{"id":10240,"date":"2017-01-25T01:01:16","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T06:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=10240"},"modified":"2017-01-25T01:01:57","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T06:01:57","slug":"brick-pd-to-cut-overtime-change-hours-under-revised-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2017\/01\/brick-pd-to-cut-overtime-change-hours-under-revised-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick PD to Cut Overtime, Change Hours Under Revised Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Brick Township Police Patch\/Logo (File Photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

In what was called a win-win for Brick police officers and taxpayers, officials announced changes to the collective bargaining agreement between the township and its police officers Tuesday night which will reduce up\u00a0to $500,000 worth of overtime in exchange for a new work schedule aimed at boosting the morale of officers and placing more patrol units on the street.<\/p>\n

The township\u2019s patrol officers, the bulk of the 136 member department, will work four days for 10 hours, 15 minutes, then have four days off. Previously, officers worked four eight hour days and had two days off. To even out the time officers work \u2013 2,019 hours per year \u2013 all officers will be required to work 13 additional days over the course of the calendar year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe\u00a013 supplemental coverage days are built in for training, schooling, the firing range and events such as Summerfest, holiday patrols and Halloween,\u201d said Mayor John Ducey.<\/p>\n

Previously,\u00a0the department operated three eight hour shifts, meaning there was no overlap in manpower. This led to frequent overtime requirements and the department having to reject requests for days off just to maintain minimum manpower, Chief James Riccio said. With the new schedule, the 10 hour, 15 minute shifts are designed to overlap, resulting in more officers on the street and significantly less overtime required. The 13 additional days can be used for officers to train \u2013 time that previously took them off the street.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be much more likely to be able to approve vacation requests,\u201d said Ducey.<\/p>\n

Riccio said his command staff brought the issue of vacation time \u2013 rather, a lack thereof \u2013 to his attention last year. A group of supervisors and representatives from Policemen\u2019s Benevolent Association Local 230 \u2013 the local police union \u2013 researched solutions for the past year.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the reason they couldn\u2019t get time off is just for officer safety, we have a minimum manpower,\u201d said Riccio. \u201cWith everything else we have to do, we\u2019d be brought down to minimum manpower and then nobody could take off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reduction in overtime will, at a minimum, save taxpayers $318,810 this year, with the potential for more than $500,000 in savings once the new schedule\u2019s benefits are applied to all of the activities required of officers.<\/p>\n

The new schedule affects only officers in the patrol division. Detectives and superior officers will continue to work the current schedule. The new schedule is being tested as part of a pilot program for one year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a trial for one year because both sides want to see how it works, practically and financially,\u201d Ducey said.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In what was called a win-win for Brick police officers and taxpayers, officials announced changes to the collective bargaining agreement between the township and its police officers Tuesday night which will reduce up\u00a0to $500,000 worth of overtime in exchange for a new work schedule aimed at boosting the morale of officers and placing more patrol […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[24,2727,2045,2728],"class_list":["post-10240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-police-fire-courts","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-overtime","tag-police-department","tag-police-schedule"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/brick_police_shield.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-2Fa","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}