BY JEFF CHUDZINSKINorth Country This Week

MASSENA -- Numbers were down slightly during the month of March for Massena police officers but Chief Jason Olson said figures for response calls remain highly elevated compared to just a few years ago.

During the month of February, Olson said officers responded to 716 incidents, issued 48 traffic tickets, conducted 123 traffic stops, had 10 mental health arrests and 31 penal law arrests, while also responding to 12 motor vehicle accidents.  

During that month, Olson said officers were also able to seize 16 grams of meth and crack on a traffic stop that occurred Feb. 27.

It was kind of one of those deals that just happened. There was no investigation involved. It was just good work by the officers. When they made the stop, they realized something else was going on,” Olson said.

As for his most recent report, numbers in March dipped slightly, Olson said.

Officers responded to 941 incidents but issued fewer tickets with 26 traffic tickets, conducted 106 traffic stops, made 22 penal law arrests and handled five motor vehicle accidents.

As for the detectives in the department, Olson said they adopted 19 new cases, made 12 felony arrests, eight misdemeanor arrests and conducted two search warrants.

Though those figures were a slight dip compared to the previous month, Olson noted they are still elevated.

"They're still running a little high. Our guys are busy out there," he said.

In order to combat the rise in incidents over the last decade, village officials opted to add another officer position in the new budget.

According to Olson, the need to add an additional officer is long overdue as the department has maintained 22 officers for the better part of the last decade.

"I think we all can agree that crime has gone up. We're averaging 10,000 calls for service. Six years ago, we were averaging five (thousand calls) and it had been that way for a while. I can go back to 2012 and we maintained five (thousand calls) until about 2018. Since then, it's jumped significantly every year. So, now we're at 10,000 calls for service. So yes additional officers are definitely going to help with the community needs in that regard," Olson said.

While Olson did say the additional officer is a backfill position to account for Juvenile Officer Michael Flynn being named as the Massena Central School District's school resource officer, he noted that the new officer could likely save the village money.

"Obviously we're just going off of the numbers we have right now but from what I have calculated it looks like we could save almost $100,000 in overtime expenses next year," he said.

Olson said the department currently has exceeded $332,000 for the current fiscal year that ends on May 31.

Olson said he could save overtime in places "not bound by the CBA" as well, saying the department has done a good job of monitoring those details.

"We catch things here and there but really, we hold the line and adhere to the CBA. Some of the areas we looked to cut overtime were training and instructing. If they're going off to instruct at the academy, if it's going to create overtime, then we're not going to allow it. We put a freeze on training if it's going to create overtime. We did that to save overtime," he said.

When asked just how much the village could save in overtime expenses, Olson reiterated that the department must be fully staffed to see any savings.

"We have to be at full staff because of the manning clause for this to work. If we're at full staff, we can potentially save up to $100,000 in overtime. But I have nothing to base that on, I can base it on numbers, on simple math. But I've never had this before, I've never been in this position as an administrator where I had a three to three patrol officer where I can see that type of savings," he said.