Council Approves Pact For Public Housing Patrols
Friday, March 1, 2013 • 7:09am
PATERSON, NJ – The City Council on Tuesday night renewed an agreement that assigns off-duty police officers to patrol Paterson’s public housing complexes.
Under the arrangement, two off-duty officers are supposed to patrol the Paterson Housing Authority’s family sites seven days per week in two separate shifts, one from 4 pm to midnight and the other from 6 pm until 2 am. The pact requires the officers to conduct a foot patrol through walking areas, to enter each building and to clear each floor as many times as possible during each shift.
The agreement also calls for one officer to patrol the authority’s senior citizen sites from 4:30-11:30 pm.
Under the arrangement, the housing authority pays the officers $27.50 per hour. The authority also pays city government $5 per hour to cover insurance and administrative costs.
Officers get assigned to the patrols through the police union, which handles off-duty work, including security jobs and construction sites.
