Consultant, Task Force Report Waste and Mismanagement In Southampton Village Police Department

A report critical of the Southampton Village Police Department, by a risk management consultant hired by the Village Board, was released on Friday afternoon. Preceded by a task force presentation lambasted by Police Chief Thomas Cummings as “full of conjecture and assumptions that are incorrect, as well as being replete with spurious and untrue accusations,” the report looks askance at a variety of department operations, such as overtime expenses, its K-9 unit, school resource officers, the public safety dispatch unit, staffing and participation in the Suffolk County district attorney’s East End Drug Task Force.

Prepared by the firm Edmund Hartnett Risk Management at a cost, according to a Village Board resolution, not to exceed $40,000, the 118-page report was distributed to the press and members of the Village Board concurrently on May 7.

Following the task force presentation — a presentation made by the volunteers, not the consultant — Village Board member Mark Parash said he looked forward to reading what the report actually said and how well it meshed with the volunteers’ version. That the Village Board didn’t receive the report before the presentation, nor were board members permitted to speak with task force volunteers to receive updates during the process, was “odd,” he said.

Helmed by task force chair Craig J. Goldberg, the presentation was preceded by a press release offering report bullet points that describe “mismanagement and waste in many aspects of the SVPD’s activities.”

While the report itself does not use those words, it does describe overtime costs for 2020 — $450,000 — as excessive and difficult to justify. The report does not look back beyond 2020 to discern average overtime costs during a year not burdened by a pandemic. In 2020, in addition to responding to the pandemic, police were called upon to monitor four Black Lives Matter rallies and marches, plus one Blue Lives Matter march. Southampton in the Streets launched, requiring extra staffing, as did several mask distribution initiatives overseen by Mayor Jesse Warren.

The report and task force both made note of excessive overtime in the public safety dispatch unit last year. Last year, The Press reported on a plea from the Village Police Radio Operators Benevolent Association to the mayor, begging him to fill vacant positions. They said the mayor refused to hire adequate coverage and, in June 2020, Chief Cummings pointed out that overtime costs would far outpace the salary for filling the vacancy.

The task force took further aim at the dispatch unit, suggesting money could be saved by contracting dispatch out to a larger agency like the Town of Southampton. The report suggested closer supervision.

In general, “the complete failure to manage overtime and sick pay is costing the Village hundreds of thousands of dollars unnecessarily. Sick pay and overtime are ‘egregiously’ out of line with other police departments,” the task force presentation states. The report itself calls for improvements in the management of overtime and sick pay.

However, describing the report as “neatly packaged,” Chief Cummings said: “Unfortunately, it is quite clear that some conclusions reached in the report are simply wrong and are proved to be so by the objective facts. Although I won’t speak for Mr. Hartnett, I am reasonably certain that if he had not been specifically prohibited by Mayor Warren from sharing a draft version of his report with the Command Staff of the Police Department, we would have shared additional data and information with Mr. Hartnett that, without question, would have provided material facts and additional insight, and surely altered the conclusions in dispute.”

According to PBA President Michael Horstman, the chief was never interviewed as the probe progressed, while certain members of the command staff were “cross examined.”

At Friday’s presentation, Mr. Goldberg listed task force findings, including the department’s “donating costly resources to other localities,” listing school resource officers, the K-9 unit, and participation in the East End Drug Task Force.

The report suggests pulling the village’s detective from the drug task force, which utilizes police officers from numerous East End police departments to target the regional drug trade.

“During this assessment, EHRM found no tangible impact on drug or crime conditions in the Village related to having an SVPD member in the EEDTF. Consideration should be given to discontinuing this assignment,” the report states.

In 2019, a major task force investigation coordinated by the Southampton Village participating detective, spurred by two overdose deaths in Southampton, resulted in the arrest of four individuals on drug trafficking charges, as well as the removal of some $2 million in heroin from local distribution and the take down of a drug ring operating on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation. Two dozen people were arrested.

Last month, another drug trafficking ring , said to be selling drugs in the Hamptons, was locked up by the task force. Police sources say the detective has been specifically requested by District Attorney Tom Sini for undercover work. But it came with an overtime cost in excess of $80,000.

Looking at the school resource officers, the report recommends negotiating with the Southampton School District so it will cover the cost of the two officers’ salaries, which run some $400,000 per year, according to the task force analysis. “If the District refuses to provide any compensation for either officer, consideration should be given to discontinuing the SRO program and having the schools covered by patrol officers,” the report recommends.

