What is the TRUTH about the Police Dept. Budget?

Please accept this as an article submission;


Does our police dept. operate on a shoestring, as Jack Sapia, so hysterically claimed at deliberative session?

Or is the truth somewhat different?

Well here are the facts;

Every year Our police dept. budgets 10,400 full time hours, 8,760 part time hours, And our PT Chief who is limited by law to 1,300 hours per year.

The hours listed are PATROL hours, they do not include hours budgeted for dispatch, clerical, school crossing, et.al.

We currently have, as Jack announced at deliberative session, ONE patrol officer on each shift! Same as we had in 2000, when the budget was $300,000.

There are 8,360 hours in a year! So we are spending 20,000 man hours to cover 8,360 hours. I know the math doesn't work out, does it?

We heard the budget committee's Fred Thompson try to explain away this vast difference by saying it was taken up with Vacation, sick time and holiday time, but that math doesn't work either.

You have 5 FT officers that get benefits.

2wks. Vacation(80 hours) x 5 officers= 400 man hours.

11 paid holidays(88 hours) x 5 officers= 440 man hours.

10 sick days(80 hours) x 5 officers= 400 man hours.

So here is the math;

20,000 man hours budgeted

-8,360 man hours spent patrolling the town.

-1,240 man hours covering vacation, holiday, sick time.
__________
10,400 man hours we have paid for, but are unaccounted for.

Take out the 2000 hours for the Lt.

You still have 8,400 hours unaccounted for. That is an ENTIRE YEAR OF PATROL TIME WASTED!

So much for simplistic calculations, lets look at the money;

I asked, at deliberative session, why the dept. was costing us $767,000 this year, when last year we spent only $643,000?

Yes I am well aware, and sorely miss Cpl. Lapham, and Sgt. Kinney, but they have served to demonstrate the waste in the PD.

Please understand, last year police services were provided to the town without interruption, or degradation in services. Tickets were issued, court cases were prosecuted, arrests were made, halloween went off without a hitch, calls were answered, in short; everything the PD was supposed to do, they did, and they did it by SPENDING ONLY $643,000.00.

So If we could do all of that for only $643,000 last year, why is it going to cost us $767,000 this year?

Yes, I know, that we covered the shifts with part timers, but that just means that we should be doing that all the time, after all that is why we have 18 part time slots!

I was told by the chairman of the budget committee at that meeting that they dont run the PD. Well that is true, but, by law, the budget committee, is charged with finding the appropriate funding level for every dept. in town. They have enormous power and authority to gather information from any town official, or outside the town. When I chaired that committee, we compared budgets of surrounding similarly situated towns, such as Hampstead, and Sandown. Hampstead's police budget this year is $809,000, with a town that is 40% larger, 2 more full time officers, 2+ patrol officers on each shift, 40% more business.

Does this make any fiscal sense?

Take the personalities out of this article, ad look at the numbers, can anyone say that this is a necessary expenditure? Can anyone say that this job could not be done for less, as we did last year?

Signed,

MArk Acciard