Chief says staffing has ‘no fat.’
By: Jennifer Potash
With three weeks until Princeton Borough Police Chief Charles Davall steps down, the Borough Council is moving to fill the vacancy while also considering reducing overall staffing.
In his waning days, Chief Davall submitted a report to the council making a case for keeping the department at current staffing levels. The council is considering reducing the department, through attrition, from 34 officers to 32.
The department expanded from 32 to 34 officers in 1996 largely because of a federal grant to cover the salaries of the new personnel. That funding has since run out.
"Our staffing has ‘no fat’ in it," Chief Davall wrote in his report. "When one officer leaves the force or is injured, the impact on us is immediate."
Regarding the appointment of a new chief, the council discussed the promotion process in closed session on Tuesday and agreed to interview Capt. Anthony Federico for the chief’s job.
"And then we’ll take it from there," Mayor Joseph O’Neill said Wednesday.
The chief announced his retirement Jan. 5 after 25 years on the police force. He will start a new job as deputy director of the Public Safety Department at Princeton University on Feb. 7.
With new housing developments completed or on the way such as the borough’s Spring Street redevelopment project and Palmer Square’s 97 luxury units planned for Hulfish North the police department anticipates increased demand on its officers, Chief Davall said.
Compared with other, similarly sized communities in the state, the borough lags behind in the ratio of police officer to citizens, he said.
Community policing which involves officers spending a lot of time in neighborhoods to root out quality-of-life problems before those issues can develop into serious crimes is one factor in an overall drop in crime in the borough since 1998, Chief Davall said.
According to one borough police officer, the rise in street gang activity in the borough may be related to the staff reduction in the Safe Neighborhoods Unit.
The department has 34 officers but rarely is at full strength due to scheduling issues, mandatory training and illnesses or recovery from injuries, Chief Davall said.
"Thirty-four officers is not a luxury, it is a minimum number that we can work with due in part to the frequent fluctuations in manpower that we experience," the chief said.
When the patrol unit is short-staffed, officers are removed from the Safe Neighborhood Unit and Traffic Safety Unit, he said.
The council discussed police staffing in more general terms during the open session on Tuesday.
Councilman Roger Martindell said the council is considering "a constellation of issues" including the staffing levels for the police department, which is the most expensive item in the borough’s annual budget.
"I would say that as we begin to talk about these issues that we move slowly, carefully and deliberately and we look out to the interests of the Princeton Borough taxpayers, not just this year but in many years to come," Mr. Martindell said.
The council unanimously approved a resolution to approve a $25,000 contract with Carroll Buracker & Associates of Harrisonburg, Va., to study a merger of the borough and Princeton Township police dispatch operations. The overall contract is for $70,000. The township will contribute $25,000 and the other $20,000 will come from a state Department of Community Affairs grant.
Councilman Andrew Koontz said he supports the study as "a first step" toward a larger examination of combining the two municipalities’ police services.
At the request of Councilman David Goldfarb, the council held up action on an item establishing a hiring list of candidates for future vacancies among the patrol officers. Mr. Goldfarb said he had not yet reviewed the applicants’ information.
In other business, the council continued its search process for a new municipal prosecutor. Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi said the council will hold a special closed session on Tuesday to interview candidates. Former Borough Prosecutor Marc Citron resigned last month after 12 years in the position.

