The Hudson Budget Committee met on Nov. 7 to hear a presentation from the Hudson Police Department’s spending request for the next fiscal year. Police Chief Tad Dionne was at the meeting with Captain of Special Investigations David Cayot to make their budget presentation.
“We concentrated on recruitment and retention, again training, safety equipment and police facility contracts in order to keep our nice renovated building operating properly,” he outlined. “There’s still a shortage of police officers right now. After the epidemic, we’re literally competing with every other agency around us for the same short pool of candidates.”
The Department hired five officers in 2024 and had four retirements, leaving four open spots. There were questions surrounding Police Department requests for new equipment, including new tasers, body cameras, and vehicle cameras. Dionne mentioned that ongoing contract negotiations over benefits could have a small impact on final numbers.
“In your cover letter, you talked about in-car cameras. It’s my recollection that we’ve had in-car cameras for decades,” said Committee member Shawn Jasper.
Dionne claimed there had not been cameras in police cars since around 2005, mainly due to intractable issues related to what is now outdated video storage equipment.
“The maintenance for the in-car cameras was very expensive at the time,” said Dionne. “We were using VCRs then we switched to DVDs. The problem with DVDs was storage and upkeep.”
His expected recording and storage to be cheaper in 2024 with better technology. The cost for in-car cameras over five years will be $159,354. Body worn cameras will cost $434,273 over five years. The cost for new tasers was around $152,830 over five years and is a fixed cost part of an existing contract. Adding small equipment to the standard Police Department budget was part of a push to move the funding of such items away from warrant articles.
“Based on what you’ve said, we can count on similar budget requests compared to what we see this year to the next five years at least,” said Committee Chair James Lawrence.
Member Kevin Walsh had a question on what funding sources might be used for the purchase of ammunition, bringing up possible use of the exaction fees obtained from the recent deal around the purchase of the Target Logistics Center.
“We had a meeting with you as part of this Logistics Center exaction, police say it’ll contribute to public safety,” said Walsh. “You hinted that you might be looking at a new weapon system. Would that have any impact on being able to accommodate the ammunition line item for the Department?”
Dionne said that the exaction would not work for what he described as a routine purchase of ammunition. Most expenses were reoccurring, including the vehicle fleet, training, and recruitment/retention concerns.
