The Rindge Police Department has announced that starting this week, it is unable to provide 24/7 coverage due to the recent departure of two officers, which has reduced staff to six.
The Rindge Police Department is currently budgeted for a total of nine officers, although it was not fully staffed for a significant amount of time even prior to the recent departures.
“Effective April 12th, the Rindge Police Department’s staffing was reduced to the point where we are unable to cover the Town of Rindge 24/7,” a post on the Rindge Police Department page reads. “There will be times each day where police response will be delayed due to officers being in an on-call status.”
Police Chief Rachel Malynowski declined to comment beyond the posted statement.
A seventh officer has been hired and is currently in training at the Police Academy.
During the town’s deliberative session in March, Malynowski cautioned residents that the anticipated resignations of officers may leave the department unable to provide day and night coverage by the end of April.
Part of the reason for that, Malynowski explained during deliberative session, was starting pay for officers. She said that the town has struggled to fill empty police positions, in part because starting pay for new officers is below that being offered on PoliceApp, a popular hiring platform for police departments.
During the deliberative session, the attending public approved a $100,000 increase to the budget, which was intended to be used for police wages or hiring incentives. While the adjustment passed at the deliberative session, voters ultimately failed the budget at the polls.
Voters also voted to repeal a previous town vote to increase the police department to nine positions, leaving the size of the department in the hands of the Select Board. The board has not made any official decision on the number of officers, leaving the current staffing size at nine officers.
Rindge Town Administrator Max Vandervliet said that conversation may happen in the future, but it has been more than six months since the department has been fully staffed, saying that the board has time for those conversations. He said that until the board makes a decision on the matter, the police department will remain at nine positions.
A wage adjustment for police
Vandervliet said the town attempted to address that issue in a Select Board meeting last week. Vandervliet said he conducted a wage study on police wages, looking at salaries statewide, countywide and in towns of comparable size to Rindge.
During a nonpublic session last week, the board reviewed the study and a proposal for a wage adjustment, particularly for junior officers, and accepted it, according to Vandervliet.
During budget discussions this year, Malynowski advocated for a wage adjustment for officers, but ultimately, the Select Board moved forward with a more moderate increase that was in line with the wage increase for all town employees this year.
Vandervliet said the wage proposal he put forth was a “compromise” position.
Vandervliet said his analysis mainly identified a disparity for new officers and those with the department for less than five years.
Prior to accepting the new wage scale, entry-level pay for Rindge officers was $55,700, which was about $5,500 below the county average and $5,200 below the county median, when excluding the city of Keene.
Vandervliet’s proposal included bringing up the starting salary for new officers by $5,000, and adjusting salaries for three staff members, as if they had been hired at the new starting salary and received 2.5% raises annually.
In an example used by Vandervliet in the analysis, this would take an officer with two years of experience, who had been earning $57,600, and increase their salary to $63,037 annually.
For the more tenured officers, with include a sergeant, detective, and the chief, Vandervliet said that the study found they were more in line with countywide averages, excluding Keene, and proposed a 4% wage increase, which is slightly above the town-wide wage adjustment for employees this year.
Ashley Saari can be reached at asaari@ledgertranscript.com or 603-924-7172 ext. 244. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.