Stonington ―The Board of Police Commissioners has approved a raise for its reserve officers, who have not had a pay increase in many years.

The raise will bring pay from approximately $28 an hour to $39.60 per hour.

Captain Todd Olson told the commission that reserve police officers save the town quite a bit of money on costs for school security, special events and motor vehicle enforcement, among other assignments.

“Their pay rate has never really increased for many, many years, and we are traditionally getting very experienced officers,” he said, adding, “we want to ensure that we are encouraging these officers to apply, and they are coming to work and doing a dangerous job, and they are compensated halfway decently for that.”

In his report to the board, Chief Jay DelGrosso discussed staffing for town events, noting that Stonington has more events each year than comparable towns in the area, and covering the events requires officers to work mandatory extra hours and shifts.

“When we have these large events, we do not have the personnel to provide the security, even though they’re paying for it, unless we’re ordering in our officers,” he said.

Event organizers pay the cost of necessary staffing, but ordering officers to come in, or requiring them to stay late and come in early can lead to overtime, lack of available vacation time, and loss of days off.

The issue for officers, said Olson, is that “due to the amount of special events we have in town, it becomes taxing-- especially in the summertime when a lot of them start to pile up. Officers, like anyone, like to take time off, and it’s a good thing to decompress, and sometimes they can’t because they’re being ordered to work special events and things like that.”

He emphasized that events do not impact the function of the police department or the safety of the community.

“We can handle whatever is coming our way, and if it is something above what we have on staff, as any town would, we have mutual aid agreements” with other police departments, he said

Olson said the raise for reserve officers would help with recruiting new reserve officers and retaining them, which, in turn, can assist with event staffing.

“Whatever reserve force we have at the time, we can supplement and plug them in to some of the spots instead of having to order in officers,” he said.

He added that reserve officers work holidays and weekends, and during events like the annual Turkey Trot fun run and Thanksgiving Day football games, they allow officers to be home with their families or participating in events, instead of being required to work.

Stonington currently has only one reserve officer, and Olson said they are looking to increase that number. The department is also starting a nationwide hiring campaign later this year to fill two vacant positions as well as prepare for vacancies left by upcoming retirements. The department currently has three sergeants and a captain eligible for retirement, and two lieutenants who will be eligible in 2 1/2 years.