Playing catch up from retirements and defections to other area departments, Mayor Joe Ganim and Police Chief Roderick Porter announced on Tuesday plans to hire 100 new officers by early 2024.
Exiting officers and personnel inside police headquarters have said health care premium contributions exacerbated the incentive to leave the department. Ganim, in an election year, and the police union representing the rank and file recently announced a new contract that provides a reduction in health care costs.
Additional information including hiring schedule from city news release:
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23 officers currently in the academy scheduled to graduate by October of this year;
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A new police class of between 25-30 officers expected to commence in October; and,
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Two concurrent police classes of approximately 25 officers each to commence by early 2024.
All 100 of these police officer positions have been funded as part of the FY 23-24 City budget.
The Office of Civil Service is expected to announce the next Police recruitment campaign and examination in the coming weeks to replenish the list of police officer candidates. The expected date for completion of the examination process is December of this year. The Office of Civil Service is also working with the Chief on a process for allowing lateral transfers from other police departments into the Bridgeport PD.
In addition to the plan to hire 100 new officers, the new contract between the Police Union and the City of Bridgeport includes several new incentives for the recruitment and retention of officers including a more competitive base pay, salary increases, and a significant reduction in health care costs for officers.
“Public safety has been and remains a top priority of my administration,” stated Mayor Ganim. “Working in collaboration with Chief Porter, we have a plan to address manpower shortages in the department and improve recruitment and retention of police officers. It is our expectation that these efforts will translate into improved public safety and quality of life for our residents and businesses.”
“I want thank Mayor Ganim for his commitment to bolster our numbers within the department,” stated Chief Porter. “I am committed to working hard over the next year to recruit talented people to join our ranks, and to retain the hard-working officers that currently work for the department. Together, we will address the needs of our community and make it a safer place for everyone.”
Under the leadership of Chief Porter and staff at the Bridgeport Police Academy, the City is working to recruit police officers from our own neighborhoods within the city, and to recruit classes that are reflective of the great diversity of our city. In addition to a robust social media recruitment campaign, the Bridgeport Police Department will also be hosting informational sessions to recruit new candidates. During these informational sessions, prospective candidates are provided with details about the agility exam, academy academics, opportunities within the department, possible start dates at the police academy, and other specifics regarding the hiring and training process. These information sessions are open to all who may be interested and qualify to become an officer.
Congratulations for keeping your eyes on the priorities of your job, Chief Porter. Finding the right combination of timing, positions, compensation, benefits, elimination of steps, and good training opportunity is basic and since December you have bee reaching out to communicate in person, on paper, and through others to let the people of the City know that there is new and qualified leadership in place. Props!!
Conversations with police departments in the region show frustration with hiring in those towns too. Everyone seems to suffer from training potential officers, only to lose them to other departments with “better deals” although what tempts one person indicateds that another is indifferent. Difficult but necessary when policing, as a career has gained educational prominence at colleges and universities, but otherwise become unattractive to many.
Finally, where are members of the Police Commission? When are they present with trainees? When do they go public with promoting attention to the decreasing officer numbers of their force? Do their minutes indicate any attention to the difficulty that Chief Porter has had to wrestle with? Time will tell.
Round Rock, TX, Sarasota FL, Tacoma, WA, are the three communities that are listed ahead of Bridgeport,CT in a survey publicized by the Today Show on July 11, 2023 as BOOM cities for the way they attract residents. Raleigh NC came in fifth.
Now it is positive publicity for the City but what is it based upon when our largest by population town has no hotel at this time. The last one escaped from the current administration. And there is no movie theater any more showing regular features, though there is an old site with perhaps two former movie theaters on Main Street seeking a future?
The commentator noted that Bridgeport has “great schools”. Were they talking about Harding High, or the other recent buildings or educational outcomes? We also are attractive to boaters and fishermen. With the low median housing price of $350,000, the Today Show claims we are “intriguing” to New Yorkers. Producers of the show have not attended several recent City Council public speaking sessions where “newcomers from NJ and NY” who bought homes here, seeking quality of life have been outraged by the pending development of a 177 unit high rise in a community of one family housing.
