The ARO program has not been implemented as most would have expected. When AROs were promised to Fairhaven, somehow they ended up downtown, walking the streets there to make people feel safer.
By their own words, AROs have told me directly that they are heavily engaged in the downtown core. They know every business owner by name and are a public face of the police there. However, they are limited in their abilities: they only work daytime hours, have limited capability, and often have to call in a full police officer to handle things they find on the street. I have also been told that this ARO program has been a great recruiting method for our Police Service (and many other outside police agencies that poach our AROs while we are paying to employ and train them).
So, this program is meant to be a revolving door to work up and assess potential officers for the general service. With that in mind, I want the ARO employment period to be set at a maximum of 5 years, with no extensions. At the 5-year mark, an ARO will make 80% of a regular constable for 10% of the risk and 30% of the workload, all while only working day shifts. Regular constables work 12-hour shifts through the day or night. There is no situation where I believe that any ARO is worth 80% of the salary of a full officer. If we are headed that way, then those AROs who reach five years better prove they are qualified and ready to be a full officer or else they should be removed from the program to open up space for other worthy candidates; otherwise, the ARO program will be bloated with overpaid Commissionaire’s!