Dear Editor:
Mayor David Roberts, in justifying the hiring of 17 more police officers, told The Hoboken Reporter, “The city is committed to a strong police presence.” It’s hard to argue with that. But the numbers show that Hoboken’s police presence is already strong.
Using 2000 figures from the New Jersey Municipal Data Book, I compared police department staffing in eight cities in northern New Jersey: Hoboken, Jersey City, Weehawken, Union City, West New York, Bayonne, Newark, and Paterson. Hoboken had one police employee per 222 residents, a better ratio than every city but Newark. The average ratio was one employee per 253 residents.
City officials seem to be reacting to a recent spate of violent crimes in Hoboken in the first nine months of 2002, but that could be a statistical anomaly. The overall crime rate is down. And Hoboken’s crime rate in 2000 was below the average of the eight cities mentioned above.
Most of the initial cost of the 17 new officers will be paid by federal grants, but that money will dry up after three years. The financial burden will then fall on city taxpayers, and we’ll be paying for those additional salaries, benefits, and pensions for decades to come.
Police protection is one of the crucial services a city government can provide. But a municipal budget, even in Hoboken, is not a bottomless well, and hiring 17 more officers should be done only after careful study and a convincing demonstration of need – not on the basis of a couple of headlines about fears of increased crime.
Brian Kladko