Chief: Fewer Cops Means More Crime In Stamford

STAMFORD, Conn. — Fewer police officers on duty in Stamford will make the city a more dangerous place, Police Chief Robert Nivakoff said Monday night.

“I don’t think anyone would be able to go to sleep at night,” Nivakoff said while listening to a report given by Richard Brady, president of the Matrix Consulting Group, a firm hired to do a study on the city's police services.

Part of Brady’s report to Stamford’s Board of Finance suggested lowering the minimum staffing of police officers from 16 to 10 and sergeants from 12 to eight but not reducing the staff as a whole. If this was done with the reopening of a traffic enforcement borough, Brady said overtime costs would be reduced dramatically.

Overtime costs should be about 8 percent of the personnel budget for police departments in the county, Brady said. Stamford’s overtime costs are currently at 8 percent, Assistant Chief of Police Jon Fontneau said.

Matrix was hired last summer to look for ways to run the department more efficiently, with high overtime costs as a driving factor. It conducted a field report during the end of summer and into the fall. The firm has since been collecting information and formulating its report.

The department is always willing to look at potential changes and will adapt if it is best for the city, Nivakoff said. He promised to study the entire report and consider all of Brady’s suggestions.

“The men and women of the police department have done some dynamic and dramatic policing to protect the city of Stamford and will continue to do so,” Nivakoff said after hearing the report.

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