UTICA, Ind. — Residents of the river-town of Utica, Indiana are calling for more police officers on their streets, but the town board is saying it just can't be done right now.
"I'm for the cops, hire them, hire them," one resident, Joey, said at Utica's town hall meeting Monday night.
His call to hire more police officers was met with lots of applause, as several town residents spoke out at the meeting, saying Utica's normally quiet streets have lately seen a lot of crime.
"It's not just from within our community, it's what's now coming in to our community," Deborah Finney, another resident, said.
"If we could hire police tomorrow we'd hire them," Steve Long, Utica's town board president, said in an interview after the meeting.
Long said in the past five weeks the town has seen issues with drugs, a potential child abduction, a carjacking, and attempted murder.
On July 13, SWAT and other law enforcement agencies responded to a suspect who shot someone in the leg.
"The town of Utica has a police department but without the surrounding police departments we're nothing," Long said.
Utica has only one paid police officer and seven volunteer reserve officers who are expected to work 24 hours a week each.
But town residents said that's not enough. Long said he agrees with them, and said all hours of the day, every day of the week needs to be covered.
"Does a thief not work from 4 to 8? No. We just have got get more hours in there, but it's tough," he said.
"It has to be found somewhere feasibly that we can get the money appropriated even if it's starting with one police officer," Finney said.
Right now, the Utica town board said the money just isn't there in the current budget.
"When you have to go out and beg, borrow, and steal, right now we're scrambling," Long said.
The town budget currently allocates about $250,000 dollars for the department, and is asking the state for more money in the next budget.
Long said the town hasn't raised taxes in about six years, and it hopes ongoing developments will bring in the tax dollars to help grow the department.
"We're just a small town, we're doing everything that we can," he said.
The town board will have a special discussion on the community concerns about police sometime before its next public meeting in September.
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