Police chief warns proposed cuts would ‘severely degrade’ department operations and could cost accreditation

Police Chief Tyler McIntosh told the Council that the proposed 2025 comp budget includes significant cuts that, in his assessment, will degrade the department’s ability to operate and comply with legal timelines for discovery. "The proposed 2025 comprehensive budget includes significant cuts to the police department that will result in severe degradation of our ability to operate," McIntosh said during a detailed presentation of operational priorities and budget lines.

McIntosh highlighted several concrete shortfalls: training funding down from previous years (the comp budget funds $25,000, while the department had requested $60,000), cuts to overtime and comp time lines, reductions to equipment and fleet maintenance, and a $40,000 proposed reduction in service contracts that supports license‑plate readers. He warned that cutting training and critical service contracts could put the department’s New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services accreditation at risk.

A central operational request was funding for a second records management position to meet the automatic discovery obligations established by changes to the Criminal Procedure Law (article 245). McIntosh said the department averages about 895 arrests a year and each arrest triggers an automatic discovery timeline; with only one records clerk the department faces a single point of failure that could lead to case dismissals. "One person — it's simply way too much work," McIntosh said, urging the Council to fund a second records manager to avoid procedural errors that could lead to dismissed cases.

McIntosh also requested a special investigations sergeant and a professional standards captain; he described the sergeant position as necessary to reduce an unsustainably high span of control in investigations and the captain to oversee implementation of police‑reform recommendations.

Commissioners pressed for metrics and actuals: Commissioner Sangvi asked the chiefs to provide 2015–2025 budget and actual numbers and to identify the department’s top three funding priorities so the finance office and Council can evaluate tradeoffs. The police presentation closed without a vote; councilors agreed to schedule follow‑up meetings with finance staff to explore options.

The presentation also reviewed operational initiatives that the department plans to roll out this year, including a traffic safety unit, a drone unit and a records platform that could help track resident vs. nonresident involvement in incidents — data the chief said the department currently does not capture consistently.