“Our 2016 budget is fairly tight…. We may or may not have the funds to do this but my goal for this year is before the end of the year, hopefully late summer, once we get a feel for how the budget is going, is to hire another officer at that time,” he said.
He said that person would likely not be road worthy until February, so spending about $40,000 on a patrol car can be put off, but the new hire would run in the $40,000 to $50,000 range.
Voters approved the permanent levy by a 60/40 margin in the March 15 primary and the levy will cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $180 a year.
One thing is for certain, they will be promoting someone to the rank of sergeant this year so they will have a full complement of supervisors for each shift, according to City Manager John Jones.
“Boy is this a nice problem to have, it really is…,” Jones said. “We’re definitely going to promote a sergeant this year, we need a supervisor on each shift and we’ve gone an inordinate amount of time without a sergeant on a shift.”
Scott said it will likely take two-and-a-half to three years to get all of the new people on board. They plan to name a veteran officer to the drug task force either at the county level or the chief says Middletown is talking about reconvening their task force. They say they really need help getting the drug problem solved and they need to be at the table to be effective.
Detective Sean Gill has been doing double duty, investigating cases and filling in on road patrol. He said he and his fellow officers are very grateful to the community for supporting the levy.
“A big concern the officers had was especially on day shift, when there is one officer, the chance with hiring more we’ll get to be able to put two officers as our minimum manpower on day shift, just for safety reasons,” Gill said.
“On Saturdays and Sundays there’s a chance there is only officer here and if you need back-up, it could be from the county or Monroe and depending on what they’re on, depends how quick your back-up is going to get here. So just from an officer safety standpoint I think it’s a big deal.”
With only 13 people in the department including the chief overtime has been the only option to ensure coverage. Jones said overtime has been running $100,000 or more and has really cut into the officer’s family time.
“Our staff will get needed time off that is well deserved,” Jones said. “When you are short on officers, burnout is an issue as well as the family life suffers.”
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