| New Jersey has 566 municipalities and 489 of those municipalities maintain their own police force. This includes many municipalities that have only a few thousand people and are extremely small and condensed, this includes many municipalities which are surrounded almost entirely or entirely by another municipality.
In Indiana, it would be extremely uncommon for a town of less than 5000 people to retain their own police force, instead contracting policing services to the sheriff's office. Outside of the northeast, sheriff's offices provide policing services to rural areas, whereas in New Jersey, sheriff's main duties include operation of jails, security for the courts, and delivering process.
The other municipalities receive their policing from the NJSP, at a cost of $80 million per year.
Proposal:
-All municipal police forces should be dissolved and all police personnel should be rolled into the county sheriff's office
-The county sheriff's office, in turn, shall provide police services for all residents within their county
-Cut the $80 million it takes for the state to police these rural areas, as all areas of New Jersey shall receive policing from their respect county sheriffs
-Require a statewide hiring freeze for police/sheriffs officers for 5 years, and close down all police academies run by the state for 3 years.
-The new consolidated county police/sheriff offices should utilize old municipal police stations as precincts, and shut down unnecessary stations
-All public safety should be funded through a countywide ad valorum property tax
Will it work?
Well, in many counties in Maryland, there is only one countywide police force and one sheriffs office; this takes it to the logical conclusion. |
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