Examining why Newport has such a large police department

NEWPORT — Covering 7.67 square miles, Newport is the smallest municipality in Newport County, but it has the largest police department.

There are 78 Newport police officers (including the chief), and though they’re dealing with less terrain, they’re handling the largest residential population in the county. According to the latest census, Newport is home to 24,334 people.

Portsmouth is the closest to Newport in population size (17,226) but, with 22.98 square miles of land, it’s three times the size of Newport. More land, but fewer police officers compared to Newport — the Portsmouth Police Department is 38 officers strong.

More: Drone helps Newport Police Department put eyes in the sky and keep people safe in many ways

Michael Coury, the director of human resources for Newport, couldn’t pinpoint why the city has a 78-officer department, but he said it’s been about that size since he joined the city administration 32 years ago.

“If anything, I think the numbers actually decreased,” Coury said, adding there were around 86 at some point.

Jimmy Winters, a former Newport police officer, echoed Coury. A Newport cop from 1990 to 2016, Winters said the department was around 78-strong when he was there, maybe a bit more.

Though small, Newport isn’t exactly dull when it comes to crime. Recently released data from the FBI reveals an increase in reported violent crimes in the city.

Newport reported 70 violent crime incidents in 2020 (52 aggravated assault incidents, 14 rape incidents and four robbery incidents). That’s up from reported 2019 numbers: 60 violent crime incidents, breaking down to 33 aggravated assault incidents, 19 rape incidents and 8 robbery incidents.

The FBI data also shows a jump — though a more significant one — in reported violent crimes in Middletown (the town reported 13 violent crime incidents in 2019, compared to 40 in 2020), but Middletown Police Capt. Jason Ryan advised caution when assessing the numbers.

“It’s not like we saw an increase of serious injuries or violent acts,” Ryan said in October. How crimes are categorized and reported figures into the results published in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, he explained.

For example, “we had one officer that got spit on by someone who said they had COVID, therefore that went down as aggravated assault,” Ryan said. Categorizing an incident as an aggravated assault “doesn’t mean it was a stabbing (or) something vicious like that.”

More: What were people arrested for over the summer in Newport? Here's a look at the numbers

The summer arrest numbers for Newport have remained pretty consistent over the years. Newport Police Lt. April Amaral previously provided a breakdown of the arrest numbers (including citations and summons) from June 1 to Sept. 1 over the past few years:

2018: 376

2019: 326

2020: 209

2021: 321

Not counting citations and summons (which can include driving with a suspended license, open-container violations and urinating in public), The Daily News counted 132 arrests in Newport this past summer, with the most frequent charge being disorderly conduct (which includes fighting, “making loud and unreasonable noise,” or obstruction of a street or sidewalk).

Suspected killings, murder charges and related court proceedings are relatively rare in Newport. A multi-year lull in violent death was only interrupted over Memorial Day weekend this year, when 22-year-old Maximus Julian of Little Compton suffered stab wounds during a fight at party at a short-term rental property on Thames Street. His family took him off of life support days later; Tyrese Poulsen was recently indicted on the murder of Julian.

Criminal activity in Newport is certainly present, but the small city isn’t exactly a hotbed for violent crime. So, why such a robust police department?

More: Why are Aquidneck Island police departments having trouble finding recruits?

David Lambert, director of the Roger Williams University Justice System Training & Research Institute, couldn’t say how most municipal police departments in Rhode Island set their staffing levels, but said: “I think it’s all tradition.”

“A lot of places use the per capita (approach), which, you know, we always looked at as meaningless,” Lambert said. “It’s a method, but it’s not necessarily based on workload … This stuff has really been much more intuitive than actually scientific.”

“There’s some really sophisticated staffing models that we’ve used in the past, (but) most places don’t do that,” Lambert said. “It really should be workload-based … but most police departments don’t have the resources, or the expertise or the funding, to bring somebody in to do it from the outside. So it typically doesn’t get done.”

More: Do Newport County police reflect the Hispanic, Latino community? Take a look at the data.

