The Watertown Police patrolman’s union recently agreed to a new contract with the town, and last week it was approved by the state’s Joint Labor-Management Committee.
Tuesday night, Town Manager Michael Driscoll announced the approval of the agreement, which covers Fiscal Years 2014-16. It will give patrol officers a 2.5 percent raise for each of those years. Driscoll noted this is the same increase given to other town unions.
Other additions to the contract include all officers having to wear body armor when they are in the field, they must carry the anti-overdose drug Narcan and Epi-pens for people having allergic reactions.
With the epidemic of opioids and heroin in Watertown, the fact that patrol officers will now carry Narcan pleased Councilor Aaron Dushku.
“I can’t tell you how pleased I am with this agreement, especially with the Narcan,” Dushku said. “Now we have got the firefighters carrying Narcan, the police supervisors carry Narcan and now with this agreement all patrolmen will carry Narcan in their cars.”
The contract also added a new top step in the police patrol officer’s pay scale, which would be 2 percent higher than the previous top step, Driscoll said. Officers will not longer get the $1,300 clothing allowance. That money will be put into their base pay.
Another new policy requires officers to tell the Police Chief about any incident that results in an arrest, summons or criminal complaint in another town within 24 hours of the contact with the police department from another community.
Also Tuesday, the Town Council approved purchasing two new motorcycles to replace existing ones. The new motorcycles will cost $12,819 each, Driscoll said.