Westminster police dept. fiscal year 25 budget = $2,812,242.00
1 acting chief, 3 sgts., 1 detective (school resource officer CAPS), 10 FT officers (2 as school resource officers), 3 reserve officers, 3 secondary officers, 1 executive assistant, 4 ft dispatchers, 2 PT dispatchers, animal control is with city of gardner.
Ashburnham police FY25 budget = $1,935,534.00 - 1 police chief, 1 admin assistant, 1 LT, 2 sgts., 2 detectives, 8 FT officers, 3 TCO, 4 FT dispatchers.
Templeton police FY25 budget from annual town meeting = $1,708,000. Under town website = 1 chief, 2 sgts., 1 detective, 1 court officer, 1 clerical dispatcher, 5 patrolmen, no other accounting of dispatchers.
* One patrolman is shown as William Chapman, a William Chapman is also listed as Phillipston police chief, so perhaps town website of Templeton is once again not up to date.
A William Chapman is also listed as reserve officer in Westminster, perhaps another town website not updated. Can you say accountability to residents? 3 different William Chapmans in local area police depts?
So, by these numbers, an additional 200 thousand dollars could get Templeton a police LT, another detective, an admin assistant for police station.
All other towns on one community comparison spread sheet need to be looked at. All communities being compared need to be with towns in a regional school district, as those towns have less control over school budgeting costs.
Now look at the Budgets for each town.........
ReplyDeleteWestminister MA- fy 25 budget............$25,800,000...............Population - 8377
Ashburnham MA - FY 25 Budget...........$20,158.209.............Populaton - 6475
Templeton MA- FY 25 Budget................$19,710,452.............Population - 8147
How can you use Westminister and Ashburnham as comparibles when Westministers budget
is 128% greater thn templetons
Ashburnhams budget is larger than Templetons and templeton has 125% of Ashnirmha,s population.
Does anyone else see an issue.
People can try and justiify anything if they dont pay attention to numbers.Look a our May anad June Police Budget spending. Look at all the Amazon purchases in May and June and the increased expenses in those two months to wipe out budget.
They are spending like the school. If you dont spedn it you'll lose it mentlaity, not real budgeting.
Just to add a little more clarity.
ReplyDelete$25,800,000(Westminister budget) divided by $2,812,242( police cost) = 9.17
$20,158.209( Ashburnham Budget) divided by $1,935,534 ( police budget) = 10.41
$19,710,452 (Templeton Budget) divided by $1,708,000 (police budget) = 11.54
So for Templeton to fund the police the rate of Westministers funding would meman spending $2,149,449.50 to fund at the smae rate as Ashburnham we'd need to spend $1,893,415.17
Now you need to think about who has more crime, who has more facilities, schools colleges,manufacturing facility's, etc.........
What are the crime rates in these communities?
Westminster is 1 cop per 550 people with Ashburnham at 1 per 460 while Templeton tries to meet your needs at 1 per 800 people. That should tell you a bit of how under resourced Chief Bennet and his Department is.
ReplyDeleteCheck what the stats are for state police per capita in MA.
DeleteCompare Crime rates and a different story emerges.........Templeton seems resourced just fine for its Crime rate.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.niche.com/places-to-live/westminster-worcester-ma/crime-safety/
https://www.niche.com/places-to-live/ashburnham-worcester-ma/crime-safety/
https://www.niche.com/places-to-live/templeton-worcester-ma/crime-safety/
Templeton might even be overstffed based on crime rates!
Templeton 2023 annual town report police dept. 50 arrests, 458 incident/investigations. That makes it look like 1. not big crime rate in Templeton, 2. current police staff do a hell of a good job.
ReplyDelete0 Robberies in Templeton.
ReplyDeleteI dont think anyone is saying our Officers dont do good job. Thats completly different then "we need more to be safe"
We appear to have far fewer violations of the Law in Templeton than either Westminister or Ashburnham, with the exception of "auto theft" where we are 2+x either other community
Wouldn't that lead someone to understnd with far fewer violations of the law you need far less Law Enforcement Officers. I'm not saying we need fewer, but I am not conceding we need more Officers either.
Ask how many times they've administered Narcan to save a resident in this town in the middle of the night. Sometimes it is not about robberies and car thefts.
ReplyDeleteWhy is Narcan free but insulin costs $$$?
ReplyDelete