Lake Como Can No Longer Afford Its Own Police Department

Lake Como has roughly 2,000 residents in its quarter-mile limits and 10 police officers to patrol the borough.

Officials in the small Monmouth County town are projecting it would cost $1.9 million in 2016 to pay officers’ salaries, pensions, benefits and operating costs, according to app.com.

It’s a price Lake Como can no longer afford to pay.

Mayor Brian Wilton said officials have approached Belmar, Spring Lake, Spring Lake Heights and Wall about one of the towns providing police services to Lake Como.

If the borough kept the police department, it would mean a $651 property tax hike in 2016 for a home assessed at $350,000, the mayor said.

The state’s Department of Community Affairs has recommended that the borough eliminate the police fore, Wilton said.

“Public safety is paramount and you have to have a police department and you have to have a safe town,” Wilton said. “But having our own police department for a town our size is something we can’t afford.”

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