SOUTH HADLEY — A new police staffing study recommends hiring five police officers to fill gaps in patrol coverage caused by a growing amount of specialty services and administrative work, but town officials will wait to make any decisions on public safety personnel until more public outreach and discussions occur.

“Public safety doesn’t just involve the police, it involves almost every department,” Town Administrator Lisa Wong said.

The study conducted by Municipal Resources Inc. from Portsmouth, New Hampshire noted that South Hadley’s Police Department has not grown in the past 24 years despite administrative work and public safety specialties drastically changing. During that time, South Hadley’s 15 patrol officers and six supervising sergeants picked up administrative work, training roles and ancillary duties that take time away from patrols. Roughly 553 hours worth of paid time per officer is lost to these duties, the study found.

“I’m so proud of South Hadley police officers that care so much about  the community. They grew up in the this town, they went to school in this town, they’re really committed, but when they aren’t out there proactively policing and interacting with the community, this job is really discouraging,” Police Chief Jennifer Gundersen said at the Select Board’s Aug. 6 meeting.

Town Administrator Lisa Wong explained that the police staffing study is one factor in an analysis of the town’s public safety services, which will be conducted in the coming months by the Human Services Council, a committee overseeing the town’s new Human Services Department. In the meantime, Wong and Gundersen plan to hold public forums on the study to gather community input on public safety before finalizing staffing changes.

“This is just the beginning of the conversation, and the Human Services Council will see this as a data point for them,” Wong said. The conservation around public safety will also include preventative initiatives to the challenges the chief brought up that “would potentially happen even before it becomes a policing issue.”

Gundersen wasn’t surprised by the findings of the report, and acknowledged her staff is stretched very thin. The 37-member department includes a police chief, two lieutenants, three detectives with investigative unit, six sergeants including a part-time administrative sergeant, 15 officers, five dispatchers and an administrative assistant. Each patrol shift is set up to have three patrol officers and one supervising sergeant on duty at all times, but the staffing study finds this is often not the case.

“Government does shrink in a lot of different ways, but the police, being a 24/7 organization, has to pick up those pieces and fill the void,” Gundersen said.

In the wake of changing public safety needs and police reforms, municipal police departments have acquired more specialties, including mental health, elderly services, firearm licensing, domestic violence and crisis intervention. Some patrolling police who take on these roles, like the school resource officer, are not replaced, leaving vacancies in patrolling coverage. In addition, supervising sergeants spend roughly a quarter of their shifts completing administrative work and not on the road.

“What is really concerning to me and I worked really hard to address it, but it was a glaring issue when I came in (in 2018) that the first-level supervisors were spending so much of their time filling in shifts, filling in vacancies and voids,” she said.

Sworn personnel is just one staffing category the study found lacking in the department.

South Hadley law enforcement currently has five dispatchers, the fewest of any comparable towns in the area.

Gundersen said to secure 911 grants under the tight budget — which require at least two certified dispatchers on duty at all times — officers receive 16 hours of certification training and fill in a four-hour dispatch shift every other month.

The system works, but takes patrol officers off the roads.

“We would benefit with three more dispatchers to have two dispatchers on for all of the shifts expect for midnight and then taking the police officers out of that mix,” Gundersen said.

“But that’s money, and if the pot is stretched so thin, I would rather require the officers maintain their certification and look at using those precious funds for something else.”

Select Board member Jeff Cyr asked if the chief would recommend joining the Westcomm Regional Dispatch in Chicopee to help with dispatch staffing and cost savings, but Gundersen wanted to wait until the group went through it’s “growing pains” and the savings were greater. Westcomm, launched in late 2019, serves the communities of East Longmeadow, Longmeadow, Ware and Monson.

The study also recommends civilizing some positions, such as the civilian clinician the Police Department already brought in to provide better service and alleviate the workload of current officers. Gundersen said she’s open to the idea, and these are the suggestions Wong hopes to hear from the public in the coming months during public forums.

“We’re presenting this [study] and other things in more detail and getting to hear from the community what their experiences are in ways that might not be reflected in the data,” Wong said. “There might be some stories or some priorities that are received through those conversations.”

The Select Board will decide the date of these forums during their September meeting.

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.