LYNN — The Lynn Police Department is beefing up its manpower by hiring 26 new police officers.
The department is in the process of interviewing the new recruits, who are expected to start at the police academy in January and hit the streets by next June, according to Lynn Police Lt. Michael Kmiec.
Adding manpower to the understaffed department has been a priority of Lynn Police Chief Michael Mageary and Mayor Thomas M. McGee.
“We didn’t hire for several years,” Kmiec said. “It gives us the opportunity to have more officers on the street and provide a variety of different services to the citizens.”
With staffing levels so low, Kmiec said officers were forced to work extra shifts. In addition, some units, such as the department’s Special Investigation Unit and its community policing unit, had to be disbanded, while others, such as its Drug Task Force were significantly reduced. Adding officers to and recreating those units may be considered, he said.
Ten of the new officers are being paid for with $720,000 set aside from the city’s $3.94 million in negotiated health insurance savings from new collective bargaining agreements, according to Michael Bertino, the city’s chief financial officer.
The remaining 16 are replacing retiring police officers, and are therefore already budgeted for. The starting salary for a new officer could range from $50,000 to $70,000 depending on education and certification, Bertino said, who added the increase in staffing was sustainable from a budget perspective.
“I think the importance is to make sure the staff is at a level where all the officers are able to do their jobs without having to be squeezed into doing numerous shifts over a period of time,” McGee said. “We still have many financial challenges moving forward, but I felt this was one of the priorities we needed to work on as we balance (the budget) and move the city forward.”
The 26 new officers are in addition to the 19 city officials authorized hiring last year, 10 to replace those who retired or transferred and nine through a COPS grant.
Nine officers were sworn in August, and another five recruits are in the police academy and expected to join the force within the next two weeks, according to Kmiec.
The pending addition of those five new officers would bring staffing levels up to 173, and 26 more would increase manpower to 199. But the actual staffing level is expected to be lower due to anticipated retirements next year, Kmiec said.
“It fluctuates because as we’re hiring, we’re losing,” Kmiec said.
Mageary has said his optimal staffing level is 195.
