MORGANTOWN — Morgantown Police Chief Eric Powell opened his comments to Morgantown City Council on Tuesday by addressing the significant staffing issue facing his department.
He explained that out of an authorized 76 officers, the department has 55, plus four new hires at least 10 months away from hitting the street on their own.
Even so, Powell explained the problem is not unique to Morgantown and he doesn’t believe it’s significantly impacting the quality of work being done by the MPD.
According the Powell, the department’s 30 patrol officers responded to 20,448 calls for service between Jan. 1 and Aug. 30, with an average response time of about 4.6 minutes.
While that number is up about a minute over traditional MPD response standards, it’s still about half the national average.
“So that’s a decent indicator of how it’s affecting us. It’s affecting our response time by one [minute] basically,” Powell said. “I happen to be very proud of that response time given the size of our agency and the volume of calls that we’re answering.”
Powell also addressed grumbling within the department regarding staffing, officer pay and changes to the city’s benefits structure — including the elimination of shift differential — which the city has since reconsidered.
In June, The Dominion Post heard from multiple officers who said the department was facing a morale crisis.
“I can’t say that it’s department wide or there is huge upheaval within the department. I hope not,” Powell said. “The people that I talk to and interact with on a daily basis are still doing their jobs and doing them well.”
In July, city leadership said it would be willing to raise salaries within the department pending a salary study of law enforcement agencies in the region.
Powell acknowledged that he has to view many of these issues from both an officer perspective as well as that of an administrator.
Ultimately, he said, both the officers and the community are safer when the focus is on police work and not pay and benefits.
“I like to think, and I do believe strongly, that our officers are still providing top quality service when they’re out there doing their job. I still believe they have a strong conviction for the things they’re doing and the job they’re performing and take a lot of pride in it,” he said.
