WOODCLIFF LAKE POLICE DEPARTMENT: Fall 2011 News Letter
Community Policing vs. Regional Policing:
There have been some residents coming to Police Headquarters
with concerns regarding rumors of regionalizing our police force. At the
present time, with the state of the national economy, somehow it is
perceived that the individual homeowner will see a drastic decrease in their
total tax bill by consolidating police forces. I have listed below the cost
of policing for our average homeowner. Cutting this agency in half and
merging it with two or more agencies will show a 30 cents or less per shift
savings. At the present time, when at our 18 officer listed department
roster, we have three marked patrol cars on the road per 8 hour shift.
Unlike most of the towns in the Pascack Valley, who have a lower day time
population, due to people commuting to work from their “bedroom
communities”, our population almost quadruples. At 2:00 A.M we have
approximately 6,000 people in town. However, even with resident commuters
leaving the Borough, as in other towns, we have a large influx of out-of
town commuters, workers, and shoppers coming into town. Depending on the
status of each of our office buildings, schools, Hilton, nursing homes,
Tice Mall, A&P mall, our day time population, at 2:00 PM., can increase to
anywhere from 23,000 to 26,000 people.
Why Community Policing: As technology changed in the 1950’s
and 1960’s it took the “beat cop” off of his post and placed him into a
“black and white radio car”. In doing so, this dramatically limited the
officer’s contact with both business owners and homeowners. Officers no
longer had the personal relationships with the people, and with the use of
technology, less officers could cover a greater area. Unfortunately, the
“beat” officers who were pro-active, and may have prevented or deterred
crimes, no longer were available to do this. They were now re-active,
responding to problems and crimes, after the fact, acting as report takers,
rather than law enforcers. As a result, at the end of the 1990’s, police
agencies returned to community oriented policing. In 2001, this agency
began the community policing sector program, where each officer was assigned
a geographic sector of approximately 200+ households, as a point of
contact. The sergeants were assigned business sectors.
Why not
Regional Policing: The prevailing belief that regionalizing agencies will
eliminate duplication of services, reduce the need for unneeded supervisory
positions, thus resulting in stated “dramatic cost savings”. This regional
policing has already been done in Rockland County and on Long Island. This
decreased the total number of officers on the road per town, as well as in
their officers becoming one of the highest paid, far exceeding those in New
Jersey. I have seen this personally, in Pennsylvania, where several police
agencies were merged into a regional police force. Once established, they
too had cutbacks, resulting in only six patrol cars on the road per shift
for a 200 square mile area. Residents see increased gang presence in the
area, and do not see regional police officers in the communities. These
communities went as far as to hiring “Rangers” to patrol in jeeps marked
“Ranger”. However, these rangers are not armed, do not have police powers,
and are paid for by extra community association fees.
Impact of Change: If we again move away from the community
oriented policing, as was done in the 1960’s, we will return to the same
shortcomings. Regional policing will result in less police officers,
period. Less officers means less officers on the road, less time for
training, and less supervision. Most agencies sued for liability issues
are not as a result of something “going wrong”. As first responders, we are
dispatched to places when things “go wrong”. Liability problems are
incurred not for things that go wrong, but for failure to train, and failure
to supervise. Additionally, in this community, we are your first responders
for all calls. These include alarms, medical emergencies, crashes, fires,
crimes, domestic violence, thefts, traffic problems, etc. Other
non-emergent/ pro-active services include DARE, School and Seniors Liaisons,
infant car seat installs, and emergency management. Merger will drastically
impact the number of officers in this town. In 1956 this agency was
created, with one officer on the road serving 200 homes and business. Today
we have three officers on the road covering approximately 2,000 homes and
businesses. I am concerned that a merger may leave at times, only three
officers in the entire Tri-Boro on a weekend or midnight shift, saving each
homeowner approximately 30 cents for that shift. Cutting less than half of
these officers would not result in any much savings at all.
Cost of Policing Woodcliff Lake- There has been a lot
of discussion regarding the cost of “Policing Our Town”. I am available to
discuss our costs to anyone who wishes to speak to me. For example, if a
home owner pays $1,000/month ($12,000/year) in total property taxes, the
breakdown of the distribution on that $1,000/month is as follows:
$780/month covers the schools and Bergen County Taxes. The remaining
$220/month covers Woodcliff Lake Borough services. The Woodcliff Lake
Police Department, the only paid 24/7 department in town, uses approximately
$60 of the $220, or less than $2.00/ 24 hour period. If this agency were
cut in half, the tax payer would save approximately 30 cents for each of the
3- 8 hour shifts- per day.
In 2010, as a result of our efforts to reduce overtime, our
Command Staff switched officers’ shifts, and used compensatory time, in lieu
of covering the shifts with overtime. This has continued in 2011.
Compensatory Time, also known as “comp time”,
results from officers working in excess of either an 8 hour shift, or a 40
hour work week. Overtime covering emergencies, court or other assigned
details, results in officers receiving overtime pay at 1.5 times their
hourly pay rate. They also have the option of banking this time to be taken
at time and a half back when it does not result in
other officers being paid overtime to cover their absence.
Switched Shifts- If we know ahead
of time that an officer will be on vacation, in training, extended sick
leave, or other reasons, we have the ability to move other officers off of
other shifts to cover the short shifts, in lieu of paying officers overtime
to cover the short shifts. This resulted in the savings of approximately $400,000 in
overtime to the Borough. This was only accomplished with the dedication and
cooperation of the Woodcliff Lake Police Department Officers.
Total comp. time savings for 2010 = $ 69,956.00
Total savings for switches for 2010= $ 306,152.00
Total combined savings to the Borough to date for 2010= $
376,108.00
*2011 savings-year-to-date is just over $200,000.00 as of
the middle of August 2011
Anyone wishing to discuss this information can contact me
at Head Quarters at 201-391-4977 x 244
Have a safe Fall
and Winter
Chief Anthony Jannicelli,
