PAX Centurion - Summer 2017

www.bppa.org PAX CENTURION • Summer 2017 • Page 3 A Message from the President: Patrick M. Rose, BPPA President Don’t let the job consume you this summertime It costs a lot of money to train and field a Police Officer and no one anywhere is throwing money at the City or the Department to hire additional help. The City of Boston, under new leadership, has finally recognized the fact that we need hundreds of more Patrolmen working the streets. The old way of doing business with the ‘bean counters’ attempting to balance everything through ordered overtime etc. has come back to haunt them. See President on page 9 S ummertime is upon us and with that we all know that sixteen hour days, along with six and seven-day work weeks will be the norm for every Patrolman in the City of Boston. It was refreshing to hear the Commissioner at the most recent Academy Graduation speak of the responsibility that each one of us, wearing the uniform, have towards being there for our Family. The Commissioner spoke of not allowing the job to consume us, that we should force ourselves to be there for the First Communions, the Graduations, the Birthdays and yes – theAnniversaries, etc. He spoke of how many hours this job consumes of your life and the sacrifices that come with it. He reiterated that Family MUST come first, beyond all else. I only hope that his Command Staff remembers those words when one of our members is forced to use a ‘benefit’ to be there for their family. I can only hope that his Commanders remember those words when a member of the BPPA asks for a swap or to utilize an earned day off. To be there for our families sometimes requires us to not be there for every parade, every public function, every public event and yes, every sports playoff game. As refreshing as it was to hear the content of his speech, I recognize that this job can get in the way of anything, I do however remain guardedly optimistic that the Commissioner’s words will resonate down through the ranks. Only time will tell! How did we get here?Why is it that we are so shorthanded with fewer and fewer Police Officers available to take the calls; forcing our members into unwanted overtime shifts? It is no secret that certain politicians have made it their life’s work destroying community/police relationships. In the past eight years alone, we have been villainized and portrayed as the enemy to the public by a pandering press and some morally deficient politicians. Any single event involving a Police Officer is blown out of proportion and portrayed by a willing media to be the norm instead of the aberration that it most likely is. The constant ‘beat down’ by our political figures, the media and left-wing zealots has decreased the amount of young men and woman willing to enter this profession exponentially. Coupled with the increased work load – whether it’s working the parades and demonstrations keeping order, Community outreach within policing, the war on terrorism, the increased need for security everywhere, the need for ‘specialized units’ that take away from the Patrol force, the fight against drugs, the multiple roles we now play in society or dealing with people within a social structure that seems to have shifted to an accepted practice of questioning authority at every turn; regardless of the outcome, has become very taxing on us. Officers are being physically and mentally worn down, thus becoming more susceptible to injury.Yes, it is a different job and those are just some of the reasons people no longer step up and come looking to join this profession. Couple all of that with the ignorance or reluctance of those in authority to accurately predict the need for more Police Officers before they retire, before they quit, before they get injured and are forced off the job. Our ranks are stretched way too thin. The number of Patrolmen actually working the street patrolling is at an all-time low. It costs a lot of money to train and field a Police Officer and no one anywhere is throwing money at the City or the Department to hire additional help. The City of Boston, under new leadership, has finally recognized the fact that we need hundreds of more Patrolmen working the streets. The old way of doing business with the ‘bean counters’ attempting to balance everything through ordered overtime, etc. has come back to haunt them. We are working our Patrolmen to death, people are taking early retirement, no longer waiting to be forced out and they are now leaving in record numbers. This Union has attempted to mitigate the current situation by getting legislation passed and a law enacted to allow a ‘Reserve Police Force’within the City of Boston, staffed by retirees to help with Paid Details and increasing our uniformed presence on the streets of the City with absolutely no cost to the taxpaying citizens. The BPPA championed this fight and won by having the Law enacted. It is up to the City and this Department to organize and field that reserve force. We did OUR part! As a matter of fact, fielding this reserve force would generate millions of dollars of revenue for the city through the 10% surcharge to contractors for the reserve detail Officers. That money can be used for anything, including hiring additional Police Officers. Any story to the contrary is not true! This Union has been warning the City for years that they would be losing hundreds of Officers during these next couple of years, strictly based on their hiring practices of the past, in addition we foretold of the number of Officers that would start to retire upon eligibility, instead of waiting for age 65 based on the increased work load and the hours they were being forced to work. Until the current Mayor accepted this fact our warnings had been ignored. Hopefully it is not a case of too little too late. The Mayor has already funded a class of an additional hundred recruits to start theAcademy onAugust 7 th of this year, however that number, along with the recent graduation of 56 men and woman, would only hold us status quo for another year. The reality is, the chance of actually putting 100 quality recruits into theAcademy by August 7 th is somewhat suspect, graduating that number is fiction. Speaking of theAcademy; it’s about time that this Department demand a new PoliceAcademy facility. The building onWilliams Ave. in Hyde Park has definitely outgrown its usefulness. Over the next decade, the City is going to have to have classes of up to 100 at a time just to keep up with the turnover. That facility, which was built as a grammar or middle school, will not handle it. We must