The installation of new water/sewer pipes along Union Avenue deflected all Union Avenue traffic to Franklin Street, which disrupted traffic on Franklin Street. This required the police department to assign approximately 5-10 officers whose job was to better control the traffic lights. This is DPW work, so any police details such as this are paid at $45/hour. Nice job. Push a button periodically at $45/hour. This is a more suitable job at $15/hour. This reconstruction project took months and was a real cash cow for the favored officers . It was sad to see how our monies are wasted by the police department. Most of the time, I saw them fiddling with their phones. All they have to do is push a button every 3-4 minutes.

65 Delmar Avenue Framingham, MA 01701 October 1, 2017 508-561-8452 hjwolfe@gmail.com Framingham Police Department 1 William Welch Drive Framingham, MA 01702 Attn: Police chief Ken Ferguson Dear sir, In my daily driving through our not so fair town, I happen to notice that the lights at the intersection of Maple Street and Franklin Street are being manually controlled by not one police officer, but two police officers. One of the officers is black. Is this going to be a permanent position for them? What are their names and badge numbers? How can you justify the use of two police officers to manually control a light? What is the nature of the problem that it should get this level of attention. How long has this problem in light synchronization existed that it requires two men (with guns) to resolve? Then one day, a third officer (Lt. Wareham, I believe) had the gall to park on Franklin St by the signal box, thus partially blocking a travel lane. He turned on his blue lights to say See these blue lights, people, that says my job in talking to my buddies here is way more important that your job of taking your kids to school or you getting to work on time. See picture below. http://www.framingham-police.org/images/three-officers-and-a-light.jpg Remarkable lack of empathy and wasted monies. Yes, police work is just so difficult at an average salary over $100,000.. This looks like one of those $15/hour jobs (minimal skills required). Aside from your other extraneous position like school crossing guards, school resource officers and traffic resource officers (all the officers who protect our street holes doing detail work), what do we call these positions? Traffic light resource officer? Does anyone do police work, or is this police work? I also took note of a second intersection along Franklin St. that had another police officer pushing buttons on a traffic light box. Do your officers get extra pay if they learn how to operate a light, like they do to use a fingerprint scanner? Sincerely yours, Harold J. Wolfe

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