MILFORD, Del. - The Milford Police Department is requesting more personnel including four more dispatchers and a crime analyst. While the department is not a 911 center, Police Chief Cecilia Ashe said many people call the department directly as opposed to 911.
Chief Ashe said the need for these positions was determined after spending a year conducting a staffing needs assessment and was presented at the latest finance committee meeting.
"There is crime moving in so the good thing is if they get in more staffing, especially crime analysis and more dispatchers, they'll be able to help whoever calls faster and be able to keep everything in house to be able to help the people of Milford." said Emilie Crosser, who has lived in Milford for eight years.
How to pay for the extra positions remains to be seen. At a Finance Committee meeting, one idea discussed was a possible tax increase. However, nothing was voted on, and the committee is looking at multiple funding opportunities. Other solutions mentioned at the finance committee meeting to fill the job gap include drawing funding allocated to other positions in the city.
However Emmett Venett, who owns properties in the city, said another tax hike after the building of the new police department is too much too soon,
"We just spent 19 million dollars on the station and so the tax payers are already anted up some to give the police support so it's a little disappointing that we have to come back and ask for more operational support."
Police Chief Ashe hopes to find other solutions to funding the positions without putting the burden on locals.
"I feel confident that we can put stop gap measures in with two of the dispatchers to address the current issues within communications and that's just where we have to be really creative in their scheduling."
Two of the dispatcher positions are expected to be discussed at the City Council meeting on January 8th at 6 p.m. and the other two dispatcher positions as well as the crime analyst position are expected to be discussed at future budget hearing meetings in the spring.