By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Township officials do not plan to lay off two police officers to help balance the proposed 2010 municipal budget, according to Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun.
Rumors had been swirling for several weeks that there was a recommendation to reduce the number of police officers from 67 to 65, but Mr. Krawczun scotched that rumor Tuesday afternoon.
Mr. Krawczun said the number of police officers would remain at 67. The Police Department is authorized to have as many as 70 sworn police officers, ranging from patrol officers to the chief of police.
The proposed $41.1 million municipal budget for 2010, which Mr. Krawczun presented to the Township Council in January, called for reducing the number of police positions from 69 to 68 through attrition.
But with the retirement earlier this month of another police officer and the decision not to fill that vacancy, the number of police officers would drop from 68 to 67. However, there have been rumors township officials were preparing to recommend laying off two more police officers.
The proposal to lay off two police officers was one of several scenarios presented to the council at its request earlier this month, Mr. Krawczun said. The scenarios were prepared in response to the loss of $1 million in state aid and its resultant impact on the municipal property tax rate.
At the council’s April 21 meeting, police Sgt. Joseph Caloiaro, who is the vice president of the Lawrence Township Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 209, called on the council to drop the plan to lay off two police officers.
Sgt. Caloiaro told the council that since the early 1990s, the Police Department has been “doing more with less.” The Police Department has taken on more duties and responsibilities in an effort to serve the community, he said.
“When a citizen calls for help, we have always tried to solve their problem,” Sgt. Caloiaro said. “But I fear that our ability to continue doing so may be irrevocably lost if staffing levels continue to be decreased.”
The police officers enforce traffic laws and try to take guns and drugs off the streets in an effort to keep Lawrence as a safe and desirable community in which to live and work, he said.
“Our town has just as many incidents of domestic violence as surrounding towns and more retail theft than many of them,” Sgt. Caloiaro said. “These types of incidents occur frequently and demand a large amount of time for proper resolution. With our current staffing levels, we have very little time to do general neighborhood patrols.”
The recession has been described as the worst one since the Great Depression, Sgt. Caloiaro said. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began planning the New Deal in an effort to end the Depression, he did not start with taking away jobs and unemployment benefits. He put people to work, the police sergeant said.
“Members of Township Council, I challenge you to make an investment in our community that will maintain public safety and continue the high level of services that our township is known for,” Sgt. Caloiaro said.
Sgt. Caloiaro acknowledged there would be a price. That price is a small tax increase now or drastically reduced property values if Lawrence becomes known as a town that is not safe, he told the council last week.
Councilman Greg Puliti said the council won’t lay off any additional employees “as far as I am concerned.”
He suggested the New Jersey Fraternal Order of Police should lobby the state government to help restore the loss of state aid, adding, “with your size and the clout you have on State Street, it could help.”
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