Private Police Deal in NH - 4th Post. . .

It seems like "growing your [taxpayer subsidized] business" may go beyond the confines of the New Hartford Police Department proper. A Letter to the Editor from a retired NHPD Sergeant reveals about the NH 911 Call Center:

The center has grown from handling New Hartford police and fire department calls, expanding over the years to dispatch for three volunteer fire departments, New York Mills Police Department, three highway departments and animal control, as well as handling after-hours calls for the codes, parks and sewer departments.

No problem if these other departments being serviced are all located within the Town of New Hartford . . . but they are not.

Sure, some will promote this as "shared services" . . . which (with reservations) is a good concept . . . but are the monies being paid to New Hartford by the other jurisdictions sufficient to cover the actual overtime, benefits, liability exposure, etc. that these New Hartford employees are burdening New Hartford Taxpayers with for performing work for other jurisdictions?

Or is the 911 call center just another excuse for some employees to rack up lots of overtime to pad pensions.

Sorry if I sound skeptical about the benefits of all this, but after reading about the police department itself, you have to wonder.

"Sharing Services" without consolidation of municipalities is a way to get the taxpayers of one municipality to subsidize another . . . And employees of the subsidizing muni may be only too willing to help because there is something in it for them.