According to a study by James McCabe, a 21-year veteran of the New York City Police Department and associate professor of criminal justice at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, police staffing models in the U.S. are generally determined by one of five methods: analysis of crime trends, a per-capita approach, observance of minimum-manning levels, authorized or budgeted levels and, least commonly, workload-based models.

“We believe strongly that workload is the critical determinant of police staffing,” McCabe wrote. The preferred workload-based model typically relies on an examination of calls for service received by a department.

“There’s no simple explanation for how they got there and how they do it,” Lambert said of police staffing levels. He pointed to internal politics, contracts and community expectations as potential influencers of staffing levels.

“Does the community expect them to do community policing? Well that’s not necessarily answering (emergency) calls,” Lambert said. That means community engagement, “actually interacting with the community,” he said. “How much time you going to allocate to that?”

More: Newport police close case of 1966 Doris Duke crash that killed Eduardo Tirella — again

Departments also have to factor in sick, vacation and personal time for police officers, Lambert said.

How Newport sets its staffing levels

Newport Police Chief Gary Silva said the staffing level of his department is determined through the collective bargaining process between the Newport Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #8 and the city.

“The crime data, geographical size and layout of any municipality are not the only features when formulating personnel staffing and police operations,” Silva said in an email.

Aside from the collective bargaining process, Silva said “maintaining pace with trends in society, contemporary policing practices, and advancements in policing equipment and technology” are major factors that influence personnel staffing and police operations.

Plus, the Newport Pell Bridge contributes to traffic congestion and motor vehicle crashes, and Newport Harbor swells with boat traffic and sailing events in the summers, Silva said.

More: Newport teen Zacary Medina was murdered 3 years ago. His family is still seeking an arrest

He also pointed to major institutions within the city, like Naval Station Newport and Salve Regina University, and a ballooning seasonal population that “collectively contribute to the demand for professional police services to maintain public safety, address quality of life concerns, and (provide) helpful customer service to all.”

How Newport compares to another resort town in New England

Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has a population of 21,927 and is 15.63 square miles. It's a vibrant city that comes alive especially in the summertime and has expanded its commercial base. It mirrors Newport in many ways.

Portsmouth also has a similar-sized department, currently at 68 officers.

More: Newport Co. police departments talk about the changing stigma around officer mental health

“How that number became that number, I think it was just based off of the expectations of our community and the services that we provide,” said Portsmouth Police Chief Mark Newport in a phone conversation with The Daily News. “We also have a minimum manning staffing, and to be able to do that we had to have a particular number of officers … We also have the highest per capita liquor license in the state.”

The Daily News asked the chief why, in a geographically small city with a relatively low rate of violent crime, the police department is so large.

“It comes down to calls for service,” he said. “We have like 40,000 calls for service. Our calls for service, although it’s not just based off of ... our population, or violent crime, but the quality of life, the expectation set in our community. And to be able to provide that, that’s the amount of officers that are required to do that.”

According to Newport Police Department statistics included in the 2022 adopted and 2023 proposed city budget, calls for service hovered around 30,000 from fiscal 2012 to fiscal 2017; calls hit 35,000 in fiscal 2018, dipped slightly again the following year and hit the highest level in fiscal 2020 (just under 45,000).

More: Background on background checks: What it takes to be an Aquidneck Island cop

The Daily News asked Chief Newport if his department could provide the same level of service with fewer officers.

“No,” he said. “Really what it comes down to, we haven’t had an outcry from our community saying: ‘we don’t think we should have as many officers.’”

“Number one complaint here in Portsmouth is traffic,” Newport said. “We don’t have violent crime, but (citizens’) expectation is we’re there for every noise complaint, barking dog, you know. Everything and anything.”

Traffic is a major concern in the city of Newport, too. Coury said a program that recruits retired officers for traffic details was developed because “there’s so many details. There’s so many things going on within the city that our regular full-time staff just cannot get to … this was really a win-win for everyone, instead of increasing the compliment of full-time officers, with salary and benefits, we created this program where we basically pay detail pay to our retirees.”

"I know when I was working, we never had enough," Winters said. “It looks like you can analyze it at the desk, but you've got to be out in the streets.”

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Newport RI Police Department staffing levels highest in county