Parsippany police urge staffing increases as patrol activity and motor-vehicle enforcement rise
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Summary
Police leaders told the Township Council the 2025 municipal budget seeks more officers to address retirements, improve retention and expand community policing while patrol activity, summonses and motor-vehicle stops rose sharply in 2024.
Chief Pantina, Deputy Chief Dowd and Captain Carney presented the police department’s 2025 operating request and described a department focused on community policing while rebuilding staffing levels.
The department told council members the proposed budget reflects a municipal tax-rate increase that helps protect services and fund hiring. "The main thing that our budget entails is hiring," Chief Pantina said, adding the force is facing a wave of retirements: "We have, probably 11 that could are eligible to retire this year going on." The chiefs said the budget would add five officers to bring the authorized roster toward 106 sworn officers on the books once recent departures and upcoming retirements are counted.
Council members pressed leadership about the department’s productivity data. The presentation showed motor-vehicle stops rose from about 7,244 in 2023 to 18,600 in 2024 and summonses rose by roughly 7,500 in the same period. Deputy Chief Dowd and Chief Pantina attributed the increase chiefly to staffing, supervisory emphasis on documentation and a culture shift toward proactive enforcement: "By doing that last year, they started producing a lot more motor vehicle stops, a lot more arrests," Dowd said. The chiefs said schedule changes and recent promotions have also reduced overtime costs in patrol and dispatch.
Chief Pantina described retention challenges shared across law enforcement and said some departures stem from retirement while younger officers often leave after shorter tenures: "A lot of the guys that we have leave in have military time, so they buy that time back, and then they go on to do something else." Council members asked about recruitment partnerships with local colleges and vocational programs; chiefs said the department already coordinates with schools and the county and noted hiring pathways that bypass traditional civil service testing.
The department also defended the enforcement numbers against the suggestion they reflected non-enforcement calls: "They're wrong... A motor vehicle stops. A motor vehicle stops," Chief Pantina said, reiterating that the statistics reflected active stops and summonses rather than merely dispatched service calls. Council members and the mayor praised the department’s increased visibility and credited leadership for recent improvements.
The presentation included a reading of the department’s mission statement and a description of investments in training, a 6-officer traffic unit and equipment and communications maintenance costs tied to a townwide Motorola radio system. Captain Wieners explained the communications line item covers a new system that includes fire, EMS, DPW and other municipal departments and that the first three years of warranty concluded, triggering a maintenance expense.
No formal action or vote on the police budget took place during the presentation; council members requested additional detail on overtime projections, retirements and staffing timelines.
