NORTHAMPTON — In the coming weeks, Police Chief Jody Kasper expects to hire three new “student officers” to join the department, the start of an initiative that she believes will help recruit new talent, relieve a stretched-thin police force and ultimately reduce spending costs for overtime — although those savings aren’t expected for at least another year.

The idea to hire student officers emerged this spring as Kasper and the mayor’s office sought ways to get would-be officers into the training pipeline more quickly so that when vacancies arise — as is the case right now with 10 open positions — they can be filled more quickly. That, in turn, would reduce overtime for the existing force.

“All that we’re doing is hiring people who will become police officers when we anticipate a vacancy,” Kasper said. “This is not anything that is too crazy.”

In order for a civilian to become a police officer in Massachusetts, they must first interview with the department, followed by a background check and a physical assessment. They then must undergo academy training for six months, during which they are considered “student officers.” This is followed by four months of field training with the department before they can become a full-time officer.

Though Northampton is near one of the state’s police academies in Holyoke, sessions are held only twice a year, the most recent beginning last April. That means that anyone who expresses interest in becoming an officer after an academy period has started must wait several months before beginning the first step of their training.

Filling vacancies

According to Kasper, the city budgets for 60 full-time police officers, but there are only 50 full-time officers currently on duty, after three officer retirements in the past few weeks. In addition, there are four student officers currently on the force and two that are in field training programs. If all goes well, those officers will fill six of the 10 vacancies, leaving three open positions. (One officer is on medical leave.)

Kasper said that if fiscal 2024 budget, which starts July 1, had been in place this fiscal year, she would have been able to hire student officers still in the academy to replace the officers who had given notice of their retirement, giving the student officers time to complete their training and be ready to take over as full-time officers by the time the retirements took effect.

“We started interviewing in May for the October academy, so it’s a very long pre-academy period as well,” Kasper said. “It takes anywhere from 11 to 18 months to actually hire somebody.”

Though prospective student officers who are hired would still have to complete their academy training and the subsequent four months of field training, they could begin working as full-time officers immediately after completion, and they would begin to receive a salary while still undergoing training, Kasper said.

The plan to hire the three new student officers drew the most discussion among city councilors and residents during the budget hearing process this spring.

“I do wish that there was a different solution than hiring three officers,” At-Large City Councilor Jamila Gore said at the June 1 council meeting. “I do think that adds to the footprint of policing.”

Gore and Ward 7 councilor Rachel Maiore, who is also against additional police hires, voted against the budget, which passed by a 7-2 vote. Maiore said there was no guarantee that the officers, once trained, would remain in Northampton.

“There’s really no obligation for them to stay, and these are young people we’re talking about,” she said. “It feels a little premature for me as a solution.”

During the deliberations over the city’s budget, several residents and activists objected to the idea, saying that the more than $363,000 increase to the police budget should be diverted elsewhere to help the community.

“I think that when we put more money into the community we have a stronger way to help people, especially of color,” said Mahajoy Laufer, a resident who spoke at the June 1 meeting. “I’d really like to see the mayor also put more money into helping the community and invest in the working class community.”

Reduce overtime

Though the city raised the budget for the police, the hope is that hiring more student officers may reduce overtime expenses.

In her budget message, Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra noted that police averaged 431 hours of overtime last summer, and that the money allotted for police overtime this year would need to be doubled to $456,000.

“While some of the overtime hours are signed hours that officers take voluntarily, a significant portion is forced overtime, where officers are held over after working a full shift because there is no other officer to fill the following shift,” Sciarra said. “Frequently forcing officers to work a double shift results in fatigue, safety and liability concerns, and staff burnout, further contributing to the retention problem.”

Relief from those overtime expenses will not be immediates, Kasper cautioned.

“We expect to have significant overtime this summer,” she said. “We’re short-staffed for this summer, which is always a very busy time for us and a lot of our officers take vacations with their families.”

The city is also about to launch a Division of Community Care, part of the city’s Health and Human Services that will field certain emergency calls in lieu of a police response.

Kasper said she didn’t expect the creation of the DCC to impact staffing of police officers in the city.

“I do hope that it will be people who can prevent some calls from coming in, and handle some of our call types,” she said. “We’re excited to have them as a resource to partner with.”

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.

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