Due to retirements, officers out due to injuries and resignations, the Newark Village Police have cut coverage in the village by several hours on an overnight shift.

In the past the Newark Police have offered the highest pay package in the County, attracting and poaching officers from other agencies, but things have changed.

Monroe County police agencies, well-known for drawing trained and seasoned officers with better pay and retirement offers have taken a toll on Newark.

Add to the mix that in general, police agencies, due to public perception of law enforcement problems and concerns, are having trouble attracting new candidates just about everywhere has led to fewer men and women choosing a police career.

Newark has been hit with retirements, resignations and three officers out with injuries. 

In a press release issued last week from current Chief Rich Martin and Newark Mayor Jonathan Taylor: "We have been able to hire one new officer. However, that officer is currently in the police academy and will not be fully ready to take a shift on his own until the end of the year. That equates to 42% of our patrol staffing unavailable. 

To fill the gaps in coverage, officers have levied extra hours of overtime, squeezing the Newark Police and Village budget.

The press release stated: "However, working that many extra hours is too much of a strain for officers to maintain over a prolonged period of time."

" the Village Board and Chief of Police are implementing a two-prong strategy. First, effective July 10th, start times for all shifts will be changed temporarily. The change in shifts will provide 4-hours each day of overlapping coverage during the periods of the highest mandated overtime (overtime that officers did not voluntarily sign-up to work). Thus, it will all but eliminate the need to mandate overtime during that time. While this does result in NPD not staffing during the lowest calls for service times, Sheriff Milby has agreed to handle coverage during that period of the day and we sincerely thank him and the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office and New York State Police with their assistance in this as we realize they are both dealing with their own staffing issues. Once the manpower issue is stabilized, we will return to our current shift times."

Sheriff Milby stated "Police agencies assist each other on regular basis, as that is the nature of Law Enforcement.  Assistance to other agencies in this county is not a one way street.  They have assisted us numerous ways, on numerous occasions. Chief Martin and I discussed his short term need, and to me, there was not much to discuss.  Newark citizens live in this county, they pay county taxes, and we are a county agency.  We cover all municipalities when their local PDs are not in service.  Yes, we are also light on manpower right now, but that does not mean that we won’t step up to the plate when we are needed.  We have our resources out there, so we will respond where needed. If this were intended to be a long term request it would be a different story, but it isn’t.  If there is a need to adjust the resources that we do have, we will take a look at that, but I am not anticipating that.

Former Newark Mayor Pete Blandino said the move is nothing but an excuse. "It is nothing but gobbledygook. He pointed out the current the Newark Village Board took almost a year to permanently fill the police chief position and hiring was held up. "In my days we gave the police what they needed to get the job done", added the former mayor. He also stated that Mayor Taylor knew full well that 7 to 8 officers would be retiring in the near future and lateral transfers from other agencies were available.

Chief Martin said he has offered jobs to several lateral transfer candidates and they have turned down the offers for Monroe County postings.

The Village Board has advertised open police positions on social media and in the Times and other publications over the past several months.

Other local village police agencies have felt the hiring predicament as local police costs often became the largest part of municipal budgets. Several years ago voters in the former Village of Lyons opted out of having both their own village police and status as a village in order to cut costs. I that case coverage was picked up by the sheriff’s office and locally stationed state police.