A few years ago, there was a drug dealer that would park down the street near the woods. Each weekend, I would see this car with its blackened windows sit waiting for whoever wanted to buy whatever. Finally, one evening, a group of teenagers were around the mystery car. As I drove by, I saw the teenagers hand money into the half rolled down window and take something in return.
When I got home, I called the Montville Police, but was re-routed to the State Police Barracks. I told the State officer who answered the phone what I had seen. He as me if I was familiar with drug dealing to know what had transpired. He went on to tell me I should have stopped, knocked on the dark window and ask whoever was in the car what they were doing. GREAT ADVISE! I'LL JUMP RIGHT ON THAT IMMEDIATELY, JUST HOPE THE PERSON IN THE CAR DOESN'T HAVE A GUN?
On Nov. 1, 2013 The Day newspaper ran an article titled, "Montville Candidates in No Hurry to Decide Police Issue." I, like the rest of the candidates answered the question regarding whether there should be an independent police department as vague. Yes, I do believe it is inevitable that Montville shifts from a constabulary to a full fledge department. But I also asked myself, when should this shift happen and the costs.
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So today, on the Sunday before the Town election, instead of going door to door, putting up signs, or campaigning, I decided to do a rough evaluation of the costs associated with shifting to an independent Police Department. Why not, it seemed more interesting to me than worrying about whether I get elected or not.
First, I based my calculations using the Police Department of Clinton as the model. The Clinton PD has 23 officers; the same as Montville. Clinton has varying populations due to the massive increase during the summer months. Anyway, here's my conclusions.
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Second, I used the annual budget figures of 2012 - 2013 for both municipalities. I focused only on the Police Department costs including personnel, building maintenance, vehicle costs, etc. I did not include dispatch in my cost analysis.
Third, I did find the revenues figures for the Clinton PD, but not for Montville's. This variant should be taken into consideration when determining the final calculations.
AND HERE'S WHAT I FOUND:
Clinton: Annual Budget for Police is $ 2464470.00. This number includes salaries, vehicle & building maintenance, office supplies, janitor supplies, etc. Pretty much all expenditures relating to the Police Department.
Montville: Annual Budget of $ 2,048,523.00. This number I had to create because the vehicle maintenance was in the Public Works Budget and the Building maintenance is a separate budget. Additionally, I could not include the cost of gas for vehicle.
Subtracting the to department budgets equals a $415, 947.00 difference.
However, because the Clinton PD has more availability for grants, I checked their revenues. I found that the Clinton Public Safety line item received $ 313,923.00 in additional revenue.
If I am even close to correct, that means there is only a $100,000.00 difference between shifting from an independent police department to a full time police department. As I said earlier, this is a very rough analysis. But what it does say to me, is that we would be negligent as a town to not investigate this further. Hopefully, post-election, the new Council and Mayor will form an ad hoc committee as suggested to gain more insight with a specific timeline on this subject. Definitely worth a public debate if nothing else.
