DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — Staffing levels at the Huber Heights Police Department brought officers to a city council meeting Monday.
Huber Heights Police Chief Mark Lightner was asked at work session if officers were exhausted mentally and physically from the demands of the job in the social media era. Lightner said he believed there were no problems, but the local police labor union saw it differently.
Huber Heights Police Department members packed council chambers. After feeling the burden of picking up a lot of overtime in the last year, they said would like to see the city hire additional officers to alleviate some of the burden.
Last week, the city said they have been able to maintain their staffing levels by having personnel stay over from the previous shift or the next morning come in earlier.
The main issue the Fraternal Order of Police feels is members are picking up overtime so they won’t be called in when they have serious conflict with a personal schedule, like being a parent, coach or teacher. They also said extra training needed to handle crisis intervention calls has added to the stress.
Huber Heights has 50 police officers, and the maximum could be at 55. The debate was if the discussion should go any further before the new city manager arrives.
Council members were unable reach an agreement. As a result, the decision has been pushed to the Sept. 5 Huber Heights City Council meeting.
