Maple Shade’s Misappropriation of Spending on Police Department

In a time and age where crunching pennies is essential, Maple Shade Township is spending money on their police department like they’re getting ready for war. In western culture the role of the police has always been to provide law and order, in addition to protecting the rights of the citizen’s. “To Protect and Serve”
Sadly, this small, blue-collar town is taking a much different approach. Their exuberant salaries nearly double the average household income of residents. Not too shabby when all you hear about is low stagnant wages. They recently spent 1mm on brand new vehicles, 17 to be exact in addition to their slightly used and perfectly fine old cruisers that currently sit and collect dust. They employ 30 sworn officers as of 2014, with an average patrolman making 90k and essentially having enough vehicles to man the whole force.
Let’s really zero in on the number’s and do a cost comparison with it’s local neighbor, Cinnaminson, NJ who has identical annual crime data and operates and significantly lower costs. 

*Square Miles
Cinnaminson 7.8
Maple Shade 3.6
*Residents
Cinnaminson 16,000
Maple Shade 18,000
*Median Household Income
Cinnaminson $88,000
Maple Shade $50,000
*Sworn Officers
Cinnaminson 22
Maple Shade 30
*Annual Payroll
Cinnaminson $2.1mm
Maple Shde $2.8mm
+700k annually More than Cinnaminson
In addition the 700k annually in salaries, we must also take in consideration the amount which we’re paying into their pension system, uniforms, equipment and vehicles. This numbers doubles to 1.5mm in annual spending over its close neighbor Cinnaminson. Perhaps Cinnaminson is opting to invest their savings in education, which essentially wouldn’t lead to such careless spending. Perhaps their council actually represents the people instead of protecting the police and enabling them to detect their own financial direction. A prime example dates back to April 04, 2012. At approximately 4:20am Patrolman Scott Pacheco, while driving a police vehicle off-duty, veered off Maple Avenue in Pennsauken. His cruiser went destroyed two street signs and ultimately struck a light post and destroyed the vehicle.. The vehicle had to be towed and he was arrested for DUI. Our tax paying dollars paid for this wreck, the damage of property, and tow. This very same young man is now a Detective only 3 years later with a salary of 91k.
Another significant issue is the lack of residency requirements of the police to reside in this town. They’re taking huge salaries and opting to live elsewhere to spend them as opposed to putting their tax dollars back in the system. They’re laughing all the way to the bank! Local departments have experienced similar situations in the past and opted for solutions such as “Metro Departments” which have significantly lowered expenses across the board. Why do we need 30 officers in 3 square miles? Why do I constantly see numerous detectives and officers taking 2 hour lunches and aimlessly driving around in hopes to pull over the next soccer mom? This isn’t policing, its an outrage!
Cinnaminson recently got rid of their Chief and opted for a public safety director as a new role which pays 70k and compared to our current chief who makes 130k. In addition, they are also seeking alternatives such as “Metro”.
Here’s what I propose. An immediate layoff of 8 officers in addition to 25% pay cut across the board for the next 5 years. This will have us roughly 1mm annually in salaries alone and still have a fully staffed department. Could you imagine what our town could do with an extra 10-15mm over the next 10 years? Action must happen now. This is an outrage and total misuse of taxpayer’s money. It’s time to do something about it.
Concerned Citizens of Maple Shade

CC:
Office of the Governor
Office of the Treasury
Congressman Donald Norcross
Assemblyman James Beach
Assemblyman Louis Greenwald
Assemblyman P.R. Lampitt
Office of the Attorney General
State Police Municipal Judiciary Committee
NJ Watchdog
NJ Citizens Action