The Town of Danvers Finance Committee approved the Police Department’s FY26 budget after hearing from department leadership about staffing, overtime and a clinician partnership with Lahey Behavioral Health.

The budget shows a 9.2% increase driven largely by salary and wages. Department leaders told the committee the town is close to full staffing after active recruitment and academy graduates due in September. That progress reduced the vacancy cushion the town had previously built into budgets; with more officers on the payroll, the town must absorb those positions’ costs.

Why it matters: The budget funds public-safety staffing levels and a proposed staffing study that will evaluate long-term workforce structure and needs. The department also relies on a clinician contract for co-response to mental-health calls; that clinician is funded through a state or grant program that the chief said may be reduced in the next state budget cycle.

Details from the hearing
- Staffing and proposed community-impact officer: The chief described a desire to restore a 47th position (a community-impact officer) to handle follow-ups on domestic violence, mental-health calls, parking and other community issues that patrol officers are not consistently able to address. The department said most peer departments have 2–4 officers assigned to a community-impact or community-service unit.
- Staffing study: The budget includes funding for an outside staffing and structure study (roughly $9,500) to evaluate long-term needs, including potential changes for body-worn cameras, traffic functions and administrative workloads.
- Clinician contract and state grant risk: The department contracts with Lahey Behavioral Health to provide a diversion/clinician who currently works three days per week with the police; that clinician has been supported by grant funding. The chief reported the state’s proposed budget would reduce a diversion-grant line (mentioned at the hearing as declining from $18 million to roughly $3.6 million), putting local clinician coverage at risk. The chief estimated the town would pay approximately $60,000–$80,000 annually to provide an in-house clinician should grant funding evaporate and said contracting through Lahey provides supervision and liability coverage.
- Overtime: The budgeted overtime line reflects historical spending and contingencies for training, injuries and unpredictable events; the chief noted a decrease in long-term sickness among officers compared with prior reports but said some injuries and deployments remain factors.

Quotes
"Right now, we currently have, 1 vacancy, and we have 1 officer in the academy right now so we're actually at the best point we've been in probably 3 to 5 years," the Police Chief said, describing recent recruitment successes.
"My estimate would be probably between $60,000 to $80,000 a year to fund that position," the Police Chief said when asked how much it would cost the town to hire a clinician directly if grant funding is lost.

Next steps
- The department will proceed with recruitment and implement the staffing study; Finance Committee and town leadership will monitor the state budget for any changes to diversion-grant funding that would affect the clinician contract.
- If state grants are reduced, the town will face a decision whether to contract with Lahey at local cost or to hire an in-house clinician (the chief recommended contracting through Lahey for supervision and liability coverage).

Ending: The police budget passed the committee with support; the staffing study and potential clinician funding shortfall are the primary follow-up items anticipated by town staff.