From Alpine To Wyckoff, Police Manpower All Over The Map

In many ways, Alpine and South Hackensack have little in common. Rich with wooded hills and multimillion-dollar homes, Alpine has a per capita income in the six figures and often makes its way into the rankings of New Jersey’s best places to live.

Meanwhile, South Hackensack’s main distinction is being New Jersey’s only town divided into three unconnected segments. Gritty and industrial, much of South Hackensack’s main residential area sits sandwiched between Routes 46 and 80.

But their differences aside, Alpine and South Hackensack share a distinction. They stand at the top of Bergen County’s rankings in terms of having the most police officers per capita.

Alpine has 7.98 officers per 1,000 residents, while South Hackensack’s rate is second at 7.03 officers. Those ratios are about three times greater than Bergen County’s average of 2.37 officers per 1,000 people, according to a Patch analysis.

“We provide a level of protection that’s above and beyond,’’ said Alpine Police Chief Jerry Beckmann, who oversees a department with 13 officers. “Our crime rate is very low and we’re very much appreciated by the community.’’

At the other end of the rankings are and , which have the fewest officers per 1,000 residents in Bergen County, Patch found.

In Wyckoff, which has the county’s lowest rate with 1.37 officers per 1,000 residents, officials embrace that distinction as evidence of the township’s fiscal conservatism. But in Fair Lawn, the size of the police department – and whether it’s adequate or not – has been an issue of debate for years.

“We are regretfully aware of that,’’ Fair Lawn Police Chief Erik Rose said when told of his town’s place in the rankings.

Patch compiled its rankings by taking the manpower numbers for municipal police departments listed in this year’s Guidepost law enforcement study - commissioned by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office - and comparing them to 2010 census data.

Law enforcement experts caution that examining crimes per capita is just one barometer in determining the right size for a municipal police department. Other factors that need to be taken into account include the size and landscape of a town, its crime numbers, and the presence of major highways and shopping areas.

Teterboro, Paramus and East Rutherford, for example, have the three highest crime rates in Bergen County. But an airport, and the metropolitan area’s largest sports complex skew the crime numbers for those towns.

Patch also compared the numbers of reported crimes in Bergen County towns, as listed in the most recent State Police Uniform Crime Report, with the size of the towns’ police forces. In that ranking, Paramus had the most crimes per police officer per year at 20.1, while Alpine, Harrington Park, Haworth and River Vale all had less than one crime per officer per year.

Here’s a breakdown on the rankings for some of Bergen County’s 70 municipalities:

• Fair Lawn: The borough ranked 6th in the county with 8.2 crimes per officer per year. It also ranked 24th in per capita crimes with a rate of 11.9.
• Fort Lee: The borough had the 15th highest ratio of cops per resident, with 3.08 officers per 1,000. Its crime rate of 10.1 was 35th in the county, while it ranked 44th in number of crimes per officer at 3.3.
• Franklin Lakes: The borough ranked 48th in officers per capita, with a rate of 2.08 per 1,000. Its crime rate was 45th, at 7.3 and it ranked 40th in crimes per officer at 3.5.
• Glen Rock: The borough ranked 60th in officers per capita at 1.81 per 1,000 residents. Its crime rate was 37th highest at 9.2 and it came in 24th in crimes per officer at 5.1.
• Hasbrouck Heights: The borough finished 30th in officers per resident at 2.44 per thousand. Its crime rate was the 55th highest at 6.2 and it finished 56th in crimes per cop at 2.5.
• Mahwah: The township was 53rd in cops per capita at 1.93 per thousand. Its crime rate was 62nd highest at 4.2 and its crimes per cop ranking was 58th at 2.2.
• New Milford: The borough came in 55th with 1.89 officers per thousand residents. It ranked 51st in crime at 6.4 and its crimes per officer ranking was 42nd at 3.4.
• Oradell: The borough was 21st with 2.63 officers per 1,000 residents. Its crime rate was 31st at 10.3 and its crimes per officer ranking was 38th at 3.9.
• Paramus: The borough was 11th with 3.5 officers per 1,000 people. It had the 2nd higest crime rate at 70.3 and the highest number of crimes per officer at 20.1.
• Ridgewood: The village ranked 62nd with 1.7 officers per thousand residents. Its crime rate was 39th at 8.9 and it had 5.2 crimes per cop, ranking 23rd.
• River Edge: The borough ranked 52nd with 1.94 officers per 1,000. Its crime rate was 36th at 9.5 and it had 4.9 crimes per officer, ranking 25th.
• Teaneck: The township ranked 26th with 2.5 officers per 1,000. Its crime rate was 12th at 17 and it had 6.7 crimes per officer, ranking 14th.
• Westwood: The borough was 22nd with 2.5 cops per 1,000. The crime rate was 46th at 7.2 and it had 2.8 crimes per officer, ranking 47th.
• Washington: The township was 35th with 2.4 cops per 1,000. The crime rate was 66th at 3.4 and it had 1.4 crimes per cop, ranking 61st.
• Wyckoff: Besides having the fewest officers per capita in the county, Wyckoff had the 54th highest crime rate at 6.2. There were 4.5 crimes per officer, ranking 30th.

In some cases, local officials said the size of their police departments differed from the numbers included in the county study, largely because of attrition or additional hiring since those statistics were compiled.

Paramus Mayor Richard LaBarbiera said the borough is down to about 72 officers because fiscal constraints have prevented it from filling vacancies that came about through retirements. A decade ago, there were about 100 officers, he said.

