ED. NOTE: This is the third in a series that analyzes and compares how much county municipalities spend on local police departments. The purpose of the series, which was requested by readers, is to help taxpayers understand how police services affect their tax bill.
CAPE MAY – Cape May City Police Department is responsible for police services for Cape May, as well as for the municipalities of West Cape May and Cape May Point.
According to the city’s 2021 user-friendly budget, the police provide those services while budgeted for 24 full-time officers, including all superior ranks.
Shared Services
The shared services agreements with Cape May Point and West Cape May earn Cape May $827,812 in anticipated revenue in the 2021 budget.
The arrangement allows the two boroughs to obtain police services for less than they would have to spend to maintain their own departments.
One comparison to make the point is with West Wildwood, where a small municipal department costs that borough over $600,000 per year. West Cape May, with an area more than three times the size of West Wildwood, pays Cape May $515,991 for policing. Cape May Point, approximately the same land area as West Wildwood, but smaller in population, pays $311,821.
For Cape May, it is not clear whether the 24-officer department would be much smaller if the arrangement with the two neighboring boroughs did not exist.
Policing as Percentage of Budget
When comparing the cost of policing as a percentage of the general fund budget in Cape May with that same statistic in Lower Township or Wildwood, the two municipalities covered in earlier Herald articles on police budgets, the most significant factor is the size of the force. The cost per officer is not the area of the most significant difference.
Using user-friendly police personnel costs in each of the three municipalities, the average cost per officer is similar in Cape May ($140,710) and Lower Township ($140,965), with Wildwood ($158,833) higher by about 12%.
Cape May’s cost of policing, without considering the positive impact of the shared services revenue, comes in at approximately 17% of its general fund budget of $21 million for 2021, which is less than $1 in $5 going to police expenses, compared to approximately $1 in $4 spent on policing for Lower and Wildwood, both of which have general fund budgets of $31 million.
The difference is almost entirely accounted for by Cape May’s 24 full-time-officer department versus the 40 full-time officers budgeted in Wildwood and 50 in Lower Township.
Cape May also has the advantage of its service agreements. The police service function drives over $800,000 in revenue from Cape May Point and West Cape May, allowing the net impact on the city’s budget to drop to 13%, although, one cannot assume that the revenue is allocated to the police function.
All analysis of the police expense for each town misses some costs that cannot be broken out from places where they are embedded with other expense. One example is the pension cost of civilian workers in the police department.
Tasks Vary
While it is relatively straightforward to compute the budgetary costs of municipal police departments, it is almost impossible to compare the task facing each.
Lower Township is the county’s largest population center, a factor that must influence the size of the permanent police force.
Wildwood is a major tourist attraction, with a huge increase in population during the summer. The surge in population likely requires a larger base level of permanent police officers, since special class officers have limited authority.
Cape May also has a significant increase in its summer population, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) statistics show Cape May confronts a significantly lower rate of crime than Wildwood.
Using the UCR data, it is clear that Wildwood police deal with almost 80% more UCR crimes than Lower Township and both dwarf Cape May and the two boroughs it polices through its service agreements.
Ultimately, the decision on how much of a municipal budget to allocate to policing is one that must be made by the citizenry of each municipality.
Policing is expensive. It requires on-duty officers 24/7.
Cape May County has a varied set of arrangements for police services. Three municipalities, Upper and Dennis townships and Woodbine, forgo the cost of municipal departments entirely because they have an arrangement with State Police. Two others, Cape May Point and West Cape May, buy their police services from a neighboring department.
Eleven of the county’s municipalities maintain individual police departments, ranging from the smallest, in West Wildwood, to the largest, in Middle Township.
Ultimately, voters are responsible to determine if the police services they receive fit both their needs and their pocketbooks.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.
