Council reviews police program study and proposed two-officer budget increase; discussion deferred for review

Town manager Danny Davis and the police chief presented a programmatic review of the police department and a proposal in the fiscal 2026 draft budget to add two patrol officers.

Davis said the review split department activity into patrol operations and events/special activities and distinguished required operations from discretionary expenditures. He summarized the department’s current staffing as four patrol officers plus a chief, a lieutenant and an administrative assistant, sufficient to provide 24/7 coverage under current assumptions.

Davis described the proposed enhancement in fiscal 2026: two additional sworn officers with a personnel cost of about $245,000 (salary and benefits) and associated ongoing operational costs (vehicles, equipment and maintenance). He showed a comparison of required versus discretionary costs and said discretionary items include training, additional equipment, overtime for events and the take‑home vehicle program. He said the department’s operating budget would rise from about $1.1 million (required baseline) to nearly $1.5 million with the proposed enhancements.

The presentation included service and incident data from August 2022 through August 2024. Over that 24‑month window the department logged: three domestic/assault incidents requiring backup, six DUIs, two drunken-public incidents and one warrant service where deputies were requested. The department conducted nearly 1,300 traffic stops in that period. Backup response times from mutual-aid/deputy units averaged roughly 7 to 22 minutes depending on the incident, and Davis said incidents that drew a backup often left the town without on-site coverage for periods ranging from about 85 minutes to nearly three hours; Davis summarized that as “on average, that's, 15 minutes per week or an hour per month” without an on-site town officer.

Davis and the chief provided a 10‑year rough order of magnitude for the two-officer enhancement: first-year costs (including vehicles and one-time equipment) approximated $400,000, and the 10‑year cumulative cost for the two positions and replacement vehicles and equipment was roughly $2.9 million. Davis noted some offsetting factors such as potential overtime savings but said the enhancement would be a significant budget increase (about an 18–19% increase over the current base police budget in the presented scenario).

Council members asked questions about the incident data, deputy backup arrangements with the sheriff’s office, response-time implications, and the fiscal context. Several councilors said they wanted more time to digest the data before making a decision because the town’s revenue forecasts show potential downward pressure; others favored establishing the positions on paper and phasing hiring based on revenue. No personnel appointments or appropriation changes were voted at the meeting.

Davis said staff will email the data to councilors and that the topic will return to the council agenda for further discussion; council scheduled follow-up budget work in June and indicated the police staffing question will be part of that deliberation.

Note on attribution: direct quotes in this article come from Danny Davis and the police chief, the presenters of the program review.