City hired consultants evaluating Middletown Division of Police

“I have nothing but the utmost confidence in our police department, I think they are severely understaffed and we need to get to where we can be even more effective,” Lolli said. Some council members believe the department’s budget should be significantly increased and officers added.

He wants an assessment of making sure the money is well spent.

“There are several on council who think we need to add police officers, so we want to have answers for council. I want to have concrete evidence to validate any (expenditure),” Lolli said. “The one thing you don’t want to do any department’s budget without having valid reasons why.”

Additionally, the study is taking a look at the department’s organizational structure “before we determine if we need to make any changes in terms of organizational structure, policy and procedures. And we may determine from this study that we need to do a more in depth strategic planning of the police department,” Lolli said.

The city manager said the assessment from the outside consulting firm is “no different than how we prepared to do the strategic planning in 2017 in the fire department, and the staffing and deployment study in 2019 in the fire department.

Lolli, the city’s former fire chief, said Police Chief David Birk has been kept “independent” of the study. Not only will officers and department employees be interviewed, but also council members, he said.

“I just think it is a good idea so we can get a good understanding of our current operation and if we do determine in the 2024 budget to add a certain number of officers or add a certain amount to the budget that we do it in the most effective and efficient manner,” Lolli said “We want honest opinions from everybody.”

The assessment is expected to take about six weeks, according to the letter from the management firm. Lolli said the results will be shared with council.

Birk said it is his understanding sergeants, command staff and the drug unit officers have been interviewed and interviews started last week with patrol officers and detectives.

“I think they are kind of looking for a 3-, 5- and a 7-year plan,” Birk said. “But, when you don’t have enough patrolman to cover the beats you currently have it’s kind of difficult to increase the supervision you have.”

For the population of Middletown, studies show the department should have 88 officers. MPD has 73 counting command staff and six assigned to schools, Birk said.

“We need more officers and hopefully the study will show that,” said the police chief. “I hope we get the support we need from council.