By Rick Forgione<br><a href="mailto:forgioner@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Rick</a>
Niagara Gazette
Fri, May 16 2008
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TOWN OF NIAGARA — The Police Department will soon be sending a message to motorists.
State Sen. George Maziarz has secured a $24,000 grant that will allow the department to purchase a speed trailer and radar unit for motorist education and traffic enforcement. The equipment is being purchased from Illinois-based Decatur Electronics and can serve as a message sign to motorists and complete traffic and radar studies. It is not used anywhere else in the area, Niagara Police Chief James Suitor said.
With the grant money secured, members of the town board on Thursday gave Suitor approval to order the message trailer, which is expected to take up to three months to be built and delivered. Suitor said the trailer comes equipped with 199 programmed messages — such as warnings of road work ahead or accidents — but can also be customized for almost any situation.
Town officials are planning to set up the trailer on specific streets known for drivers surpassing the speed limit. The technology will not only display how fast a motorist is going, but record the data, allowing the police department to know specific times and volume so officers can pinpoint the best times to be on patrol.
“Obviously, we can’t be everywhere at once,” Suitor said.
The grant money is coming from the 2008 Senate Member Initiative Program.
Also Thursday, town board members directed Suitor to begin interviews to fill up to four part-time officers within the department. The hirings are needed to eliminate vacancies and make up for a lack of availability among current part-time officers, most of whom work full time for other police agencies, Suitor said.
“The monies are budgeted for these (part-time) positions, we just don’t have the bodies,” Town Supervisor Steven Richards said.
The department currently has a staff of six full-time officers and 15 part-timers.
Applicants for part-time positions must go through police academy training. Suitor said he has a handful of eligible officers he would like to consider to fill the four open spots, however, none of them are Town of Niagara residents and all of them work for other departments, making their availability reduced.
Town officials have said in the past they prefer to hire residents to the department, but it is not a requirement.
Suitor was instructed to narrow the field down and bring the finalists back to the board for interviews.
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