here's the rest of it.
Hoping to cut costs
Buffalo police, the review found, were paid $3.35 million in court time in 2000-01 and $3.4 million in 2001-02. Last year, the 2002-03 fiscal year, court time cost the city $3.6 million - even though steps were taken to reduce court time.
The Police Department hopes to reduce court time to $2.8 million this year. But one-quarter of the way into the fiscal year, spending is above budget.
While that's bad news to the city, it means more money for some of the department's 846 officers.
In the past three years, a dozen officers earned a three-year total of $50,000 or more in court time. It's a big chunk of money to officers whose base salary is usually between $48,000 and $50,000.
Buffalo's court time - averaging $4,255 per officer - was the highest in five similar-size cities. In Toledo, Ohio, court time last year for the 675-member police department was about $336,000, or $497 per officer. Rochester, with a 707-member force, spent $536,000 last year, or $758 per officer.
The Newark department, with 1,200 officers, spent $2.7 million, as did Pittsburgh, with 900 officers. They averaged $2,250 and $3,000 per officer, respectively.
All five departments, except Buffalo, generally send only one officer to most preliminary court hearings as well as many court cases. One department sent reports - not officers - to preliminary hearings.
"We said, "Hey, if you have five officers and they are all going to testify to the same thing, why not just have one?' " said Capt. James Matthews of the Toledo police. Toledo is also among the departments that offer a combination of compensatory time off and money - rather than just money - to reduce court time. When initially questioned about high court time costs in Buffalo, Blankenberg put much of the blame on the district attorney's office for calling so many officers. "I've got cases where there are several pretrial conferences on the same case. How many conferences do you need to set up a prosecution?" Blankenberg asked. District Attorney Frank C. Clark, in turn, placed the blame on the way officers write arrest reports. It leaves his prosecutors with no choice but to call in several officers for pretrial conferences, he said.
"We weren't able to satisfy our legal obligations by calling in just one or two officers," Clark said. "The charging documents (arrest reports) reflected there were more officers than required." And Robert P. Meegan, president of the Police Benevolent Association, said it's often important for several officers to appear because "each sees different things."
Meegan also said court time can be costly for officers because they don't receive mileage or parking reimbursement. There are also baby-sitting expenses for some officers with young children, "not to mention the inconvenience to an officer's off-duty time," Meegan said.
Working on changes
A couple of weeks after the initial interviews, Blankenberg contacted The News to say the Police Department and the district attorney's office are working together to change the way court time is handled.
Only one officer will be assigned to City Court cases from now on, and just one officer - a case manager - will be familiar with the entire case for pretrial hearings. "There is no need for any other officer unless there is a trial, and the vast majority of cases (are pleaded and) never go to trial," Blankenberg added.
Also, Blankenberg said, the lieutenant serving as the department's court liaison left the position Saturday and will be replaced by a representative of management, possibly an attorney, who police brass hope will help control court time costs.
Clark said he is happy to work with the Police Department to economize. "If we can get one officer who is competent to testify to all the elements we need, that means instead of calling four officers, we're able to establish our legal burdens by calling one officer," the DA said.
Blankenberg also said some officers have been less than cooperative with prosecutors unless they are given court time.
That's going to change, he said: "By January we should see a significant reduction in court time. If we don't, we're going to have to re-evaluate and see why not."
Previous efforts
This isn't the first time the Police Department said it was clamping down. As recently as last year, the department announced plans to cut court time expenses. Through closer monitoring of who goes to court and through on-again, off-again discussions with the district attorney's office, the department did cut overall court time hours from the previous year.
But police also received a pay raise last year. And there were still times when several officers attended court hearings.
As a result, court time costs rose.
The Congress Street case was among those that added to last year's costs.
In that case, five detectives from the seven officers involved in the drug bust on Nov. 1, 2002, were called in twice for pretrial conferences on court time.
The district attorney's office said it was necessary to call the five because the arrest reports showed each officer was familiar with a particular aspect of the arrest, but none had overall knowledge. The cost of those pretrial conferences: about $1,000.
And as it turned out, it was for naught: The case never went forward. Prosecutors, after reviewing the evidence, determined problems existed with the way the officers had conducted the search.
"Isn't that embarrassing," Blankenberg said. "Shame on us."
Narcotics Lt. Thomas Lyon, who supervised the Congress Street drug bust, stood by the actions of his detectives. "We do a quick search at the scene, then for the safety of the suspect as well as the officers, the suspect is taken to central booking for a more intensified search," Lyon explained.
Several officers are involved in the search for safety reasons, and the arrest reports list every officer involved, and what he or she did, at the request of the district attorney's office - not because the officers are vying for court time, Lyon said.
"We document whatever takes place during the course of an undercover buy and arrest. This was specifically requested of us by the DA's office," Lyon said. "We could list 100 names, but (prosecutors) decide who they need to prosecute the case."