“We have started to see an impact on the services,’’ including the discontinuation of the DARE program, the mayor said. “It was decided that we needed to have those officers out on the streets rather than in the classroom."

Another way Paramus has handled the reduced force is switching some jobs to civilians, the mayor said.

“At no time has public safety been compromised,’’ the mayor said.

Paramus still has one of the highest ratios of officers per resident.

“The most obvious reason is Paramus being the home of five large shopping malls and a host of other businesses lining Rt. 17 & Rt. 4,’’ Police Chief Christopher Brock said. “The police department is not only responsible for its residents but also all visitors to our borough. By last count Paramus has over 300,000 people travel through or visit our town per day.’’

In New Milford, where the ratio of officers to residents is lower than the county average, Police Chief Frank Papapietro would like to see his ranks bolstered. The borough hired two officers last year, the chief said, but more than that retired.

“We’re down at least five officers’’ from the 37 on the force when he took command a decade ago, the chief said. “I’m not catching up at all.’’

Papapietro is particularly worried about the thinning numbers of ranking officers.

“At the end of this year, I’ll have one lieutenant left,’’ he said. “It’s a liability without proper supervision.’’

Things could be worse in New Milford, the chief said. The Board of Education has helped out by paying the salary of an officer at the schools.

Wyckoff Police Chief Benjamin Fox said the township always has ranked among the county towns with the fewest officers per capita.

“I don’t want to sound like I’m putting any other place down, but we’ve always done phenomenal job with the numbers we have,’’ he said. “There’s nobody doing it like us.’’

One of the things that has allowed Wyckoff to uses its police officer more efficiently was the decision to make officers continue working eight-hour shifts, five days per week, instead of switching to the four-day, 12-hour schedule that’s gaining popularity, Fox said.

“If I had more people, unquestionably there are more things I could do,’’ the chief said. “But we feel comfortable where we’re at. The taxpayers and residents of Wyckoff are getting an unbelievable value.’’

Even with its lean force, Wyckoff ranks among Bergen County’s lowest third in crime rate.

“I think it’s a compliment to both chiefs we’ve had in recent years,’’ Wyckoff Mayor Kevin Rooney said.

In Westwood, the police department has slightly more officers per capita than the county average and its crime number are in the lowest third of Bergen towns.

“We have a good balance,’’ Mayor Richard Birkner said.

Mahwah Mayor-elect Bill Laforet said he isn’t looking forward to his first municipal budget.

“The two-percent cap is putting us in a very difficult situation,’’ he said, referring to the limit on municipal spending increases imposed by Gov. Chris Christie’s administration.

One of the biggest expenses in that budget is the police department. But Laforet he has no plans to cut the number of officers.

“That would not be in our best interests in terms of our safety and welfare,’’ he said.

Police work in Mahwah is complicated by the township’s sheer size. Its 26 square miles make it the county’s largest municipality, officials said.

“Response time is very important,’’ Council President John Roth said. “If an officer has to get from one side of town to the other, we’re talking about 26 miles.’’

Mahwah already falls below the county’s average rate of officers per capita. 

If the township had fewer officers, it would force an increase in overtime spending, Mahwah Chief James Batelli said. “The savings would be negligible and it wouldn’t be worth it."

Glen Rock has 21 police officers, but years ago had 27, officials said.

“It makes it tough to provide a lot of the things that people have come to expect,’’ Police Captain Jonathan Miller said.

The borough used to have an officer assigned to a foot patrol in the downtown business district as a full-time assignment, Miller said. Now it’s become a “park-and-walk” post, in which an officer parks a patrol car downtown and walks the beat for 20 to 30 minutes twice a day, if there’s nothing else going on, Miller said.

“It was a great ancillary service that provided a sense of security for the merchants,’’ Miller said of the full-time foot patrol.

The department’s bicycle patrol was deployed only two times this year and the DARE officer has been reassigned to regular patrol duties, requiring him to attend school events on his own time or comp time, Miller said. Meanwhile, various types of state-mandated training eat into the patrol schedules, he said.

In Fair Lawn, the dispute over the proper size for the police force has gone on for years. The county study puts the borough’s force at 47 officers. One thing everyone seems to agree upon is that the number of officers is actually 54. That figure still puts it near the bottom of the rankings.

“Fair Lawn has never been up to standards,’’ said Detective David Boone, president of the Policemen’s Benevolent Association. “To me, they’re not looking out for public safety.’’

“We could always use more police officers, the question is how many can we afford to pay for?’’ said Deputy Mayor Joe Tedeschi, who will be leaving office at the end of this year. “We could also use more police officers who are productive.’’

The borough  this week, which will put the force at 56, said Rose, the chief. Officials have told him they would consider adding two more officers in each of the next couple years, Rose said.

Sandwiched between Paterson and Paramus, with several major highways running through it, Fair Lawn has law enforcement demands that exceed what’s needed simply for its own population, said the chief.

Recent studies have found the borough’s police ranks fall significantly below where they need to be, Rose said. As the number of officers has declined in recent years, so have services, he said.

The DARE and Community Police programs were eliminated and the traffic bureau was reduced from nine officers to two, Rose said. Meanwhile, there’s been an estimated $200,000 increase in police overtime to compensate for the vacant jobs, he said.

Mayor Lisa Swain said the borough’s goal was to boost the police department to 60 officers. “We have to take one step at a time,’’ she said. “Every year we will look at the budget and see what we can do.’’

“Crime is down,’’ Swain added. “The officers we have are doing their job well.’’