Beacon Falls aiming to close police coverage gaps

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BEACON FALLS — The town is looking at opening negotiations with the police union to ensure officers are available to cover every shift.

The town uses the Connecticut State Police Resident State Trooper program. Under the program, a state trooper is appointed to a specific municipality, and municipalities hire their own police officers.

In Beacon Falls, there are times when Resident State Trooper Humberto Henriques, who works the day shift Monday through Friday, is out and the only officer covering Beacon Falls is a state trooper responsible for a large section of Route 8.

Under the police contract, the town has to rely on the Route 8 trooper and isn’t able to have a part-time officer cover that shift, according to First Selectman Christopher Bielik.

“We are hamstrung by the language we have in the bargaining unit contract,” Bielik said. “We are in the process of revisiting that.”

Bielik plans on asking the union for greater flexibility when scheduling officers.

“That may involve a change to the shift schedules with some of the full-time officers we have. That will be a pointed discussion we will be engaging in,” Bielik said.

Officer Caroline O’Bar, who is the police union president, was out of state and unavailable for comment.

Bielik said he has reached out to the town’s labor attorney and expects to begin to have talks with the union in the next few weeks.

In the meantime, the town hired another part-time officer to help cover the overnight shift.

Previously, there was one part-time officer on the overnight shift, but there were gaps when that officer was not working, Bielik said. Having a second part-time officer will ensure there are no holes in the overnight coverage, he said.

The new part-time officer brings the town’s police force to 10 part-time officers, three full-time officers and the resident state trooper.

“Our goal is to eliminate those holes so we will have continuous coverage. We should be able to do it with the amount of officers we have on hand plus getting the flexibility in the union contract to do everything we want to do with the force we have,” Bielik said.