It's Crime Scene Investigators vs. Sherlock Holmes. And it's CSI vs. the city.
It's real-life CSI, but the issue isn't matching a bullet fragment or developing a latent fingerprint. It's a matter of pay and status.
The four members of the city's crime scene investigation unit have filed a grievance and retained a lawyer, claiming they should be compensated at the same rate as detectives. They currently receive the salary of police officers, between $50,000 and $55,000 a year.
But should they be paid the same as detectives?
The Crime Scene Unit is responsible for the documentation, collection and analysis of physical evidence. This includes the photographing, videotaping and sketching of all major crimes scenes, along with written documentation.
Crime Scene Unit officers process scenes for all possible physical evidence, including fingerprints, hairs, fibers, trace evidence, biological material, bloodstain patterns, footwear tread impressions, ballistic evidence, and DNA. CSU officers also attend autopsies of unnatural death victims, and process the victims for physical evidence, oftentimes identifying unknown decedents through fingerprint analysis.
They are essentially analysts. They do tests. It may be complicated and precise work, but it's detectives who do the Sherlock Holmes-type of deductive reasoning. Additionally, CSU officers do not interview witnesses or take statements.
Such a move -- making CSU officers equal to detectives -- would effectively change the culture of the police department.
Lt. Robert Rosati, the former head of CSU, has been removed from his post and told he's "back on patrol," as a patrol lieutenant. He was replaced by Lt. Robert Freeman.
And attorney Edward Perlman has his finger on the trigger to file a lawsuit if the city doesn't compensate the four officers about $3,000 each per year for doing what he says is much of the work that detectives do.
"The issue to be resolved is that the duties that the (CSU) officers perform are substantially the same as the duties performed by investigators," Perlman said. "I know they do a lot of work that investigators or detectives do."
The city is standing firm against the pay raises.
"I'm hoping that a resolution can be reached, and if we can't reach an accord, then we'll proceed to litigation. We're prepared to proceed to litigation," Perlman said.
Following about a month of haggling with the city, he is still waiting for an answer.
"If the city wants to tell me no, then give me a letter saying no, then I'll know which way I go. I'll put in a suit if I don't hear back from them," he said "I give them the courtesy of getting back to me, I don't mind giving them a little courtesy, but I'm not going to wait forever, we're going to wait no longer than a week."
That was last Thursday. Perlman has been dealing with Deputy Corporation Counsel Christopher Mazur on the issue.
"(Mazur) said he was going to talk to the chief and get back to me. That was the 18th," Perlman said. "I'll try to negotiate before suing it. That's exactly what I'm doing now. I'm trying to get the city to understand that. Hey look, guys, this is at risk for both of us, so what is the harm for the city to make these guys detectives?"
Mazur said that at the present time the Corporation Counsel's office can't discuss the issue because it is a policy of the office not to discuss personnel matters. He said the city's position will become clear if and when court papers are filed.
"Through their union they've filed a grievance, and up to this stage we've denied the grievance," Mazur said. "From what I understand, they may file a court action, an Article 78 action (proceeding against body or officer). I'm pretty sure they will."
The four officers are Jason Sykes, Marc Martinez, Todd Faddoul and Shawn Arndt. Police Superintendent John Chella did not return a phone call to his office.
Perlman said, "There's only four of them. There's not going to be 10 of them. The cost is really minimal. The guys are doing the work, so it's not like somebody's going to be getting money to sit on their hands all day."
The officers originally filed a grievance under the union and city's collective bargaining agreement, but the union didn't immediately back the officers.
"The union doesn't care about what affects four guys. If you think about it, you're a union representing 80 or 90 guys, you've got issues that might involve 80 or 90 guys -- wages, days off, overtime, a bunch of stuff -- and this only affects four guys," Perlman said. "The union's telling them, just wait, you know, we'll try to negotiate this. That's not going to work. The union would throw this out during negotiations, as evidenced by the fact that the union hasn't been behind these guys from the start."
If granted compensation at the rate of detective, the officers would get a pay increase of about $3,000 per year.
For all four officers, that equals "at most, including overtime, about $20,000 a year. And that's not a lot of money in a $100 million budget," Perlman said. "It's not a big-ticket item."
If a lawsuit is filed, "You have to sue under Article 78 within four months of the accrual, and my argument is that this is a continuing violation. ItŐs continuing in nature."
E-mail Ron Churchill at ronchurchill@yahoo.com.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Feb. 7 2012 |