How to Increase Police Staffing in this Bad Economy

I attended part of the Saturday budget session held jointly by the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee on Jan. 7, 2012. I went to listen to Acton's FinCom talk about our OPEB obligation, but also heard about the new Senior Center proposal and Police Chief Frank Widmayer talk about police staffing.

Widmayer said that since around 1990, he has voiced concerns about inadequate police staffing and asked for an increase in patrol officers, yet not much progress has been made.

Widmayer said state and federal funding has decreased dramatically for things like community policing, and the recent economic crisis has led to an increase in certain crimes like domestic violence and robberies. When there is some natural disaster or local emergency, it is tough to respond properly with the size police force Acton has. In short, we need more officers.

An interesting conversation ensued. FinCom member Doug Tindal made an observation that he's attended several of these annual budget events and each time he hears the same thing: We need more police officers and we are understaffed. Tindal wondered why the town boards, who are not experts in police staffing, would listen to this year after year and take virtually no action to correct it. Do we know something that our police professionals do not? And why are we substituting our judgment for theirs on a matter of public safety?

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