Ex-police chief pushed to redeploy Avenue cops
GREENWICH — The proposal to remove traffic cops from Greenwich Avenue has received some pushback — but also the support of some who have closely studied the matter.
Former Chief of Police David Ridberg had endorsed a plan to remove the officers from the Avenue and deploy them elsewhere. He supports First Selectman Fred Camillo’s current plan to remove the officers.
Under his proposed budget, Camillo has called for the elimination of the three officers from the
town payroll, which he said would save the town $265,194 a year, plus what taxpayers pay in benefits and retirement obligations.
Current Chief of Police James Heavey has not taken a stance on Camillo’s proposal, saying he wished to remain neutral on it. But in a meeting with the Board of Estimate and Taxation this past week, Heavey expressed some reservations about taking the officers off of Greenwich Avenue without first having a plan in place to handle pedestrian and vehicle traffic safety issues.
The budget does have money included in it for a traffic study of Greenwich Avenue, but the funding would not be available until July 1, which is when the money for the three traffic officers would end, according to Camillo’s plan.
If the plan is approved, Heavey has said there will not likely be layoffs. Rather the change would be made by not filling open positions within the department.
Ridberg, who retired in 2011 and now lives out of state, said he agreed all three positions should not be dropped from the town’s table of organization. It would mak sense for two officers to be put on bike or foot patrol in the Central Business Distrtict, he said.
“There is a competing political interest that wants all three positions dropped for fiscal reasons, but keeping one or two officer positions, I believe, creates a winwin for the budget and the public safety function,” Ridberg said.
The BET Budget Committee has the first crack at the proposal. During its meeting with Heavey this week, members expressed concern about the plan and questioned whether it would be better to wait a year for more information or phase it in as opposed removing all three officers on July 1 when the new budget goes into effect.
Ridberg said his call to reassign the officers off Greenwich Avenue was made after considering “extensive traffic counts and accident studies” looking at Greenwich Avenue’s intersections with Elm Street, Lewis Street and Arch Street/Havemeyer Lane. Those studies showed no change in the accident rates on Greenwich Avenue from when the officers are assigned there to the hour before and the hour after those assignments end.
Additionally, Ridberg and Camillo both argue that Sunday has high traffic volumes but no change in the accident rate at the intersections, even though there are no police officers assigned.
When Ridberg was chief there were originally four officers stationed on Greenwich Avenue. He said he was successfully able to get the one who had been positioned at the intersection with Lewis Street reassigned in 2010.
In 2005, under the administration of First Selectman Jim Lash, the town had the opportunity to make use of state and federal money to install traffic lights at the avenue’s intersections. Lash said the lights would have been used at night and on Sundays when the officers were not on duty and would have been designed to fit into the aesthetics of Greenwich Avenue, but the public backlash to the idea stopped it before it even got off the ground.
While he said the money for the officers could probably be better spent elsewhere, Lash wasn’t sure it was the best use of political capital to go to the mat for a change like this since people have always seemed eager to hold onto the tradition, and it would produce a relatively small savings.
“The taxpayers have a right to get what they want to have if they are willing to pay for it and they seem willing to pay for having police officers on Greenwich Avenue,” Lash said. “No one ever called my office to complain about having their tax dollars go to Greenwich Avenue police officers.”
But that money saved could be a part of a bigger benefit to the town according to a key RTM committee. The Budget Overview Committee has called the 2020-21 budget “one of the most difficult budgets in years” given rising health care and pension costs as well as other economic conditions. As a result, the BOC had called for a proposed budget to insure it is within BET guidelines.
“We asked for bold ideas and leadership to manage spending and deliver on the objectives,” BOC Chair Lucia Jansen said. “We are pleased the first selectman delivered the fiscal year 21 budget where he has met, and in some cases, exceeded the BET Budget Guidelines and BOC goals. … We understand how difficult spending reductions are and this dialogue reflects this challenge. We will be closely listening to the dialogue between the BET, first selectman, and the community at large and understanding what is the ultimate recommendation to the RTM that meets the BOC’s goals.”
Ridberg said he understands why people like having the police officers on Greenwich Avenue.
“I know the emotional argument of people who see taking cops off Greenwich Avenue as another sign that ‘Greenwich is no longer Greenwich.’” Ridberg said. “It is one of the last bastions of Greenwich nostalgia and I understand it. But it isn't an efficient use of public money from the town budget standpoint. Traffic safety and security isn't enhanced, and GPD morale is negatively affected. If cops were the most cost-effective and efficient way to regulate traffic in a central business district, more municipalities would be doing it.”
In Fairfield County, police officers are not assigned to regulate traffic on a daily basis in the main business districts in Stamford, Norwalk, Darien, New Canaan, Westport or other places.
“Police officers have to be free to move about and handle calls for service, not be ‘tethered’ to a corner swinging their arms and telling pedestrians when they can cross the street,” Ridberg said.
Ridberg said the assignment can be a burden on the young officers who are typically assigned to the duty. He noted that an officer hired by the GPD must first go through a demanding hiring process and then go through upwards of six months of police academy and field training before they can work alone. And their first assignment after all that, Ridberg said, is to direct traffic on a one-way street.
“It is a mind-numbing, repetitive task that feels useless, especially to a motivated officer,” Ridberg said and Lash agreed it is “not the favored duty you can give a trained police officer.”
Representatives from the Silver Shield Association, which is the union representing Greenwich’s police officers, said they could not comment on the issue.