Mayor Joe Ganim on Tuesday issued the oath to 29 police cadets in what he says will lead to the hiring of 100 new police officers to beef up a department suffering from low staffing levels from retirements and suburban towns poaching police officers with pay and benefit incentives.
Tuesday was a déjà vu moment for Ganim. During JG1 25 years ago police power had dipped well below 400 officers. During his first term roughly 100 new police officers were hired. He says the Police Department in the face of city budget challenges will receive the largest government investment.
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Dan Tepfer’s article in the CT Post this am talked in general about diversity, but was not specific. Nor was there any specific info about how many candidates are residents of the City of Bridgeport. These have been two points of contention for some time now.
Will the classes solve the entire police problem when the dust clears and three classes have trained, gone through six-month on the street training and are fully engaged? Don’t we have to know more about the internal and external overtime statistics, the extra expense assigned to the City for MERS State funding on account of payouts? And will the reimbursement for external overtime be seen to meet the full expense of assigned overtime? Time will tell.
John Marshall Lee, I can assure you the new firefighter cadet group will not even come anywhere near the diversity of the police class, in fact there will not be any females of any race in that class unless they change the process and Mayor Ganim will not do that. Time will tell (JML).
John, what I have to wonder about is who in the police department is responsible for collecting owed outside OT. Why wasn’t the money collected from the Vibes? Why was it allowed to grow to $750,000?
How much other outside money is owed the city from contractors and such? Why is the PD or any other city agency allowed to collect that kind of money?
JML, like you I question both the writer of this article as well as Mayor Ganim’s use of the word diverse without knowing the racial makeup and how many are Bridgeport residents. I saw about four blacks in the video, but if that’s the sum total of blacks I would not classify this class as being diverse, instead just having some black candidates.
I think the majority of this class is going to be like every class since David Dunn took over civil service, white male suburbanites.
Don, I counted the same number, four, but I bet if there were only one they would still call it diverse.
Ron and Don,
Isn’t it amazing how women can make it onto the Police Department in spite of their smaller stature and the fact they have to physically confront much bigger men on the streets while the same physical limitations seem to be a permanent bar to the BFD?
This is an issue all women in Bridgeport should be questioning.
Bob, that’s absolutely correct and Mayor Ganim knows this. Mackey and I provided material that would substantiate our concerns with respect to the hiring of women to Joe as well as two members of his administration. Mayor Ganim chose to do nothing and to hell with hiring women again.
How long do we think it will be before the Civil Service Commission and its staff actually administer a test for chief of police?
My guess is the fire department exam will be long before the police department because Joe has his boy leading that department. How long will the Mayor allow Dunn to stay in a position he isn’t qualified or experienced to do and why the reluctance to test for that position? What’s the reason, Mayor? Answer to follow soon.
Ganim might hire a handful, create a photo op, but not enough to take away the overtime the big chiefs of the Bridgeport Police Union want.
The class I believe is 31 total. One female for Milford, one male for Naugatuck, the rest are Bridgeport recruits and ALL are from Bridgeport, given they got 15 extra points how would they not be from Bridgeport? Eight are women, seven for Bridgeport, remaining males of mixed race between white, Hispanic and black, but then again as we know you can’t be a white suburban male and be an effective cop in the inner city, only the inner city can patrol the inner city. Hmmm, I heard that in the ’70s I believe. Minorities police minorities, isn’t that what everyone wants, someone from our own community? How’d that work, hmmm Judge Daly? Special master annual rotation for entire patrol division, every step forward is two steps back. Time will tell JML. Big difference between first JG1 he put on over 100 cops in the early ’90s under federal grants, guess what no more such grants so the city will have to float this whole dime for the entire time and still get pilfered by suburbs because of poor benefit package/medical expense and pay.
Four Flats, what are you scared of, is that your God-given name? You said, “then again as we know you can’t be a white suburban male and be an effective cop in the inner city only the inner city can patrol the inner city.” You asked the wrong question, then again as we know you can’t be a black suburban male and be an effective cop in the suburban city, only the suburban city can patrol the suburban city.
NO aliases.
I think you can’t be a inner city black and be a police officer in Fairfield, Milford, Westport, Southport, Greenwich, Darien or a myriad of other suburban communities. Bridgeport should follow their example, what’s good for the ‘burbs should be good for Bridgeport.
Let’s see if I’ve got this right, according to Sen Gomes and Sen. Moore’s House Bill 5237: An Act Concerning Fair Chance Employment.
How will this Bill HB 5237, help those felons who would like to become Bridgeport Police officers?
Please clarify.
Cm’on man, Co-sponsors of HB-5237 are Rep. Bruce V. Morris, 140th Dist. Sen. Gary A. Winfield, 10th Dist. Rep. Kelly J.S. Luxenberg, 12th Dist. Jimfox, you know that so why would you insinuate Gomes and Moore authored this legislation? Although there isn’t anything wrong I can see, but why would you misrepresent the truth?
DD,
I never said they authored this bill! Read it again, but this time slowly, it’s a House bill, not a Senate Bill. They just jumped on the bandwagon, so let’s hear what Gomes and Moore have to say about felons applying for a Police officer’s job in Bridgeport, is this something they would support?
Maybe they would like to add their own amendments to this bill.
Here’s exactly what you said. “according to Sen Gomes and Sen. Moore’s House Bill 5237: An Act Concerning Fair Chance Employment,” thus insinuating this Bill belonged to Senators Gomes and Moore. I can read and I can read between the lines and I know exactly what you insinuated, intimated and what you said. Tricks are for kids and I’m a grown-ass man.
I can defiantly attest to that, you are an Ass Man.
I might even go further by saying you’re a Total Ass Man!!!
Hahahahahaha. Hahahahahaha lol LOL lol LOL lol. You’re a wild boy. Oooh boy, you’re a funny boy. Lmao LMAO LMAO lmao stop it boy, you’re killing me. Funny boy.
Personally I don’t believe in Mayor Ganim. He’s shown he’s not a man of his word, plus we all know his history, he’s only helping himself, anything or anyone he brings in is a special favor to someone, he doesn’t have Bridgeport’s best interest in mind and that’s a fact. A Mayor of convenience and self promotion, that’s what we’re getting from Ganim.