Because of the wage gap, small departments often hire first time or 'green' officers. Towns pay a recruit officer's wages during their mandatory 16 weeks training at the NH Police Standards and Training Academy in Concord. After they have training and some experience, they're easily recruited by larger departments.

Pat Sullivan, Executive Director, NH Association of Chiefs of Police served as a sworn officer for 30+ years before taking his current position. "It's not only the wages - it's a greater variety of jobs within law enforcement [such as] becoming a detective, an undercover officer, doing accident reconstruction and the opportunity to do more details, (overtime assignments with road construction or event policing) etc."

"Poaching" offers larger departments the opportunity to get an officer on patrol much sooner. They don't have to complete a major multi-tiered interview process, wait the 16 weeks for training to be completed or deal with an unknown quantity.

Small town departments often put new officers under contract for 3 years. If a larger department wants your officer, they simply buy out the contract.

Facilities

While Chief Samson has a new facility, Chief Shagoury struggles. His department is located in essentially a large room in the town hall with an attached small private office for the chief. The station's space, and its glass door entrance from the town hall's common area isn't conducive to effective policing. Once a rape victim sat recounting her story through a flood of tears and was easily visible to anyone passing by. A small closet is an evidence room and if an arrest is made, officers have to travel to a nearby town to process and detain prisoners.

Training

Besides dealing with the logistics of providing coverage when an officer is doing training, state training funds have all but dried up. A portion of traffic ticket revenue was historically earmarked to a fund that provides police training. The fund maintained a healthy balance and provided essentially all the state's law enforcement training. The NH State Legislature recently withdrew two million dollars cash from the fund and reduced the ticket allotment percentage to cover budget shortfalls. This in turn prompted the NH Police Standards and Training Academy in Concord to severely curtail required 'in-service' and recertification training for officers. Police training is the duty of the employers, so the state's actions passed those costs directly to towns. And finding approved substitute classes is difficult.

Politics

Most upstate communities are governed by a board of selectmen. It's within their purview to set general policy and enforcement priorities within the town. It's the chief's job to make it all happen. Selectmen may not understand why their police chief advocates for a larger budget than a nearby town of comparable population. Particularly with freshmen selectmen, there may be pressure 'to deal with someone' in particular, or handle things a certain way.

Like any department head, police chiefs often need to educate the town fathers and the public about relevant laws, department needs and issues. "You have to pick your battles," says Shagoury. Certain community demographics increase staff needs: hospitals, storefronts, a state highway, performance venues, recreational parking lots, colleges, hotels/motels, apartments or low income housing, restaurants and bars.

Striking A Balance

It's human nature to have differing interests and skills. Naturally 'jack-of-all-trades' officers are going to be better at some things over others.

The lack of human resources usually means that crime investigation goes somewhat slower in a small department. Less experienced investigators may miss some clues that handicap prosecutions. One chief confided that the lack of a lie detector hindered one investigation. His prime suspect agreed to take the test. By the time the test date arrived at another department the suspect blew it off. Had the chief's department owned one, he could have done it immediately. So the question becomes "What does your town want?"

Getting the budget departments need for staffing and resources can be a challenge. Chief Shagoury says "Sometimes we're victims of our own success."

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