Dear Neighbors:
I updated my research to include more towns and more accurate
information concerning populations, town budgets, police levels
and police budgets. The
survey shows that Killingworth pays less than one half of what almost
all other towns pay for police protection as a percentage of the
respective town’s total annual budget. In other words,
fourteen out of the seventeen towns in the survey pay twice as much
for police protection as a percentage of their town budgets than
Killingworth does. Most of the other towns also have more police
protection than a single trooper for 40 hours per week. Regardless
of what other towns do, I believe Killingworth needs to hire a second
trooper. A second trooper means faster response times, more
patrols in our streets and a safer town. A safer town means
better home values as well.
The survey compares Killingworth’s police coverage and police
budget with other rural towns with populations from 3,000 up to 11,000. I
surveyed seventeen towns. Specifically, I thought it would be interesting
to see what percentage of our overall budget goes toward police protection
and to compare it with other small rural towns. I also calculated
how much per household each town spends on police protection. With
respect to the latter calculation, this does not represent what the
actual cost per household is in each town because I did not take
into consideration the percentage of tax revenues derived from commercial
enterprises in the towns. Thus, it is simply a number that
represents the total police budgets divided by the number of households
in the towns. The information about police levels and budget
amounts was mostly derived from talking to representatives of the
respective town governments or police departments. It should
be noted that with respect to towns that just had trooper coverage,
I used Killingworth’s cost of $93,000 for its trooper and supplies. Actual
costs for these towns may be more or less than Killingworth’s
costs. All the other data with respect to town budgets and
households came from CERC Town Profiles 2008. See http://www.cerc.com/TownProfiles.
Only two of the seventeen towns surveyed spend less than one half
of one percent of their town budgets on police protection. Killingworth
appears to spend (0.44%) of its total budget on police protection
and Durham spends about (0.41%) on police protection. Close
by is Bethany which spends about (.57%) of its budget on police protection. It
should be noted, however, that the Connecticut State Police Barracks
is located in Bethany so there is plenty of coverage in town should
an emergency arise when their 40 hour per week trooper is off duty.
The
next closest towns with respect to percentage of total budgets spent
on police protection are Haddam (.86%), Salisbury (.89%) and Chester
(.87%). One other town came in at less than 1.0%: Columbia
(.87%). Many towns in the survey spend at least 1.0 % of their
total budgets on police protection: Kent (1.07%), East Haddam
(1.34%), New Hartford (1.58%), Washington (1.68%), Deep River (1.75%),
Old Lyme (2.75%), Essex (2.94%), Oxford (3.1%), Portland (4.86%),
and lastly Woodbridge (10.08%).
Based
on this seventeen town survey, it is clear Killingworth and Durham
are not only at the low end with respect to police coverage with
only one full time trooper, but both towns also appear to spend less
than one half of one percent of their total budgets on police protection. This
is less than half of what all the other towns in the survey,
except for Bethany, spend on police protection as a percentage of
their overall budgets.
Killingworth
is one of three towns that spends less than ($40) per household on
police protection. Only four towns in my survey spent less
than $40 per household for police protection: Killingworth ($37),
Durham ($34), Salisbury ($37), and Bethany ($35). Chester,
Kent, Haddam and Columbia spent ($55), ($60), ($58) and ($56) respectively.
East Haddam was the last one of the towns surveyed that came in under
$100. It averaged ($72) per household.
In
ascending order, the other towns in the survey were Washington ($104),
Deep River ($121), New Hartford ($135), Old Lyme ($151), Essex ($158),
Oxford ($220), and Portland ($318). Last and far from
least was, you guessed it, Woodbridge which averaged ($1,086) per
household spent on police protection.
Generally,
Killingworth only has a trooper in town and on duty 40 hours per
week. When Killingworth’s 40 hour per week trooper is off duty,
there is one trooper assigned to patrol either two or three other
towns in addition to Killingworth. I have heard two different numbers
from police sources. Regardless, it does not change the basic
principle of my argument. It is my contention that it is better
to have a second trooper assigned for an additional 40 hours per
week to Killingworth than it is to expect a quick response from a
trooper with only a one out of three or a one out of four chance
of being in our town when a call for emergency assistance is received. Also,
a second trooper in our town means more patrols of our neighborhoods
which will help deter future crime. Lastly, troopers are trained
in CPR so even if you are not concerned about crime we should keep
in mind that an extra trooper in town for 40 additional hours increases
the chances that a life can be saved.
Below
is my revised and updated survey for us to consider with respect
to whether Killingworth should increase its police protection from
one trooper for 40 hours per week in town to two troopers for a total
of 80 hours per week in town. If cuts cannot be made in the
budget to pay for an additional trooper, I estimate the average cost
per household to be less than $37 per year which amounts to ten cents
per day to double the police presence in our town.
If
you have any questions or comments about my survey, you can email
me at scott@trainlaw.com.
