City preparing for crime heat up
By Stephanie Kist
DOWNTOWN AKRON — A seven-point plan detailed last week by Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic calls for up to 40 part-time officers to beef up the police force for the summer months.
Plusquellic said the city charter authorizes him to hire “special patrolmen.” The special officers would work mid-May through mid-September, primarily on Friday and Saturday nights, when calls for service escalate.
There was a 42 percent increase in calls last summer, the same time staffing levels at the police department decreased due to officers’ vacations.
The hiring of 40 part-time officers would cost $138,000 — the same amount to hire one-and-a-half full-time, permanent officers, Plusquellic said.
“Managing resources in tight budgets is one of the most important things we can do, but we want to take care, first and foremost, of the citizen-generated complaints,” Plusquellic said. “The best way to do that at a low peak in our staffing is to put people on during those three months, when we most need them.”
The police union plans to fight
the hiring plan and has scheduled an emergency executive
board meeting for tomorrow,
Jan. 19, said Paul Hlynsky, president of the Fraternal
Order of Police Lodge No. 7.
Hlynsky called the mayor’s
plan “hare-brained” and said there’s
no short cuts to good law enforcement.
While Hlynsky contends there
are several collective bargaining violations inherent
in the plan, he said his No. 1 concern is the safety
of Akron citizens and of the officers. Plusquellic’s
proposal would put inexperienced, lesser trained officers
on the street, Hlynsky said.
“This will not make the
streets of Akron safer, and it’s unfortunate,”
he said. “This plan is doomed from the very beginning.”
The part-time position would
first be offered to current full-time Akron police officers
(for example, those who might be weighing the idea of
retiring), then as follows: to Akron reserve officers,
full-time Summit County sheriff’s deputies and
any officers who work elsewhere.
All special patrolmen would be
required to live within city limits.
Hlynksy said he doubts part-time
officers can be found, and the only solution to crime
problems in Akron is to conduct academy classes for
the next two years for properly trained officers.
The department is 36 officers
short currently. Plusquellic said he expects
a new class of 25-30 officers,
recruited last year, to start the police academy by
March.
While the academy course runs
26 weeks, the city also plans to offer an abbreviated,
six-week course designed for recruits who already have
Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy certification.
Akron City Councilwoman Reneé
Greene (D-Ward 4), who serves on council’s Public
Safety Committee, said she doesn’t believe the
hiring of special patrolmen conflicts with the union
contract.
Criminal activity hit her ward
hard last summer, and she supports the mayor’s
plan.
“I think it is an excellent
idea,” she said. “I am all for it, 100 percent.”
Further action to be taken by
the city includes:
• bringing the Akron Police
Department to its full budgeted strength of 487 officers
as soon as possible;
• continuing targeted sweeps
to reduce gun violence;
• enhancing “hot-spot”
patrol enforcement in areas where citizen complaints
are highest or where police see evidence of increased
criminal activity, and including the purchase of video
cameras to record activity;
• increasing juvenile curfew
enforcement throughout the city;
• increasing visitation
to repeat-call locations to determine if something other
than police attention — like social services —
might be needed to solve the root problem; and
• expanding city-sponsored
outreach programs between police and community watch
groups, churches and other organizations to encourage
citizens to report crimes.
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