Paramus Police Manpower Lowest In Decades

Due to a hiring freeze, injuries and a wave of retirements, manpower at the is as low as it has been since the late 1960s, according to the police chief and commissioner.

As of Monday, the department had 81 sworn officers. That number will drop further after Wednesday, which is Capt. Kevin Smith's last day on the job before his retirement.

Officers Ryan Hayo and Joseph Cullen were the department's latest hires, in 2009. Since then, the Borough has instituted a hiring freeze to control costs.

The staff has also been stretched thin due to a spate of injuries. Officer Robert Brack and Det. Michael Cebulski this past weekend, and are both out of work indefinitely.

Det. Richard Menhinick is out with a shoulder injury, and Officer Rachel Morgan is still multiple times in February. The department may be also be losing Det. Thomas Schroeder, who may need treatment for a shoulder injury suffered a week ago.

And more retirements are coming.

"By August of this summer, we have five more officers retiring," Chief Christopher Brock said.

That will bring the department's staffing to 76 sworn officers, the lowest it's been in decades. The department's highest allotment of officers ever was 102, in the late 1980s.

Councilman Michael Rohdieck, who serves as the police commissioner, surmises that the wave of retirements is partly due to uncertainty about to the health and pension benefits of police officers.

The department has taken steps to lighten the workload for the remaining officers. In the detective bureau, investigators have put tighter limits on the cases they'll pursue.

"If we have a case where there is no suspect information, no investigative information, no traceable evidence left at the scene, basically what we're doing is making those cases inactive," Brock said.

Brock said restrictions on calls for service may come next. In the past, the department sent a car to every call, but with manpower limited, Brock said more residents may be asked to come to headquarters with information instead.

The school resource program, which stationed Paramus officers in Paramus schools, has already been eliminated, and Brock said the DARE drug education program for fifth graders is being reevaluated as well.

"I would hate to do away with that program because I support it 100%," Brock said.

Rohdieck said the Mayor and Council scheduled an extra meeting in July to discuss the manpower issues in the police department. The govering body will discuss promotions to replace retiring supervisors and talk about how to hire more officers while staying in the parameters of the municipal budget, which had in the amount of taxes collected this year.

Brock said officers are working marathon shifts to maintain minimum staffing levels, which increases overtime costs, but also taxes the force physically.

"Any human being can only work at top performance for so long before you start to lose certain things, like attention span," Brock said. "Your senses aren't as alert in your 15th hour as they would be in your second hour or your sixth hour of work."