Dear TLS,
I see many posts that talk about property taxes, and the costs our town spends on services. I recently have been hearing rumors about cutting our Police force. I don’t understand. First we cut our EMS and made sure to do it in a way that they will not be asked back in January. We will be giving up an invaluable organization, and have it replaced with a private company that has teenagers working for it to save peoples lives. Now they want to cut our Police. I agree that there are ways that our Police could be more effective. I know there are some Police that are not the hardest working. But to just go and fire a bunch just because you feel the pressure to cut costs is crazy. How do you think our Police will treat us if they feel that we are making them expendable? You still didn’t decide to cut everywhere. You say you want to save money, but all you will do is cause our Police to work less hard if they feel under-appreciated.
A Lakewood resident.
while I FULLY appreciate the work of LPD and all police work as clearly seen in NYC this weekend, we must also emphasize that they work for the public and not the other way around. Having internalized that we must evaluate how we afford to pay for fat police pension plans, health plans, and other benefits. The public work sector works for the public, and in the public both me and my wife who work here in lakewood don’t get any pension plan. Do you??!! So although I’m not in favor of eliminating it, I honestly think it has to be reduced to lower the liabilities on the public. What percent of their salary do they pay into it? What has it traditionally been? what is their total annual pay including AAAALLLLLL the pay, pensions, benefits and kaboodle. How does that compare with other police forces? These are simple and honest questions that must be asked and addressed.
Thank you!
there is no reason that working for the public should give you any entitlement over hard working tax payers in the private sector.
its time to privatize all township departments and rid ourselves of skyrocketting costs.
Thank you LPD! for all the great work you do. We will always back you.
If the police force must be cut remove the officers that are just draining the budget and not doing the job right. Get the police force to evaluate the officers that actally do the job and do it right and they can remove the ones that don’t . This will give all police officers an insentive to do the job right…….IT’S PRETTY SIMPLE!!!!!!!!
Don’t pay the cops of Lakewood based on an 8 day work week, and you’ll see costs coming down real quick.
I truly appreciate all that the LPD does for us.
This week my children are going hungry. We have no more money for the week. My wife and I went to the store with our last $50 bill, and spent some $40+ of it on basics, barely enough to get through one or two days. I don’t know how we’ll make it through the week. Our paychecks pay our mortgage, utilities, insurance, and other bills.
We’re cutting our food to get by.
What are you cutting? Do you even care about my children? Why should my taxes keep going up so that someone else should get free healthcare and pensions? I don’t get it. I work as hard as the policemen, Why do they get free healthcare from my taxes which I work so hard to pay for?
I really don’t get it. It’s beyond me, seriously.
Are you risking your life at work pulling over gang members and going to domestic calls that are dangers? Why can’t people just check facts before posting. The police do pay into their pensions. They are not the highest payed police department in the area but defiantly Lakewood is the most dangerous town in the area. #2 good luck trying to break the law with having a private police department, or are you above the law? I agree with #3!
I was crossing Monmouth Ave. on Shabbos at the crosswalk and three cars drove by without even slowing down. Where are the police when we need them. Those drivers should have been ticketed according to the new state law. It is still dangerous to cross the streets when people drive like that. The police give tickets right and left for minor infractions that don’t harm anyone, but for drivers like that? Nada
If every officer would write twenty tiickets a week it would cover their salary. The Police dept can actually turn a profit.
With 7 to 8 cops on a shift how can they be everywhere at once they can’t predict when cars are going to drive bad.
to #8 the change to the law doesn’t say that cars have to stop while your standing at the corner it says that if you enter the roadway (at a crosswalk/intersection) when its safe to cross then they have to stop to allow you to complete your crossing if they are now approaching you
they are the highest paid in the state. what givesn
The true heroes are the firefighters who VOLUNTEER and risk their life running into burning buildings to save people.
#12 that is not true look at Brick and Manchester’s pay before you make a statement and then compare Lakewood in not even close to the top of the highest paid in in the state that is crazy to say that. Unless you were just making a joke then haha your funny!
You want the police to be everywhere but you also want to get rid of them make up your mind. You want them to write more tickets to make revenue. But if you get a ticket for something you did you go crying to someone to get it taken care of. Maybe if people would stop renting to anyone we could get the low life people out of our town.
For all the LPD supporters I stand with you strong. That does NOT however mean that I back their excessive pensions and benefits package. Yes they pay a few % of salary into their own pension but it’s a few measly while the public has to fund the rest! In 2000 the teachers and police dept. got a 10% raise across the board in pensions with asumptions that stocks would go up forever enabling the state to continue to pay out of the fund for the teachers. well, suprise! That hasn’t happened! The state has gone way into the red, almost to the verge of bamkruptcy forcing the citizens to vite in a new governor to CUT those payouts. Without it the state would default on it’s obligations. Lakewood is no different and we MUST lower liabilities to ALL the public servants including teachers, public works dept, AND police dept.
I salute the flag of the U.S. of A., the Constitution, and out devoted police officers.
I ask that we ALL tighten out belts, and just as private citizens we all have to, public servants must do so as well.
Thank you all!
Just remember that if you ask the LPD to only keep the highest performing cops on the force than each officer will BE FORCED to write MORE tickets so that he can justify his job and income. How else will you measure if he is doing his job? How many whining capable citizens he helped across the street? How many people he pulled over and warned them to fix their car, slow down, be more careful? The cops wont be able to afford to be Mr Nice Guy under your plan.
How are we going to lay off cops when our population has increased so much in ten years but our police force has stayed the same but may be cut now????????
it is ok when u need them for your bon fires and all the otherstuff , that cost a lot of over time and take away from other things, that is ok I guees as long as it is for you, get your own cops and people to cross your kids
Why are there four cops directing traffic at Blue Claws? Is that paid out of our tax dollars?
Be careful what you ask for. You want to get rid of officers when we dont have enough to cover this town now. Lakewood has some of the finest officers around, many have given a lifetime of service to this town and there is so little gratefulness or should I say selfishness, They are out there thru the night for your safety, families at home knowing they may not come home as we saw back in September. They deal with the element that the slumlords bring into this town and profit from just to name one example, and you want to cut back on them. Shame on you. These officers deserve every dollar and every benefit they make not like the those that serve and have served for too many yrs on our committees have lined thier from political favors and never had to get a scrap doing so. Remember the grass that is greener on the other side of the fence is usually because the septic tank is there.
To hello for Bon Fires and all those extra stuff the comunitty pays for it by the cops they call it “road jobs”
This isn’t only about the police. Local municipalities have to find ways to save money without cutting services. There are many ways of accomplishing this. For example the gov recommended that towns should pool resources for public works. I’m sure there are other ways without cutting police manpower. In our private lives as things get tighter people find areas to cut the govt must do likewise. People are struggling to make ends meet maybe the police don’t need new cars with registration checkers. We entrust our politicians to to our bidding for us and they should do their jobs not just rubberstamp baseline budget increases on a yearly basis. Bloomberg in NYC has found ways to cut the city budget with marginal decreases in service. He gas made the city more efficient with the 311 calling service thereby needing less employees. That doesn’t help in a small town but I challenge readers to come up with simple ideas to save money. It’s our town let town hall know that and hold them accountable for the way they spend OUR money.
#20 No, the police directing traffic at Blueclaws games are NOT paid by tax dollars. The Blueclaws pay the town for that service. Same goes for construction work I believe