Thin Blue Line Grows Thinner Every Day

To The Editor:
In 1995, following the Line of Duty Death of Officer David C. Douglass, the Lower Township Police Department employed 55 full time officers.
When this current administration was elected, the police department was down to 46 full-time officers. Through attrition, three more police officers, a patrolman, a sergeant and a lieutenant were not replaced over the last year and a half.
I did not fight the loss of the sergeant and lieutenant’s positions. Now I am being told that the township may not replace two additional officers; one officer who has resigned from the department, and our high school School Resource Officer, is retiring in August.
I am also deeply concerned that from now through 2012, there are approximately 10 police officers who can retire from the department. Five or six can retire in 2011. It takes approximately one year to do background investigations for police officers, put them through the police academy, then assign them to a Field Training Officer before they are ready to patrol on their own. If the township continues to cut officers, the department will be playing catch up for years to come in hiring, training and fielding police officers for the street.
I am asking the mayor and council to hold the line in the police department at 42 sworn officers until the financial situation improves.
In addition, if the high school, School Resource Officer is not replaced, I will not have the manpower to put another officer in the high school on a full time basis. Even at 42 sworn officers, which includes the Chief of Police on down, the department will be hard pressed to be a pro-active police department.
I would like to remind the mayor and council that Lower Township is the most populated municipality in Cape May County with a summer population that can swell to well over 90,000 residents on a busy summer weekend when you include our numerous campgrounds and marinas.
The township is home to the second largest fishing fleet on the east coast, the Cape May-Lewes Ferry Terminal and the Cape May County Airport Complex. The township is experiencing several large construction projects including the Grand Hotel Complex in Diamond Beach, the Conover Apartment Complex in Town Bank, numerous small businesses along Bayshore Road and a new CVS Pharmacy in Villas, all of which will put further strains and responsibilities upon the Lower Township Police Department.
In a recent edition of another newspaper, a poll listed the number of police officers per 1,000 residents in Cape May County. Lower Township ranked dead last in the county at 2.3 police officers per 1,000 residents and that number was based on 46 police officers, not 42.
As the Chief of Police, it is my professional opinion, in order to best provide for my officers and the public’s safety, the township should hold the line at a 42-member police department.
In 2006, five Lower Township police officers were physically assaulted in the line of duty. In 2007, nine police officers were assaulted. That number rose to 12 in 2008 and last year, 15 Lower Township police officers were physically assaulted in the line of duty.
Fortunately, none of my officers were seriously injured in these incidents, however this should be a wakeup call to all municipalities that although it is tempting to cut police officers since in most towns they take up a large percentage of the budget, you cannot continue to cut full-time police officers without impacting the officers’ safety and the safety of the public.
Our Thin Blue Line grows thinner every day.
EDWARD P. DONOHUE
Chief of Police
Lower Township