West Milford police overtime is expected to increase by $20,000 in 2017 thanks to new bail reform procedures.
Bail reform is adversely impacting municipal budgets across the state, a direct result of the labor intensive booking process for police under New Jerseys new bail reform law. West Milford anticipates that bail reform will impact their budget by $20,000 in police overtime due to the new booking process and having to transport defendants who previously could have posted bail at the police station.
With 565 municipalities in New Jersey, bail reform could contribute to millions in police overtime. West Milford is a small police department in comparison to their New Jersey counterparts, however, simply using them as the benchmark, costs could exceed 11 million annually in overtime costs across the state.
This isn’t the first warning sign of the enormous cost of bail reform.
A Towson University study published Aug 9, 2016 estimated that bail reform costs would exceed $500 Million annually.
Expect to see more in the near future on the enormous cost of bail reform. The New Jersey Association of Counties failed recently with their complaint filed with the Counsel on Local Mandates essentially claiming that bail reform is unfunded by the state and will have a negative impact on counties budgets.
The issue of overtime is nothing new on a national level. An article posted yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, Rising Police Overtime Bill in Several Cities Comes Under Scrutiny reports “Police overtime is coming under scrutiny as cities’ costs rise and understaffed departments demand more from their officers, especially in places like Baltimore and Chicago that are battling near-record homicide rates. Policing experts say some overtime is always needed because crime is unpredictable, and it can be cheaper than hiring officers given the cost of training and benefits. Some departments also struggle with retention and recruitment, forcing them to rely on officers to cover extra shifts.”
West Milford budget impacted by state’s bail reform
Reported by North Jersey.com Mar 13, 2017
WEST MILFORD – Police overtime is expected to increase this year, said municipal officials attributing the extra time to the growing impact of the state’s bail reform rules.
Preliminary budget numbers show an increase of $20,000 in additional police overtime allocations in 2017. The projected cost increase can be chalked up to the growing need to transport suspected criminals to Passaic County Jail in Paterson, officials say.
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