“Harrison’s not immune to criminal activity, unfortunately,” Marraccini said. “An additional three spots in the police budget is really a step in the right direction.”
The preliminary appropriation for the Harrison Police Department stands at $17,029,896 – nearly a third of the town's $55,966,000 budget.
Currently, the department has 61 police officers with a combined total salaries of $5,923,695. The preliminary 2013 budget asks for 64 officers, who would make a combined $6,078,346. However, that could change during the budget process, which led Marraccini to speak up for his department.
“The police officers – men and women on the streets of Harrison every day – are doing really a terrific and heroic job. And I commend each and every one of them for bringing the quality of law enforcement that I expect in this community,” he said.
Throughout the year, Marraccinni said his department made “high-profile arrests” and conducted “quality investigations.”
However, “patrols have been stripped down to bare minimums and, unfortunately, there’s times on the road where we don’t have police cars in service,” Marraccini said.
His mission is “to try to provide the best possible services that we can for the people of Harrison,” which he believes his department has demonstrated.
The preliminary 2013 Harrison budget has a 2.7 percent tax levy increase from the adopted 2012 budget of $54,832,424. Salaries and benefits make up nearly 75 percent of the budget.
A second public hearing on the preliminary budget will take place Dec. 20.
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