In the midst of a dispute over a newly adopted village employee handbook, and at a time when village officials are taking a serious look at police department overtime budget overruns, the Stetson Club, the union which represents Brockport police officers, says that there are some misconceptions in the community about the two situations.

First, the Stetson Club believes that it will prevail during a grievance hearing this month regarding the village’s new employee handbook. The union says that several items covered in the handbook have to be negotiated in its contract. Village officials maintain that it’s a given that the union contract supersedes the handbook.

Second, the Stetson Club believes that adding full-time officers will help reduce the cost of overtime. While Brockport hired one additional full-time police officer last year, the force is still three full-time officers short of its pre-1991 lay-off strength. Stetson Club Vice President Dick Rozzi said that Brockport police officers have repeatedly lobbied the village board to hire additional officers as a means to reducing overtime.

During the last contract negotiations, the police union made a concession that has also helped reduce overtime during this fiscal year. The minimum manpower clause of the contract specifies how many officers must be on duty during certain shifts. The current contract reduces the number of shifts that require three officers to be on duty. The primary focus of the clause is to ensure the safety of Brockport police officers.

Finally, although the State University Police Force from SUNY Brockport is now allowed to come off campus to assist the Brockport Police Department, the circumstances under which university officers are allowed to leave the campus are limited. The Stetson Club does not want the community to be misled into thinking that university police are always available to provide back up to Brockport police officers.

At the April 4 budget public hearing, the police department was the focus of much of the discussion. Although one resident asked the village board to consider cutting the police force in half, the vast majority of the comments supported maintaining the police department at its current level.

"It will have to come from the community itself if residents want to take a look at reducing police services," Mayor Mary Ann Thorpe said. "At this point, I am hearing from the community that they are not willing to have a reduction in police coverage."

Thorpe said that during the next round of contract negotiations, the village will have to look thoroughly at whether increasing the size of the force would help contain overtime costs. "The police department is an expensive service," she said, "there’s no way to get around the fact that it costs a great deal of money to run it."

At the hearing, Stetson Club President Adam Mesiti pointed out that the police department generates an estimated $85,000 in revenue each year through tickets, fines and forfeitures. An additional $20,000 is generated through towing fees, accident report fees, storage fees, etc.