file photo by Boyd Loving
Readers debate what is adequate Policing for the Village
25 police officers and 15 upper level members. Maybe there really are too many chiefs. If you read the roster there is a friends and family special going on.
https://rpd.ridgewoodnj.net/index.php/department-roster
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The supervisor # is not high the ptl # is low .Ridgewood has the lowest number of cops to residents ratio in all of Bergen county.To the best of my knowledge supervisors supervising relatives has not been allowed since chief Lipuma , and captain Landers, allowed Bill Amoruso to supervise his brother Sean. But that’s 5 years ago. Nepotism, is virtually impossible in the hiring process due to civil service rules and reg’s. The State police/FBI, UCR, report recommends Rwd pd carry 56 cops, the town paid a lot for a study several years ago that said no less than 44, cops believe me the dept. is thin ( manpower wise).
At least Chief Ward gets off his ass and participates, Ward is workin with a skeleton crew. down from 52 to 39 or 38. Can’t use a summer hire due to insurance regs, and possibility of injury. supervisors down from 14 to 10, calls for service up from 8500 to 24000 app over the past 10 years, so at least he’ll go out and do something. It doesn’t affect his job he’s always available on cell phone, maybe the new Village Manager will let him run his dept.
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Sgt and Lt should get out there and maybe even the Captain. But just remember the upper management have other duties such as planing so overtime doesn’t go out of whack and training schedule, firearms reports and it goes on.
The # of homes in the Village is the same as 10+ years ago. “IF” the volume of calls has increased, its due to ordinance violations that would be better handled by other departments. If there was a 311 # to call, then the PD would not have that ‘increase’ in the volume stated above. Barking dogs, recycling calls, snow removal on sidewalks, lawn watering violations should all be handled by their respective departments.
We do not need the over-staffing levels of 56 officers. (those were the days when every ‘bureau-detective, juvenile, patrol, traffic’ had way too many supervisors. One Lt. supervising 1 Sgt supervising a patrol officer.
As far as new hires being ‘cheaper’, thats a temporary fix. Once they get a few years on the job and ‘max out’ they get on the top level for their position and the supposed savings are gone.
If we truly had a ‘skeleton’ crew as the poster states above, then we would not see the PD cars parked at Van Neste doing nothing. Adding more officers would not motivate these current officers to ‘go out and write more summonses’, which they can do right now if they choose to rather than hanging around in town.
It takes 9years to max out in salary and 13 yrs to max out in longevity, new hires max at 10% the older guys that are retiring maxed at 13%, so 9 to 13 yrs is not so temp. There could be any # of legitimate reasons for 3 cars to be in town if you think they’re goofing off call the police desk anonymously and complain. If you add more officers the # of summonses will go up because there are more cops to write them not because the current cops will write more.
The only legit reason for 3 cars to be @ Van Neste is ‘coffee time’ or checking out the ‘sights’, assuming no ‘riot in progress’ requiring a police presence. I don’t care if they goof off when they’re not answering calls. Buts its quite apparent, by this very typical repetitive behavior, that the ‘skeleton crew’ can operate quite well with current manpower. As far as writing tickets, adding an officer that makes xxx dollars is not a good return on investment. The few dollars taken in as fines does not cover salary, medical benefits, and retirements. And if they start ticketing residents for BS violations (such as having a dealer name on license plate bracket covering the word garden state=chickenshit ticket) then the cops lose any support from the public.
As far as when ‘new hires’ max out vs ‘older guys’… not sure what your 10 vs 13% message is…but “IF” the new guys outnumber the “old guys’ (WHICH they will as ‘old guys’ retire) then when THEY negotiate a new contract, they will make up for what they ‘lost’ in prior negotiations. There is no argument for the taxpayer hiring more cops. This isnt the south bronx here yet the police in most bergen county towns are paid double what NYC or Paterson cops are.
Is increasing the # of summons a goal? More cops more summons? Police state?
W love the Fireman
The cops in rwd are not paid anywhere near double what Paterson or nyc cops are paid. When you look at nyc cops and examine their contract they have their own percs that increase the total package. Paterson cops fight the problem of a high %uncollected taxes which cuts into the total tax levy. The end result is there is no money to pay the cops, rwd has a collected tax levy in the 90th %tile. Sounds like you’ve had a negative with the cops over a ticket or many. The fact that cops are forced into a reactive instead of pro active mode is argument in and of itself to higher more cops, as far as increasing the # of summonses, there are a #of posters who opine for more traffic enforcement the result of hiring more cops would be more summonses.
The residents could care less about summonses issued.