Police union looks for benefits of regular cops

By Molly Ball

At the forefront of these "major" issues is the union's claim that they deserve a contract on par with regular officers. Yale police say that while their jurisdiction and responsibilities have steadily expanded over the years, their benefits have not kept pace, and that Yale police have benefits packages inferior to those of many other city and university police departments.

PATRICK MCGARVEY/YH Yale's police union is holding for a benefits package on par with that of New Haven's police.

"Prior to the negotiations in 1996, a few of us sat down with six or eight different police contracts, including the New Haven police, the Branford police, and the Harvard University police, in order to try to find a common model of benefits and bring our proposal into that ballpark," Morganti stated. He said that the University is unwilling to bring its benefits in line with those of the other departments.

Since it came into existence over a hundred years ago as little more than a security force, the Yale Police Department's responsibilities have expanded, and officers are now a parallel force to the New Haven police. "Yale officers have full police powers. [Their] jurisdiction is the entire city of New Haven,"Assistant Police Chief Jim Perrotti said.

When a New Haven resident calls the police, any call within Yale territory, including all of Broadway and other rental property owned by Yale, is dispatched directly to the Yale police. "We serve the Yale community, not just students, faculty and workers," Morganti noted. "We're very unique in that respect."

According to Morganti, "the distinction [between Yale and New Haven police] has been eroded by our own department wanting to become more involved with the city. I don't think Yale wants us to go backwards. It's better for the students when we have more professional equipment and keep the streets safe with our presence. The benefits are just lagging behind." Morganti noted that 70 to 80 percent of Yale police assignments are city crimes that do not involve Yale students.

In fact, Yale police may, in some ways, actually do more than their city counterparts. "The duties aren't quite the same," James Juhas, Yale's head negotiator, said. "There are things the University police do that the city police don't, dealing with unique situations that occur with a student population as opposed to the general population."

However, while Yale police salaries are comparable to city police, "the benefits are night and day," Morganti said. High age requirements for the pension plan and inadequate disability coverage are two of the key problems with the old contract. "We have the two oldest officers in the state on our force," Morganti said. "Most police officers retire in their fifties; it's not an old man's job."

"I will have been here 12 years in September," Morganti said. "When I started, we didn't do any motor vehicle enforcement, for example. We didn't have real police cars, just regular cars with a light on top and no radio. There was more definition between a New Haven incident and a Yale incident. Now there is no real
definition."

"There's no difference in jurisdiction or power," Judith Mongillo, New Haven Police Department spokesperson, confirmed.

Nonetheless, Juhas said, "It's my impression that New Haven police come on campus more often than our guys go off campus. [Yale police] have the same kind of authority as New Haven police, but their assigned beats keep them usually within the confines of campus."

Juhas was reluctant to voice the University's opinion on the negotiations, since the two sides agreed at the last meeting to reinstate a ground rule prohibiting public statements. "The members [of the police union] seem to be making statements, which may at the very least violate the spirit, if not the letter, of that rule," Juhas said. "But we don't consider the agreement ended."

Blackout or not, Morganti contends that the main obstacle in the talks has been Yale's reluctance to recognize the status of its officers. "Yale doesn't want to accept that while our [proposed] benefits are high compared to a maintenance worker or a secretary, we don't do their jobs. We're a police department."

Back to News...