Even after 3 more sworn officers start in June, force will still be down about 15%

Rochester Police Chief Gary Boudreau said that while nonemergency service calls may have longer wait times, safety calls are handled immediately. (Courtesy photos)

ROCHESTER - While Rochester's Police Department is faring better than many cities across the nation when it comes to employee retention, it continues to struggle to maintain a full complement, which undercuts community outreach efforts, forces supervisors to schedule mandatory overtime and leaves fewer on-duty patrol officers to respond to the ever-growing calls for service.
Rochester Police Chief Gary Boudreau said the ongoing struggle to get to a full complement of officers is something that continues to dog him and police chiefs in big cities across the country.
"Agencies throughout the state and country are battling staffing crises," he recently told The Rochester Voice in an exclusive interview. "What we are seeing is not unique to Rochester. But in busier agencies, like Rochester, it has a greater effect as the workload demands are placed on fewer personnel."
Currently the department is authorized to have 65 full-time officer, with 51 of those positions dedicated to patrol and detective duties. After three new recruits begin patrol duties next month, the force will still be down by nine officers, about 15 percent of the budgeted complement.
Boudreau said being 15 percent below their optimum staffing level puts significant hardship on an undermanned force.
"It puts additional burdens on our officers as service demands of a growing city are placed on fewer personnel," he said. "It requires us as supervisory staff to manage the on-duty staff levels with posting overtime and in some cases requiring mandatory or forced overtime to achieve minimal staffing coverage. it forces us to become more reactive in our daily activity."
It also disrupts department's ongoing commitment to community outreach.
"We are not able to spend as much time making those proactive community policing contacts through neighborhood patrols or business checks as we first need to handle the service calls."
Boudreau acknowledged that while nonemergency service calls might see longer wait times, "we will always staff to levels which enable us to respond to provide immediate response to protect the citizens of the community."
He also reassured Rochester residents that the department's efforts to aggressively recruit potential new officer candidates is ongoing, including a $10,000 sign-on bonus to both New Hampshire certified and out-of-state certified police officers.