The Trenton Times published the following article on November 13, 2013. To read the full article, click here.
Trenton scales back police department expansion, presents plan to hire 33 officers instead of 50
By Jenna Pizzi/The Times of Trenton
on November 13, 2013 at 10:32 PM, updated November 13, 2013 at 10:33 PMTRENTON — The city police force, heavily dependent upon aid from outside law enforcement agencies to control gun violence, could grow by 33 officers over the next three years, under a plan presented to council by Police Director Ralph Rivera Jr. tonight.
In September, the council talked about hiring 50 more officers, but that idea was only a rough estimate of what the city could afford. Rivera tonight described the downsized plan as “realistic and sustainable.”
The city would hire 15 more police officers in each of the next two years at a cost of $1.4 million per year. The same amount would be appropriated for additional police hires in the third year, but only three additional officers would join the force. The remainder of the money would be used to keep 12 officers on the force whose grant funding would be running out.
Rivera said the plan would bring the police department the manpower it so badly needs to keep the city safe and lower crime levels, while helping to keep taxes under control.