Sandwich Police staff study recommends additional officers, deputy chief

The Sandwich Police Department could gain new personnel in the near future as the result of a staff study conducted by Sandwich Police Sgt. Dan Whitecotton.

He recommends the department add two sworn police officers along with creating a deputy police chief position and increasing civilian support staff by one. The department currently has two civilian employees acting as support staff.

“It would represent an optimal balance between addressing staffing needs and maintaining fiscal responsibility,” Whitecotton said in a presentation to the Sandwich City Council at the Jan. 20 Committee-of-the-Whole Council Meeting. “By adding two sworn officers, the department can enhance its patrol coverage and response capabilities, potentially reducing response times and improving community safety. This incremental increase allows for better distribution of workload among officers, which can help reduce overtime costs and alleviate officer burnout.”

In addition, he said adding a deputy police chief position could improve the department’s operational efficiency and leadership structure. Whitecotton also said adding one civilian support staff position would provide benefits such as providing administrative assistance without substantially increasing personnel costs.

Whitecotton did the staff study as part of the Northwestern School of Police Staff & Command program. He recently graduated from the program.

As he noted in his presentation, police departments nationwide are currently facing significant challenges because of staffing shortages.

“These problems can impact the ability to carry out essential functions,” Whitecotton said. “Shortage of personnel can lead to increased workloads for existing staff, resulting in longer response times, decreased community engagement and higher stress levels among staff. The Sandwich Police Department is no different than many other departments across the nation.”

About a year or so ago, the Sandwich Police Department was down to eight officers, he said.

“We had officers that left, had injuries along with military deployments,” Whitecotton said. “So we were stretched very thin. As the police chief said, we’re up to 14 out of 15 officers now, so we’re on the right track.”

The department currently is authorized to have 15 full-time officers, he said. The city’s population is approximately 7,300 residents.

Currently, the department has a minimum of two officers on duty per shift and officers work 12-hour shifts. The Federal Bureau of Investigation recommends that a municipality have 2.4 officers per 1,000 residents for municipalities with less than 10,000 people.

“So when I crunched the numbers, Sandwich was slightly below the average at 2.05,” Whitecotton said. “But if you go by that formula, according to the FBI, they recommend that the Sandwich Police Department should have 18 sworn officers based on the population.”

Sandwich Mayor Todd Latham thanked Whitecotton for the report.

“Some of this I would say has probably been talked about before,” he said. “I’m not surprised to see this come up. I think it’s just something that we would consider looking at long-term for our growth.”