The Trenton Times published the following article on May 9, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Trenton would need to raise taxes to get COPS grant

By Erin Duffy/The Times of Trenton 
on May 09, 2013 at 9:32 PM, updated May 09, 2013 at 9:53 PM

TRENTON — City council weighed a tough choice tonight — can residents swallow a tax hike if it means putting more officers on the street to combat crime?

The city has the opportunity to apply for another federal Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant that would bring 12 laid-off police officers back on the force, but the grant would only cover $1.5 million worth of salaries and benefits — leaving the city on the hook to pay a $2.27 million match over three years.

“We are effectively talking about a tax increase and we need to know this going in,” business administrator Sam Hutchinson said. “Nowhere in the world are we going to be able to cut the budget to get the match that’s needed. For public safety, there’s a cost.”

Detective Alexis Durlacher told council the federal Department of Justice notified municipalities a new round of COPS grant funding would open up this year, with grant applications due May 22. Grant awards would likely be announced sometime in September or October.

Trenton is eligible to bring back the maximum of 12 cops from the city’s rehire list if it wins the $1.5 million in funding available to the city. But the city must pledge the matching $2.2 million over three years and agree to keep the rehired officers on for a fourth year. The city would have to pay the entirety of the officers’ salaries in that final retention year.

The city won a $3 million COPS grant last June, allowing them to bring back 12 officers laid off in 2011, when one-third of the city’s police force lost their jobs amid budget cuts.

Then, the city applied for a fiscal distress waiver, giving them a larger award and a smaller match — just $565,076 a year. But Durlacher said the city has already used up its distress option and would now have to pay the full match amount.

The addition of another 12 officers, plus the dozen rehired last year would bump the city’s police force up to 212 officers, Durlacher said. Over the next three years, the city would be responsible for a combined match of $1.1 to $1.4 million each year to pay for the 24 officers.

To apply for the funds, the police department needs council to sign off on its grant application at council’s next meeting on May 21, one day before the grant deadline. If council doesn’t think the city can afford the match, members need to speak up now, Council President Phyllis Holly-Ward said.

“There’s nothing like applying for and getting the grant and then turning it down because we can’t pay for it,” she said.

Councilwoman Kathy McBride asked city officials how much it would cost the city to keep the 24 officers on for the fourth retention year, in 2016-2017.

“It’s really difficult to throw out numbers at this point, but the cost per officer is $133,930, so it would cost about $3.2 to $3.5 million for the fourth year,” budget officer Elana Chan said.

Hutchinson said the city, plagued by violence and shootings, could certainly use more police manpower. But he reminded council that the COPS grant wasn’t just free money.

“We’re all for protection, but we all have to be aware of the potential costs,” he said. “The worst thing we could do is increase by 24 officers and then in 2017 we have to lay off those officers because we can’t afford them.”

Councilman Zachary Chester said he thought council could pare down city spending and find the extra millions for more cops.

“There are some areas in our budget, if we sit down and have serious conversations about what the city could do without, so we could retain 24 officers: that’s a conversation moving forward and we have to have that conversation,” he said.

At the meeting, Police Director Ralph Rivera, Jr. also updated council on new summer policing strategies. Starting in several weeks, the department will begin using Nixle, a public safety and emergency notification system that can be linked to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, begin a clergy-police partnership and connect security cameras from 25 private businesses on South Clinton Avenue to the police department’s network, allowing police to download and scour surveillance footage faster when a crime occurs.

Contact Erin Duffy at (609) 989-5723 or eduffy@njtimes.com