G2 noted the public notice of Bridgeport, but it is likely more due to our shore community siting than any development or lack of development for which he can take credit. Did you read the list of “coming attractions” he wants us to notice in 2023 in the letter he sent with our recent property tax notice?? Where is the substance showing his recent eight years of work? Time will tell.
100 new officers by 2024 sounds great. Here’s what Little Joey (Convicted Felon) Ganim isn’t telling you. The number of individuals that took the last police exam where these candidates are being selected was approximately 500. By the time you factor in who actually passed the exam you must deduct around 20%. So if you subtract that amount it leaves you with a pool of 400. After background checks are done subtract another 10% low ball estimate and that leaves you with roughly 360 candidates for the position of recruit. Basically you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel to fill the ranks. Not the cream of the crop to be direct. In 1990 5000 individuals took the exam where 100 were selected from the passing pool. And even then the city scraped the bottom of the barrel. This has all these markings of Miami in the early 80s. Desperate to fill the ranks because of the drug epidemic they took anyone who applied. What they got in return were a group of officers who were robbing and murdering drug dealers because they were criminals to begin with. Policing in the inner dictum today that is Democrat controlled is different from the 90s when I was a cop. You were allowed to do your job without questioning. Today’s inner city cop due to the woke culture and the lamestream media who pushes false narratives basically treats the officer as the criminal even for a traffic stop. Look at NYPD they’re 1000 officers short with many more retiring of leaving for departments down south like Florida where they will not be second guessed for doing their job. So kudos for Little Joey’s push to fill the ranks of the BPD but what do you expect it’s election time. Only in Bridgeport
Retired Officer Reyes,
Thank you for weighing in with historic info on how we got where we are today. I find it interesting that the Police Commission that has an oversight responsibility has not logged into this discussion. We know that even when approximately 25 trainees graduate from the class pictured, not all of them are likely to sign up in Bridgeport, but rather take an assignment in another town, unfortunately.
So three more classes must be assembled, net of health, exam passing, and background checks and it is well to know that they are budgeted. NYC, and towns within our region are competing for candidates. Times have changed we both agree, even though we may disagree as to why. When you use terms such as “woke” and “lamestream media” pushing “false narratives” I do not want to automatically stereotype you.
Back in the day, when you served, you tell us that you were “allowed to do your job without questioning”. So evaluations, oversight, expecting officers to know ALL the rules and observe them were not necessary or observed? Is that what has happened in New Haven recently when a captive was placed in a police vehicle and after a tumultuous ride and subsequent police processing suffered major disability with more than $40 Million of settlement cost to the City taxpayers? Must you travel to Florida to find a fair way of to ptofessionally pursue policing that produces public safety, trust and respect?. How about respect for all people and their civil rights? Isn’t that part of the public responsibility for officers? Time will tell.
John Marshall sorry for the late response. So we are all on the same page. When I became a police officer in 1991 I swore and oath to Prorect and Serve the citizens of the City of Bridgeport and yes it included those in my custody. I never put my hands on anyone who did not resist arrest and if I had to use force I never lied about. Unfortunately back then as well as today we have officers who don’t believe in that oath. That percentage is small however yes the wokeism and the false propaganda pushed by the lamestream media makes being an officer today that much difficult. A motor vehicle stop that doesn’t lead to a physical altercation but rather a citation can be blown up to make it look like a racial incident. And when people say that police cannot police themselves that is a lie as well. During my tenure with the BPD I was assigned to the Office of Internal Affairs. Two cases that I investigated found officers had used excessive force on the individuals. A federal prosecutor in one of the cases refused to try the person that arrested by the officers because as he stated the report they wrote was terrible. Yet it was not the police department that cleared the officers of wrong doing but rather a spineless board of Police Commissioners whose reasoning for clearing the officers was that both individuals had a criminal past. Dan Roach and Raymond Laracuente were part of that board. Let’s stick with the facts that the lamestream media doesn’t want to report. More whites are killed by police officers than blacks or Hispanics. Why don’t they report this? Because they won’t get ratings. More young black men are killed by other young black men but that is a taboo subject. Why is it that the video footage we see is when the individual is resisting the officer? Because if they saw what lead to the physical altercation then the public would have a different opinion. Remember without law and order all you have is chaos.