With increasing demands on the time of Newtown's police officers due to state mandates, the department is currently understaffed to meet the needs of the community according to Police Chief David Kullgren.

As a result, Kullgren reported to the Police Commission January 3 that he is intending to ask that his department be returned to 47 sworn officers in the upcoming budget year, a staffing level the department has not seen for more than a decade.

Newtown officers, with the assistance of Dr James McCabe, an associate professor in the Criminal Justice Department at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, showed that by population, workload, and crime statistics, the Newtown Police Department does not have sufficient staffing to meet demands.

McCabe is a 21-year veteran of the New York City Police Department. During his NYPD career, he held numerous assignments, including the commander of the Office of Labor Relations and the commander of the Training Bureau and Police Academy, as well as numerous other operational and managerial assignments.

“The study indicates that staffing should be much higher,” said Kullgren. “The pie got bigger for responsibilities for each officer.”

Police Commission Chairman Joel Faxon said that when he came on the Police Commission, there were 47 sworn officers, but it was cut to 45 12 or 13 years ago. He said that all metrics to calculate optimal use of officer time has the department well over 50 officers, even at 60 “depending on the metrics.”

“The department has taken on more work with less people,” said Faxon. “To backfill that time, the department pays a lot of overtime.”

Faxon said that the problem could be assisted “even if we add back to 47,” and the reduction in overtime could mean there would not be a “major financial change.”

“We had a lesser Grand List, but more officers,” said Faxon. “Given the changes in the law, the administrative burden, the training burden, even if we get back to where we were, it’s better than where we are now. Getting back to where we were is a basic step to save on overtime.”

Kullgren said that he was going over the financials with Finance Director Bob Tait in advance of the budget. The Police Department was expected to present its budget to First Selectman Dan Rosenthal this week.

“The financials are one part,” said Kullgren. “The other part is what we have to do to keep our product to where the community expects it. As we add layers, the pie gets bigger.”

A big issue for the department is new de-escalation requirements that take up more officer time. The department has a four-officer minimum per shift, and is often at minimum due to officers taking paid time off throughout the year. Many calls for service are two-man calls, said Kullgren, and if for de-escalation officers have to travel to the hospital, that leaves only two officers “picking up the slack” back home, at times for several hours.

“All these mandates have added layers of complexity,” said Kullgren. “It’s more taxing for the officers. It affects morale. We’re in a good place right now but I want to keep that going. We can’t go 100 miles per hour all day and expect sunshine and rainbows from everyone.”

Commissioner Brian Budd said that since he started on the commission in 2007, the Sandy Hook tragedy occurred, COVID happened, the Police Accountability Bill was passed, Student Resource Officers that are very important to the community were added, and the Community Service Division was started.

“All those are time consuming,” said Budd. “With de-escalation, the time for calls for service have increased dramatically.”

Budd called adding two officers to get back to 47 “very reasonable.” He also said the plan was, in future years, to seek more additional officers, but at a measured pace.

Kullgren asked the commission for its support in upcoming budget talks with the Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance, and Legislative Council, all of which would have to approve an increase in officers as part of their individual budget reviews.

“We’re not calling it an increase [in officers],” said Faxon. “We are calling it reverting to baseline.”

Associate Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.