By Ryan Berry
DailyAdvocate.com
GREENVILLE — Greenville Police Chief Ryan Benge has been on the job for about a month and trying to find ways to keep moral high as the department continues to struggle with finding enough officers. Chief Benge addressed Greenville City Council on Tuesday to give an update on his department. The council approved a couple of pieces of legislation regarding the department that may help keep patrol officers from getting burned out.
“With our hiring process, we have the ability to have 28 officers. Lt. Boyer and Lt. Monnin went to a recruitment summit today in Columbus. So, we really want to kind of get back to the roots of recruiting,” he said. He shared that they did a patrol test last week with 11 applicants. They had four individuals pass the test, but only one was already certified to be a police officer. If they decide to hire one of the other individuals, it could take up to a year or more before they would be able to get them on the streets. “We want to get candidates, but we need to find a better way (of recruiting and hiring),” said Benge.
The chief said the department has a lot of mandatory overtime, but they are searching for ways to prevent burning out the officers and trying to come up with ways to keep officers in Greenville. “We are coming in on Monday morning and finding out they worked 16 hours of overtime over the weekend.” He added, “We want to make sure they have a life outside of here.”
The stress of overtime could get worse in the near future. The department currently has 23 officers and two of those officers are on medical leave. A third officer will be on medical leave next month. He’s hoping to get a couple of the officers back in November, but it all depends on their recovery times. When school resumes, the department will be down two more officers due to placing School Resource Officers (SRO) in the schools.
“We’re working with what we got. I think Lt. Boyer and Lt. Monnin have good ideas for recruiting and we’re really excited about one of the applicants we have. We’ve got to go through the process with them, but we’re just putting gum on the hole, really,” said Benge.
To help alleviate some of the burn out for officers, the department and the city proposed a plan to allow the chief and lieutenants to cover shifts as patrol officers. According to Law Director Michael Rieman, the city got the plan approved through the police officer’s union. It would not take away from the overtime officers want, however, it would help supplement shifts that officers cannot work. The chief and lieutenants would cover shifts outside of their normal working hours. Any shifts worked would be paid the overtime rate comparable to that of a Sergeant Step E.
Rieman believes this will be a short-term fix to help alleviate burn out and promote better morale within the department. He stated the city does not want this to go on indefinitely, but it is needed at this point in time.
Greenville City Council unanimously approved the ordinance.
Rieman also addressed the SRO situation and what it does for the city. While an officer is serving as an SRO, Greenville City Schools pays 99 percent of the cost for that officer. The ordinance approved by the council on Tuesday states the school district will pay $7,997.16 per officer each month.
Chief Benge also shared that he wants his department and officers to be more engaged in the community. He has talked with people inside the city building and also in the community and that was the one thing people wanted to see more of from the department. He said they put together a community outreach team. “It will be a multi-faceted program, but the main focus is going to be community engagement,” he said. “It will be good for sort of rebranding and going the direction that we want to go.”
Upcoming events where people will see the Greenville Police Department, including the chief and lieutenants, is the car show on Broadway on Sept. 7, Coffee with the Cops will be held at A&B Coffee Show from 9-10:30 a.m. on Sept. 14 and from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Elks for their Family Fun Day, also on Sept. 14.
To contact Daily Advocate Editor Ryan Berry, email [email protected].
