The city of Buffalo lost 557 school workers to its staggering $97 million budget shortfall. The department that houses the city's highest paid employees, however, has yet to face a single layoff.
The police department must do its part to help the city out of this financial crisis. It is necessary to compromise union contracts and reduce the amount of overtime offered to officers. For the long-term survival of the city, and the police therein, Buffalo's brass must participate in the sacrifices being made throughout the city.
Ninety of the 100 highest payrolls in Buffalo are held by police offers, according to The Buffalo News. A month ago the city laid off 537 generally underpaid educational workers and is now planning to shut down schools. These enormous education cuts will result in dimmed futures for Buffalo's children, damage which could have been reduced by instead laying off some of the much higher-paid police officers. Sadly, though, the city's remaining $60 million debt is more than any number of educational reductions can resolve. Beginning to slow the city's financial plummet woefully necessitates relieving some of its honorable servants and protectors.
It is realistic, although far from desirable, for the city to operate with fewer police officers. The city of Toledo, Ohio is larger than Buffalo but operates with one-third less police, according to The Buffalo News. Clearly, it is possible to maintain peace with fewer officers.
Buffalo's dependence on so large a police force is partially caused by an agreement between the city and the police union, the Police Benevolent Association, that mandates two officers ride in every patrol car. Such imperatives nearly double the cost of running each car, thereby reducing the number of patrolling cars and disabling the city's ability to monitor the streets. Agreements like these do a disservice to the security and finances of the city - and must be rescinded.
Reducing overtime pay will be essential to reducing the cost of departmental operation. The city paid out $5.7 million last year in overtime pay to police, according to The Buffalo News.
The logistics of 10-hour shifts, though, result in an overall reduction of average workweek hours from 40 to 37. Subsequently, this lost manpower must be filled by officers working overtime.
The amount of time-and-a-half paid out could reasonably be reduced by cutting work shifts from 10 to nine hours in length, cutting shift overlap from one hour to half an hour. The extra hour gained each day could then be pooled to facilitate the unpredictable situations officers regularly encounter.
It is in the PBA's best interests to annul some of the agreements it made with the city in more prosperous times. The police union and the officers themselves have the ability to significantly assist the city in reducing the cost of protecting the streets. It, like all offices of Buffalo, must make the sacrifices necessary to help balance Buffalo's plummeting budget.
The fate of Buffalo is in all of our hands. The Police Benevolent Association and the police themselves must compromise to help reduce the cost of protecting the city.
