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''THIS situation could be catastrophic,'' said Todd Sarris, the East Hampton Town police chief. ''It's a problem that all of us police chiefs on the East End are grappling with, and I don't think that there's anything in the near future that's going to make it go away.''
Chief Sarris was not referring to drugs or gangs or any other sort of criminal activity, but to the difficulty of recruiting. East Hampton is one of several municipalities on the East End facing a shortage of police officers because the cost of housing is so high.
''It's impossible to hire a local person if he or she doesn't already have a place to live here,'' Chief Sarris said. ''We're trying to hire out-of-town people and many of them want to work out here, but they just can't afford the real estate, or the commute won't work for either of us.''
An officer fresh out of the Suffolk Police Academy will be offered anywhere from $30,000 to $34,000 by East End police departments. That salary won't stretch far in an area where the average price of a home is approaching half a million dollars and moderately priced rentals are becoming increasingly scarce.
With two officers from Shelter Island's eight-member force set to retire this month, Chief James Read asked the Town Board last fall to loosen or eliminate the requirement that full-time police officers move into the town within two years of being hired. Living in Riverhead Town or perhaps the North Fork would allow recruits to find affordable housing and still be within a reasonable driving distance, he said. He added that none of the candidates already living on Shelter Island had passed the civil service test and that those from elsewhere preferred to join the Suffolk County Police Department, which serves the county's five western towns, because of the higher pay and lower cost of living there.
Shelter Island lawmakers agreed to change the restriction. The new rule is that a new officer must live in one of the five East End towns within a year of being hired. Still, to be on the safe side, Shelter Island has been placing ads in local papers looking for at least part-time officers to supplement full-time staff, offering a starting wage of $22 per hour.
At present, the force is down to five officers because of the two retirements and an officer recuperating from an injury. With no new hires on the horizon, the Town Board has allocated $250,000 in overtime for those officers still on duty, six times the amount of previous years. To provide some assistance, in January the state police moved an officer from Fishers Island to Shelter Island.
East Hampton Town has already eliminated its residency requirement, according to Supervisor William McGintee, who was a town police officer before being elected in November 2003.
''We're making some adjustments, including a preference list for affordable housing,'' Mr. McGintee said. ''Police officers are one of the few occupations that receive the highest priority when housing becomes available.''
Chief Sarris said he would much prefer to have his officers live in the town or at least a short distance from East Hampton. ''The response time for an emergency is much quicker,'' he said. ''When we're short-shifted and need cops to work overtime, that's a lot easier for a local person as opposed to someone living over an hour away. Anyone who is on call, it could be too late when someone shows up long after the call was sent out.''
''It's not only that in an emergency a cop can be there in 20 minutes, it's that the police officers living here become part of the community,'' Mr. McGintee said. ''They get to know the people they're living with.'' Many officers, he added, serve as ambulance drivers and firefighters.''
There is a special concern about the summer, when the police department is stretched to the limit. The town's population expands from 20,000 to more than 60,000, yet the only addition of law enforcers are the traffic control officers whose job is to direct traffic and give out parking tickets.
The dearth of workforce housing also has an impact on local volunteer fire departments and ambulance squads, which tend to attract younger recruits. The average age of a firefighter in the Quogue Fire Department is 51, and signs are sprouting on East End roads seeking volunteers.
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