Easton Police Department with former Mayor Phil Mitman
Posted by: Noel Jones
Michael Buck of the Express Times reports that the City of Easton will be hiring six new police officers this year. Read his article here. Chief Palmer is happy about having finally returned to what he feels to be a full compliment of 63 officers, and this is the number that Mayor Panto has been aiming for since he took office. How do we feel about this? Keep in mind that five of our officers are eligible for retirement this year (but that doesn't necessarily mean they will take it). So this addition will put us at anywhere between 58 and 63 officers at the year's end.
I know there are differing views on this among our readership--some feel that paying for salaries, overtime and benefits for new officers is too expensive for taxpayers right now, and that with much less money the city could pay for many more outreach workers to help coordinate efforts with our current police force, which is working very hard for us in our neighborhood. Others feel that the more officers we have on the force the better, and that the neighborhood will be safer with a deeper force to draw from.
What do you think? Post your comments here.
One thing I'd be curious to know would be the cost of hiring new officers vs. the amount of necessary overtime eliminated by having the new officers to relieve the current ones. Perhaps the new hires are cost-effective? I would also be curious to know whether the money used to
pay the new officers is defined in such a way as to not be transferrable for the payment of outreach workers. It's important to know the limitations of the funding available to have an informed conversation.
If you know the answers to these questions or have other opinions and/or questions about the whole thing, please post a comment!
Above all, many thanks to our officers, especially Matt Rush and Russ Demko, who have been working hard to back up resident efforts to steadily decrease the amount of serious crime over the last few years, as well as nuisance crimes in our neighborhood for a better quality of life for West Ward residents!
Posts
5 comments:
Great news and I believe I read tyhat the Mayor got a federal grant for three of them for three years complete with benefits. That means we are only paying for 60. The more police the better and cutting down on overtime may not save the city money in salaries buty it will relieve police wsorking too many hours and maybe getting edgy therebby reducing lawsuits.
"cutting down on overtime may not save the city money in salaries buty it will relieve police wsorking too many hours and maybe getting edgy therebby reducing lawsuits" - funny!
good news about the grant. i would love to see the city bring down some grants for outreach workers too--fingers crossed!
I would like to see more of our Police Officers interacting with our youth. Teach our kids that our Police are there to help and protect us all, that we are all on the same side.
I am generally impressed with the new officers, they are professional and by all reports are provided with the latest technology and training and fine supervision and planning.
I believe that it all starts with our youth. If they can be brought up with the mindset that we all work to achieve a common goal we might pave the way for all of us to live better lives.
In most everyone's opinion, at least what I hear, we have been off to a good start with our Police Department in the last few years. Hopefully our city can continue down this path.
It begins with our kids.
This is outlandish because the poor homeowners affected by the winter storm with needed repairs mayor Sal has not funded these programs; it’s basically a program for low incomes to get a lien on property homeowners for emergency repairs roofing etc.from habitat humanity and city home Leon program police are making high wages already no extra funds needed
In order to reduce taxpayers money the city needs to have a punch in for officers when going on call when sitting in a patrol car it’s 18.00 til going on call then higher wage.who want to pay anyone for sitting in a parking lot car? Just like a waitress min til a call tip comes or like a mechanic punch in when on flat rate job
Post a Comment