PAX Centurion - Fall 2017

Page 8 • PAX CENTURION • Fall 2017 617-989-BPPA (2772) Secretary’s Thoughts: Christopher J. Broderick, BPPA Secretary Q: Where do “extra officers / beefed-up patrols” come from? A: From our families’ social events, birthday parties and barbeques A s I sit here contemplating my Fall, 2017 article for the Pax, I was listening to the local news reporting on the many events scheduled for the Columbus Day weekend. According to the BPD, due to unspecified threats - police patrols were being “beefed up” and the BPD was “adding extra officers”. Among the many events scheduled for the Holiday weekend were: Red Sox-HoustonAstros playoff games, Tufts 10K road race, Boston College-Virginia Tech football game, Columbus Day parade, Bruno Mars concert, Dorchester Irish Festival, BAA Half-Marathon, regularly scheduled Bruins and Celtics games, a host of block parties needing streets closed/ detoured, several protests needing escorts, paving crews, utility work, etc. etc. and a list of permits and city-approved activities too numerous to mention. This was before and in addition to a plethora of fixed- post assignments, “regular” overtime replacement units, weekend gang cars and an uncountable number of special assignments that the BPD and City Hall had promised various community groups would be addressed by the police during their “routine patrols”. It was all I could do to prevent myself from laughing out loud; what, pray tell, constitutes “routine patrol” anymore? In point of fact, despite the department’s assertions to the contrary in front of community meetings, there are no “sector cars” anymore that routinely canvas a defined geographical area during “routine patrols”, as they did years ago. From the time a patrol officers’ shift starts until it ends (and with the onerous amount of ordered overtime to fill even basic minimum manning requirements, even the so-called, regular “end of shift” has become an “iffy” proposition), officers are routinely sent from call to call, report to report, assignment to another assignment. Officers often complain about being called while writing one report to put that report on “hold’ and respond to yet another call. Therefore, reports are often stacked up at the mythical “end” of one’s shift for completion. A “code 10” is often interrupted in mid-meal by a radio call or a citizen demanding assistance/ police intervention. (Does anyone really wonder why so few cops take meal breaks in public restaurants anymore?) And then, I thought about where the department’s “beefed-up” patrols really come from: It’s the beef that our officers can’t cook on their own home grills because yet another weekend barbeque or anniversary party has been ruined by a parade or a road race or a football game that needed 20 or 30 or 40 officers for security and traffic duty, and so Dad or Mom the cop got ordered again. And those “extra” patrols came right from our kid’s soccer, football or baseball games or dance recital or birthday party. As a union, the BPPA has been talking about the issue of a short-staffed, tired and overworked patrol force for many years, knowing that this day (today, now!) would come. And only recently has the City and the BPD begun to realize the seriousness of the situation by hiring additional younger officers. Whether the 117 officers currently in theAcademy or the other classes to be hired next year will have much of an actual impact remains to be seen; if the numbers of officers becoming eligible to retire, contemplating or actually planning retirement hold true, the officers we will be losing between January 2018 -July 2019 (last yr.% raise of BPPA contract) will barely be replaced by new hires; hiring (“plus”) and attrition (“minus”) cancelling each other out…. At the recent BPPA retirement/recognition banquet, Commissioner Evans himself talked about the importance and the priority of the family for all police officers. We concur. In all of your work-related decisions, try to make sure that what is best for your spouse and children is your top priority.You will not remember, twenty years from now, what overtime you were ordered for or what extra shift you worked to make needed money; but you may live to regret missing all of those birthdays and barbeques, and your family will most certainly remember your presence, or lack thereof. Not too many years ago, we fought amongst ourselves to obtain those extra overtime or detail opportunities. Today, we are often in the position of “working extra to avoid being ordered to work,” as crazy as that sounds to the general public. Geez, family first; what a crazy idea?.... And then, I thought about where the department’s “beefed-up” patrols really come from: It’s the beef that our officers can’t cook on their own home grills because yet another weekend barbeque or anniversary party has been ruined by a parade or a road race or a football game that needed 20 or 30 or 40 officers for security and traffic duty, and so Dad or Mom the cop got ordered again. And those “extra” patrols came right from our kid’s soccer, football or baseball games or dance recital or birthday party. As a union, the BPPA has been talking about the issue of a short- staffed, tired and overworked patrol force for many years, knowing that this day (today, now!) would come.