Some South Florida officers are sounding the alarm over safety when it comes to working the night shift.
The issue stems from staffing changes at night that has put the Miramar Police Union at odds with the chief of police.
"To take officers off the road isn't going to protect the citizens, and it isn't going to help officers go home at the end of their shift safely," said Miramar Police Union President Brent Steffan.
Steffan is calling attention to changes in officer staffing levels overnight.
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The union called out Miramar Police Chief Delrish Moss for cutting staffing levels on the midnight shift, but the chief said that is not the case.
"Staffing has not been cut," Moss said. "What has been cut by one person is the number of minimum staffing, meaning the minimum number that you can have on the street before you call in someone for overtime, or the minimum number before you make someone stay over has been reduced by one person on the midnight shift"
According to a December internal memo from Moss, alpha, or the night shift, minimum staffing was to be reduced from 12 to 11.
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K9 and other units were to also be counted toward the minimum staffing levels.
Moss defended the decision noting fewer calls come in on Miramar's overnight shift and emphasized he did not transfer any officers off the night shift.
"The number of the people on the midnight shift has not been reduced, just that trigger for making a person stay over or calling someone in, by one person," Moss said.
He gave the example that the change comes into play when someone calls in sick, the staff would have one fewer officer on hand.
But Steffan says that is one officer too many.
"One officer is huge," Steffan said. "It's detrimental to officer safety. Even if you take one officer off the street, that's about a hundred of those checks that you lose, that's a safety issue. Residents should be concerned about that."
Despite the debate, both Moss and Steffan said this is an issue they aim to resolve together.
