Police personnel top priority in 2025 Middletown

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio – The City of Middletown’s 2025 budget will be presented to the City Council for approval this month, focusing on police staffing to ensure safety as city officials expect the population to grow.

Six Middletown police officers were promoted this week. For the first time in nearly a year, the Middletown Police Department has a full command staff. Now they want to add something.

“We had a lot of forced overtime and other scheduling issues that increased our costs but also burned out our employees,” said acting City Manager Nathan Cahall. “So this staffing plan is aimed at reducing the wear and tear on our most important asset. , those are our people.”

The 2025 budget includes “planned deficit spending.” According to our partners at the Journal-News, the budget has a projected revenue of approximately $51.5-54.9 million in expenditures after two years.

This is an investment made now in anticipation of future growth. The city told WCPO they expect the population to grow by as many as 700 to 1,000 people.

“Incrementally, over the past few years, the City Council has approved increasing police staffing,” Cahall said. “Our community leaders have decided to defer certain expenses and allow the general fund to generate some cost savings over time. And now it has been determined that now appears to be the right time to apply those savings to the needs of our community.”

Currently, the city’s police department is budgeted at 82 officers. This plan would increase the amount to 88 and cost approximately $700,000. Although the city council approves the plan for more officers, it is still unclear exactly how many will be needed a year from now.