Groton — Town police Chief Louis J. Fusaro has had to order officers to work overtime when they would otherwise be off, and this is something he says he'd like to avoid.

"While some want to earn extra money, sometimes officers choose not to work, but are told they must in order for us to provide for the public safety needs," he wrote in an email.

"We have to guard against getting to the point of diminishing returns with our officers, where we have personnel who may be fatigued or not have the time they need to take care of personal needs and spend time with their family," he wrote.

Since Jan. 1, six officers have left employment in the Groton Town Police Department.

Two accepted jobs with federal law enforcement agencies after a lengthy application process, two retired and one resigned while in the field training program after realizing law enforcement was not a good fit.

The police department budget also was cut from about $6.9 million last year to about $6.7 million in the current fiscal year, a decline of 3.2 percent. The department was unable to fill a lieutenant, investigator and detective position due to the cuts.

"Given the atmosphere today in law enforcement, coupled with other societal issues, I would submit that universally it may be more challenging to recruit and retain personnel for policing jobs than it may have been at some times in the past," Fusaro wrote.

Turnover in public safety agencies is not unique to Groton and is comparable to other departments, he said.

But he believes it is also something to be aware of. 

"To me, the bigger issue is maintaining adequate staffing in order to provide policing services to the community, while balancing budgetary constraints and personnel shortages," he wrote. "We have a 24/7 operation, and need to ensure adequate patrol staffing for emergency response, calls for service, major crime investigations and public safety needs."

"Like any other organization, we have to maintain our operations when individual officers are off-duty due to illness, injury, vacation and military leave," he wrote. "When we allow staffing to fall too low, officers volunteer to work or they are 'ordered in' basically ordered to work on overtime when they would otherwise be off."

The town police department has 67 patrol officers, detectives, investigators and supervisors. It has six vacancies, including the detective and investigator. The shortages are primarily in patrol, Fusaro said.

The department put two people in the police academy this summer, and hopes to hire more in the future, he said.

The town police also asked the school department to help fund the school resource officer position due to cuts. The Board of Education voted Monday to provide half the funding, or about $44,000, Finance Director Cindy Landry said.

Fusaro said he believes Groton has top-quality law enforcement personnel and he wants to make the department a "law enforcement destination." He wants officers to seek out Groton not just because of wages and benefits but the kind of work, caliber of people and community.

"Our officers are entitled to a fair wage and compensation package. That compensation needs to remain competitive in the market place as it relates to other public sector employees," Fusaro said.

It's not a good investment to spend money on equipment and training for an officer, only to have that officer leave, he said.

The town is working now on a contract with the Groton Police Union as the former one expired on June 30, according to Human Resources Director Robert Zagami.

The town police department also set up a wellness program to help officers handle the mental health issues they can experience after dealing with traumatic events, Fusaro said.

The program establishes a network of Employee Assistance Programs and mental health providers that officers can turn to and seeks out training opportunities to help. It is modeled after the International Association of Chiefs of Police's Center for Officer Safety and Wellness.

d.straszheim@theday.com