The Salisbury Township Police Department has requested two new officers be hired and four officers promoted to corporals at a cost of $200,000. This amount would need to be included in the 2016 township budget and could result in a projected tax hike of 0.162 mills, or about $35 per household.

“What a deal,” Commissioner Joanne Ackerman said.

Salisbury Township Police Chief Allen W. Stiles requested the two new hires in a presentation during the township board of commissioners’ Oct. 22 workshop. Also making the plea was Sergeant Kevin Soberick and Sergeant Donald Sabo Jr. Also attending was Sergeant Ronald Patten.

“The challenges we face are the most complex we’ve ever seen,” Soberick said.

“Patrol is the backbone,” Soberick said. “Patrol has evolved drastically. It includes training in dealing with mental health and special needs citizens.”

The approximate one-hour presentation included real-time video of township police responding to calls, including a traffic stop, police chase and collaring of a suspect on a business establishment parking lot.

“It’s not just Salisbury. We’re impacted by Allentown and Interstate 78,” Soberick said.

Sabo said a lot of back-end work is required of police officers. This includes filing of reports, court case duty and training.

Sabo said the appointment of four corporals would assist patrol shift supervision.

The annual cost estimate is $14,898.80 or $3,723.20 per police corporal. The rest of the $200,000 is the estimate for hiring two police officers.

The recommendation is to not only add two police officers in 2016 but also to add two more police officers in 2018.

There are now 17 full-time and two part-time township police officers.

“I guess what it looks like is that we’re going to have to look at the overall impact,” Commissioner Robert Martucci, Jr. said of the effect on the 2016 township budget of the police department request.

The township administration and commissioners are beginning 2016 budget deliberations.

“I’m in favor of giving you guys what you need,” Martucci told the police officers.

“For me, it’s not a problem. I’m working. But some are retired,” Martucci said of a potential tax hike.

“I think it would impact their overtime. It would bring it down,” Salisbury Township Director of Finance and Acting Manager Cathy Bonaskiewich said of the hiring of the two police officers and how that might reduce police department costs.

“It’ll certainly impact the overtime,” Sabo agreed.

The police department has tested nine officers and nine have passed the test to replace one existing vacant police officer position.

“We could fill two other positions from the group,” Stiles said. The two officers could possibly be hired in early 2016.

The police department has an application for a grant to build a police evidence storage building at Eastern Salisbury Fire Company. As a backup, Bonaskiewich is including funding for the project in the 2016 budget.

In 2014, Salisbury police responded to 7,897 calls and had 5,975 incident reports. As of the end of September, there were 4,057 incident reports.

Stiles backgrounded commissioners on the township police department, which he has headed since 1994. At that time there were 10 full-time and eight part-time township police officers.

“We had very little equipment and it was in poor condition,” Stiles said.

“My first day on the job, you could see the street. I asked public works to put a plate in the floorboard,” Stiles said of his patrol vehicle.

“It wasn’t a place where people wanted to work,” Stiles said of the township police department.

“We’ve ended the distraction of labor unrest,” Stiles said.

The township police department is now well-maintained and equipped, Stiles added.

“We have the respect of every law enforcement department we’ve ever worked with,” Stiles said.

From 1995 to 2014, the township police department has received $973,951 in federal, state and Lehigh County grants.

Stiles said the department faces several challenges: liability, staffing and official and unofficial mandates.

As an example of unofficial mandates, Stiles mentioned police officer uniform body cameras, noting of them, “They have already decided that this is be-all and end-all.

“We will eventually get our body cams, but we’re waiting for the FBI to decide which ones,” Stiles said.

He said several areas of responsibilities keep township police busy, including: heroin antidotes, Lehigh Valley Health Network– Cedar Crest and South Mall.

Stiles said township commissioners need to plan for his successor as well as successors for two of three sergeants who will be eligible to retire.

“We need to plan for the hiring of a chief and promotions to sergeants,” Stiles said.

“I’d like to hear from you what you’d like to see and what our priorities should be for the next five years,” Stiles said to commissioners.