Sincerely,
Scott Perry
Kent, CT
Pop. 3,104
Police: 1 Trooper
Police Budget: $93,000
2006 Town Budget: $8,670,783
Percent Of Budget Spent On Police Protection: 1.07 %
Average Cost Per Household: $60 ($70,000 / 1,545)
Chester, CT
Pop. 3,904
Police: 1 Trooper
3 Constables (all part time)
Police Budget: $93,000 (just trooper counted)
2006 Town Budget: $10,669,734
Percent Of Budget Spent On Police Protection: 0.87%
Average Cost Per Household: $55 ($93,000 / 1,689)
Salisbury, CT
Pop. 4,239
Police: 1 Trooper
2 Constables (part time and only used for special events)
Police Budget: $93,000 (just trooper counted)
2006 Town Budget: $10,401,999
Percent Of Budget Spent On Police Protection: 0.89%
Average Cost Per Household: $37 ($93,000 / 2,480)
Washington, CT
Pop. 3,779
Police: 1 Trooper
3 Constables (2 full time and 1 part time)
Police Budget: $192,000 (Per Cathy from Selectman’s office:
$242,100 is total
budget but it is offset by $52,000 for private work police do that
goes back
to town)
2006 Town Budget: $11,396,499
Percent Of Budget Spent On Police Protection: 1.68%
Average Cost Per Household: $104 ($192,000 / 1,832)
Deep River, CT
Pop. 4,849
Police: 1 Trooper
3 Constables (I full time 2 part time)
Police Budget: $239,845 (Per John in Town Hall $97,000 for Trooper,
$63,000
for two part time constables and $63,000 for full time constable
plus
equipment. The total does not include costs of benefits for Constables)
2006 Town Budget: $13,701,889
Percent Of Budget Spent On Police Protection: 1.75%
Average Cost Per Household: $121 ($239,845 / 1,968)
Bethany, CT
Pop. 5,377
Police: 1 Trooper (town does not have more b/c State Police Barracks
is in town)
Police Budget: $93,000
2006 Town Budget: $16,420,767
Percent Of Budget Spent On Police Protection: 0.57%
Average Cost Per Household: $47 ($93,000 / 1,975)
Columbia, CT
Pop. 5,412
Police: 1 Trooper Full Time
1 Trooper Summer Only
Police Budget: $122,000 (per Olivia in Selectman’s Office)
2006 Town Budget: $14,000,000
Percent Of Budget Spent On Police Protection: 0.87%
Average Cost Per Household: $56 ($122,000 / 2,153)
New Hartford, CT
Pop. 6,576
Police: 3 Troopers
2 Constables (1 full time and 1 part time)
Police Budget: $355,000 (per Christine Exec. Ass. To First Selectman:
troopers
267,000 per year and constables 83,000 and OT 5,000)
2006 Town Budget: $22,539,477
Percent Of Budget Spent On Police Protection: 1.58%
Average Cost Per Household: $135 ($355,000 / 2,629)
Killingworth, CT
Pop. 6,653
Police: 1 Trooper (30-40 hrs per week in town)
Police Budget: $93,000
2006 Town Budget: $21,232,331
Percent Of Annual Budget Spent On Police Protection: 0.44 %
Average Cost Per Household: $37 ($93,000 / 2,500)
Durham, CT
Pop. 7,000
Police: 1 Resident Trooper
Police Budget: $93,000
2006 Annual Town Budget: $22,716,799
Percent Of Budget Spent On Police Protection: 0.41%
Average Cost Per Household: $34 ($93,000 / 2,658)
Essex, CT
Pop. 7,137
Police: 1 Trooper
4 full time Town Police Officers
Police Budget: $500,000 (Per First Selectman Phil Miller)
2006 Town Budget: $16,993,352
Percent Of Budget Spent On Police Protection: 2.94%
Average Cost Per Household: $158 ($500,000/3,151)
Haddam, CT
Pop. 7,653
Police: 2 Troopers
Police Budget: $186,000
2006 Town Budget: $21,503,293
Percent Of Budget Spent On Police Protection: 0.86%
Average Cost Per Household: $58 ($186,000 / 3,158)
Old Lyme, CT
Pop. 7,551
Police: 2 Troopers
6 Town Police Officers
Police Budget: $719,000 (per Fin. Adm. Doris Johnson $526,000 for
6 full time
police officers and $193,000 for two troopers)
2006 Town Budget: $26,127,584
Percent Of Budget Spent On Police Protection: 2.75 %
Average Cost Per Household: $151 ($719,000 / 4,741)
Portland, CT
Pop. 9,047
Police: 10 full time
1 part time
Police Budget: $1,251,000 (per Portland P.D.)
2006 Town Budget: $25,764,994
Percent Of Budget Spent On Police Protection: 4.86 %
Average Cost Per Household: $318 ($1,251,000 / 3,926)
Woodbridge, CT
Pop. 9,265
Police: 26 Town Police Officers (all full time)
Police Budget: $3,575,000 (per Finance Dir. Tony Genovese $2,500,000
plus
$1,000,000 for benefits, plus $75,000 per year for cars, computers
etc.)
2006 Town Budget: $35,460,720
Percent Of Budget Spent On Police Protection: 10.08%
Average Cost Per Household: $1,086 ($3,575,000/3,291)
East Haddam, CT
Pop. 9,232
Police: 2 Troopers
6 Part-time Constables
Police Budget: $314,000 (per town web page 194,000 for troopers,
120,000 for
constables)
2006 Town Budget: $23,429,804
Percent Of Budget Spent On Police Protection: 1.34%
Average Cost Per Household: $72 ($314,000 / 4,340)
Oxford, CT
Pop. 10,794
Police: 3 Troopers
1 Part time Trooper
8 Town Police Officers (all full time)
Police Budget: $970,000 (per Carl, Asst to First Selectman)
2006 Town Budget: $31,332,839
Percent Of Budget Spent On Police Protection: 3.10%
Average Cost Per Household: $220 ($970,000 / 4,392)