BUCYRUS—Bucyrus City Police Chief Neil Assenheimer waited nearly two hours to address the Finance Committee during their meeting Thursday evening.

Assenheimer told the council that Bucyrus Police Officers and dispatchers are working excessive overtime to provide minimum coverage to the city.

Currently, two officers are on the road for each shift, and one officer or dispatcher is at the desk.

Assenheimer told the council his department is exhausted:

“They are walking around like zombies down there. I have serious safety concerns for our employees including excessive fatigue. Seven out of ten shifts are on 12 hours. These working conditions simply cannot continue,” Assenheimer said.

Assenheimer warned the council that there was nowhere else to cut except in coverage. The result could be no officers on duty overnight.

“The cost of law enforcement has gone up like everything else. The city has not adjusted to meet the demand for increases in revenue needed to pay for our safety forces. If we want our police officers to continue to work here, we need to pay them competitively and staff them appropriately,” Assenheimer said.

Bucyrus Police Officers make $53,247 annually to protect a city of approximately 11,500. Officers in neighboring Willard pay their officers $55,595 annually to protect 6,197 citizens.

Assenheimer pointed out that Galion gave their officers a 15% pay raise. The Sheriff Department employees received a $2.00 pay raise in the middle of a contract cycle.

The Chief reminded the council that the police department will negotiate the third year of their contract this year.

Citing the generous contract approved for the fire department employees, Assenheimer said he expects the same consideration for the police department.

“City council has shown the fire department that they very much appreciate their services by accepting a large pay raise for firefighters. We expect that the city council will show favor to the police as they did to the fire department,” Assenheimer said.

To achieve that fairness, the council will have to increase police salaries by 9% with a $1.00 per hour rate adjustment.

So far this year, an overworked department has responded to 450 calls. To that point, Chief Assenheimer laid it on the line to the council with these parting words:

“If the city is unwilling to properly fund and staff the Bucyrus Police Department, then the city deserves to lose the employees that it has and they will have to deal with the increase in drugs and crime,” Assenheimer said.

Finance Committee Chairman Dan Wirebaugh told Assenheimer he supports safety forces. He noted that more than 90% of the budget goes to safety forces.

He and Mayor Reser noted that the city had put a hold on all building maintenance and the city pool would not open this year if the upcoming levy in May fails.

Before adjourning, Wirebaugh encouraged everyone to support the city by voting for the levy.

Crawford County Now will continue to cover this developing news story.