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Plattsburgh public safety report flags recovered needles, overtime increases and recruiting needs
Summary
City police and staff discussed increases in parking enforcement, recovered needles near the Broad Street Bridge, high overtime tied to activations and training, and plans to recruit five officers for an April academy.
Councilors and staff reviewed the monthly public safety report and raised concerns about recovered needles, parking enforcement and overtime in the police department.
Lieutenant Tremblay and other staff explained that recovered needles have been reported around the Broad Street Bridge, primarily underneath the structure; a receptacle has been placed and emptied frequently, but staff said low-visibility locations continue to draw discarded syringes. “We put the receptacle there because there is an influx there,” a police representative said during the meeting.
Councilors also asked whether recovered-needle tallies included material collected from the downtown receptacle; staff said the reported recovered-needle numbers in the report represent items found on the street and do not include receptacle collections, and they offered to pull additional geofenced data covering both receptacles and ground collections.
Parking enforcement citations rose over the prior January, staff said, partly because there were fewer snow bans this year and officers were actively citing during the month. Staff said increased citations corresponded with higher revenue from fines for the period reviewed.
Overtime in the department was described as elevated for the month and spiked the past week because four service members were activated for military service, some personnel were out sick and several mandated trainings occurred. “If there’s a sergeant on scheduled vacation and a mandated training comes up, a supervisor has to be in charge of the shift,” a police representative explained, describing why training can drive overtime.
Staff also reported an active recruitment effort and a planned police academy in April; they said the department is short five officers and is conducting background investigations for candidates.
No formal policy changes were adopted during the session; staff said they will bring additional analyses if the council requests more detailed breakdowns of recovered-needle collections and overtime drivers.