The consultants and volunteer task force also recommend discontinuing the village’s K-9 unit. The task force labeled it as expensive while providing “zero benefit to the village.” The dog and his equipment were donated, but the officer receives a salary and attends “excessive, unnecessary and counterproductive” training with county police, according to the task force.

“It seems that the Canine Unit is a ‘nice to have’ but not a ‘need to have’,” the report states.

Looking at overall staffing and scheduling, the report calls for eliminating a lieutenant position, as well as cutting the detective division by one person.

The task force presentation suggests, “Given the low crime rate in Southampton Village and below average clearance rates, it is difficult to justify the Village maintaining a dedicated Detective Division.”

Because they are civil servants and union members, however, personnel can’t be summarily fired. They could be demoted, but eliminating a specific job, such as K-9 handler, would not remove that salary from the budget; the officer would have to be deployed elsewhere, Mr. Horstman explained.

Both the report and task force analysis speak of officers having second jobs and in some cases wearing their uniforms and taking their patrol cars to security-type jobs. “SVPD officers are permitted to use both their uniforms and patrol cars for off-duty employment, which is also a possible violation of ethics laws,” a release from the task force reports.

Asked to respond to the allegation, the PBA president laughed. “Tom Cummings would slap anyone who ever did that,” Mr. Horstman said, adding that not only do officers not wear their uniforms to their second jobs, they rarely wear them home after work. “We all get changed in the locker room,” he said.

Another key issue raised in the Hartnett report relates to accountability. Currently, one member of the Village Board serves as liaison to the police department. The consultants suggest this system be dismantled and replaced by, in essence, a police board.

The mayor would chair the board while the four trustees would serve as board members. The new system would include monthly meetings with the police chief, who would be quizzed about operations.

Responding to the report as well as the task force presentation, Chief Cummings wrote an email message stating: “Members of the Southampton Village Police Department have been subjected recently to relentless and tremendously unfair criticism from a very small segment of the community. Despite these attacks, I as Chief of Police wish to express how proud I am of every Member of the Police Department and the job they do — day and night — every day, and have done in service of our Village for the past one hundred and twenty seven years.”

He continued, speaking of Edmund Hartnett Risk Management, “There are many ways to accomplish the police mission, and having an experienced professional, albeit one who was prevented from reviewing his thoughts with the very department he was examining, express an opinion that another method may be better than one currently employed should and will be accepted as a constructive process.”

The consulting firm is led by President and CEO Ed Hartnett, a former NYPD officer who also served as police commissioner in Yonkers.

Making reference to the task force, the chief wrote: “The contents of the presentation for the most part do not accurately or meaningfully represent the contents of Mr. Hartnett’s report. Despite the fact that some Members of the Task Force may have good intentions, it is strikingly obvious that the Members do not possess the requisite knowledge and experience to suggest the sweeping changes offered to the Village Police Department, its staffing and its deployment.”

Offering his opinion on the overall exercise, Mr. Horstman called it “nothing but a witch hunt.” He believes it’s retaliation against the PBA because last year the membership publicized a vote of “no confidence,” in Mayor Warren. “They wasted $40,000 of taxpayer money because the narrative was already written,” he said, labeling the effort as a “hit job” orchestrated by the mayor.

The Village Board voted to hire Edmund Hartnett Risk Management to assess the operations of the police department last December. That same month, it convened the task force, naming Mr. Goldberg chair of a body including Elena Williams, Robert Baron, Thomas Kempner Jr. and Dr. Georgette Grier-Key.

In its release highlighting the report’s debut, the task force pointed out Southampton Village currently spends $2,318 per resident on its police force, which is more than eight times the national average for small- and medium-sized cities.

“While we don’t doubt that the individual officers of the SVPD have the best interests of the community at heart, there are clear and serious problems with mismanagement and waste in the Department that are costing the Village millions of dollars,” the task force statement concluded. “Better oversight of the Department by the Village is clearly needed, as are major reforms to SVPD policies and practices.”

Summarizing his sentiments about the initiative, Mr. Warren offered: “The Hartnett Report was rightfully complimentary of many of our rank and file officers. However, there are clear issues of waste, nepotism and mismanagement in the Department. I’m looking forward to working with our Board to help solve these issues, improve our Village Police Department and make our Village even safer.”