The 2023 fiscal year budget for the Norwich Police Department increases by over 7% under the proposal put forth by Acting Police Chief Simon Keeling and Interim Town Manager Rod Francis. The proposal includes body cameras for the police officers and replacement of two 2013 police cruisers. Except for the body cams, the goal of the budget proposal is to maintain the same level of service.
Wages and benefits comprises about 75% of the budget. But that line decreases by less than 1 percent.
At its November 10 meeting, the Selectboard took no action on the proposal. Instead, the Board asked for more information with respect to certain items.
Interim Town Manager Francis has not publicly released his complete proposed budget. As a result, the property tax bite of the overall budget is not known.
Here are some topics that caught my eye after review of the meeting video of November 10 on CATV.
Police incidents increase
Acting Police Chief Keeling reported that police “incidents” increased by 441 in fiscal year 2021. That is nearly a 20% increase. In the prior fiscal year, calls for service increased by 35%, according to last year’s budget presentation. By my math, incidents increased over a two-year period by a whopping 66%. Why? No one asked or offered an explanation.
Body cams for police
The proposed budget also includes body cameras for police officers, under the line item Cruiser Video Equip. Acting Chief Keeling is proposing that the Town enter into a subscription service that would apparently provide four in-car and body cameras and also securely store the video on remote servers (a/k/a the cloud). Total cost is $3650.
I don’t know whether the subscription service is subject to competitive bids, under the Town’s Purchasing Policy. The topic did not come up.
In contrast to that price, in March 2021, then Police Chief Frank had a quote to purchase the equipment outright and license the software for a year, at a cost of about $38,000 installed. The software license was about $2500 alone, according to the price quote at page 100 of the March 24, 2021 Selectboard packet.
The Selectboard was seemingly receptive to the concept of equipping the police force with body cams, although it asked for more information regarding privacy and security policies and court admissibility. Recall, in contrast, the March 24 discussion on the topic. Questions were raised by the public and at least one Selectboard member about whether body cameras were effective and whether civil liberties were adequately protected.
However, even if the Selectboard approved the budget item, the Board could still later adopt policies prescribing the terms of the body cams use, advised Interim Town Manager Francis. However, he also warned there might be extra costs if the Selectboard goes that route.
Observation …
In light of the in-town cotroversy regarding police body cams and the pending discussion about the shape of the Police Department in the future, I wonder if budget season is the best time to broach the topic of body cameras. The public lacks specific notice, as the agenda simply references “Police Department: Operating Budget.” In addition, budget season is a busy time for the Selectboard and staff. And the Town is short on staff. Moreover, I wonder if the budget should include items that the Selectboard views as a placeholder. Admittedly, the line item is small.
Replacing police cruisers
The budget proposal also anticipates the Town replacing two of the police cruisers with hybrid SUV’s. The model year of both cruisers are 2013 which means they will be in service for 10 years by the time the replacements arrive.
One SUV, designated as the chief’s car, is an unmarked vehicle, costing around $40,000. The marked SUV, fully outfitted, will cost over $68,000. Apparently ample funds are in the Police Cruiser designated fund to cover the cost of the marked SUV. The funding for the chief’s car is through a budget allocation of $35,000 to the Police Cruiser fund.
Most of the Selectboard discussion focused on whether the current force needs three or four vehicles. At present, the department has four, but not all are reliable day in and day out.. Acting Chief Keeling is proposing a fleet of four vehicles, with a ten-year replacement schedule. To achieve that longevity, he indicated each vehicle needs downtime. Chief Keeling also said that it was “more than likely” that two police vehicles are in use concurrently. And on occasion, three vehicles .
In contrast, at last year’s presentation of the police budget on December 2, 2020 (as seen on CATV), former Chief Frank indicated three vehicles were sufficient, if the entire fleet was reliable. But she proposed a five-year replacement schedule. However, under the Keeling ten-year replacement schedule, the Town needs to set aside significantly less annually to pay for the susequent replacements Not discussed was the resale value of cruisers after five or ten years.
Thanksgiving 2012 fire
One tricky aspect of fleet replacement is that Norwich replaced three cruisers in 2013, due to a fire on Thanksgiving morning in 2012. As a result, the replacement schedule is not staggered and vehicles reach the end of their useful life at the same time. Former Chief Frank suggested, at the December 2, 2020, meeting the leasing of a cruiser to stagger the replacement schedule.