No New Police Officers in Ridgewood – For Now

Ridgewood was not on the list of departments receiving a federal grant to hire up to three more officers, officials confirmed Thursday.

The department applied for a federal Cops Hiring Program (CHP) grant that – if awarded – would have allowed for the hiring of up to three new officers in Ridgewood. The grant would pay 75 percent of the costs for three years (up to $125K per officer), with the village matching 25 percent of obligations.

An award was considered a long shot, as stipulations required that all hires were military veterans. Police Chief John Ward told Patch late last week that he wasn't aware of any on the Civil Service list. To boot, the village would have been on the hook for long-term costs once the grant funding expired in three years.

With budget crises across the state and country, municipalities are increasingly more gun-shy in hiring officers that add long-term obligations in not just salary, but in pensions and health insurance costs. By contrast, police say hiring more officers keeps escalating overtime costs down and ensures a higher level of service.

That struggle has been felt in Ridgewood, where elected officials recently and were similarly skeptical of a move to have greater police presence in the downtown, funded through comp time.

Ridgewood currently has 41 officers on the force, , at a ratio of 1.7, according to a Patch analysis in March. At least two officers are currently out with injuries.

That level of staffing is expected to be further depleted in October when Lt. David McDermott retires. The village hasn't hired new officers . 

With the , officers now start at $32,000, nearly $10,000 less than newly-hired officers received under the old terms. Council members and officials have said between amended police and fire contracts, residents will save millions in the years to come. It's a notion that's largely dependent on more experienced members retiring and "breakage" being used to fund less expensive, younger replacements.

But you won't find much relief in the current budget. Police contractual salaries are increasing 6.4 percent in the adopted 2012 budget, up $356,000. The cost of government is still high – public safety is easily the greatest expense, checking in at $12 million. Pension obligations to police and firemen will hit over $2 million.

It may be cheaper than it had been to bring more officers into the fold, but with political pledges to keep costs down, officials aren't saying one way or another if reinforcements are immediately on the way.

For now, with a new council yet to hold its first meeting, Ridgewood is keeping its options open.

"Maintaining the right sized police force is absolutely essential, because pubic safety remains our number one priority," Mayor Paul Aronsohn told Patch Thursday. "To that end, we need to balance our very important public safety imperatives with our very real budgetaty constraints. This is true whether or not we are offered any grant money."

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