Police Propose A $3 Million Department Budget

By Andrew Gorosko

The $3 million police budget proposed for the 2001-02 fiscal year represents a sharp spending increase over the current fiscal year.

The proposed $3,017,031 budget represents a more than 18 percent increase in spending compared to the $2,554,641 budget approved by the town last spring for the current fiscal year.

If, however, the $3 million proposal is compared to the $2,670,235 current police budget, which is based on budget modifications and budget transfers that have been made to the police budget since the town budget approval last spring, the $3 million proposal then represents an approximately 13 percent spending hike.

Police Commission members approved the $3 million spending proposal last week, forwarding it to the first selectman and town finance office for review. The proposal includes police operating costs and capital spending, animal control expenses, and police private duty accounts.

Most of the proposed spending increase falls in the payroll category. Police pay increases stem from the terms of a police labor contract between the town and the Newtown Police Union, which was settled last May.

Following more than a year of negotiations, the union and the town approved a new collective bargaining agreement May 15 which significantly increased the starting pay for patrolmen, and for the first time provided town-paid medical insurance coverage as a pension benefit for retirees.

In the spending proposal, the Police Commission seeks funding for a new police officer sometime after January 1, 2002.

The commission seeks to add one new police patrol car. It also seeks to replace six police cars, including five patrol cars and one unmarked detective car.

The proposed budget requests funding for “radio modems,” devices that would be installed in police cars to electronically link them to the National Crime Information Center computer database and to the state Department of Motor Vehicle computer records unit.

In a November 30 budgetary letter to First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal, Acting Police Chief Michael Kehoe writes that proposed spending increases stem from various pay increases for police officers, the hiring of new officers, the restructuring of the police department’s management staff, civilian personnel overtime costs, radio communications equipment maintenance costs, and police officer recruitment and hiring costs.

In the proposed $3 million budget, $2.19 million represents salary costs for all sworn police officers. Civilian personnel salaries are proposed at $278,425.

The Board of Selectmen will review the proposed police budget in the annual budget planning process before forwarding it to the Legislative Council for review.