TROY – It may be time to consider studying the number of officers needed to protect the city as the Capital Region’s third largest police department embarks on an expanded community policing mission, Mayor Patrick Madden said.

“We should have an independent expert take a look at the size of our police force,” Madden said.

The mayor said it’s not clear how it was determined that the department should have its present staffing of 130 officers. The only thing that is evident, he said, is the push to 130 officers from 127 officers resulted from the city accepting a federal grant to pay for three school resource officers.

Madden and his new police department leadership of Chief Brian Owens, Assistant Chief Daniel DeWolf and Capt. Christopher Kehn, who is awaiting promotion to assistant chief, have discussed the need for more officers.

The number of workers, college students and volume of calls for police services on a daily basis indicate the department could use more officers, DeWolf said.

While the city police force is budgeted to have 130 officers, it rarely has that number available due to retirements, rookies attending the Zone 5 Police Academy and officers recuperating from injuries. In developing the department’s deployment plans, Owens and DeWolf are working with the availability of about 120 officers, although the ranks will near 130 by the end of the summer.

The Troy Police Benevolent Association has long advocated expanding the department.

“Troy police staffing levels have been stuck at 130 total officers for years now. We could use a 10-person bump to bring us up to 140. But ultimately it comes down to dollars and cents and what tax increase residents are willing to stomach,” said Officer Nick Laviano, the PBA president

An increase to 140 officers would place Troy just five positions behind Schenectady’s 145 officers in 2017, according to a state Division of Criminal Justice Services report on staffing in all police departments in the state. In 2017, Albany reported having 333 full-time officers; Schenectady, 145; Troy, 123; Albany County Sheriff’s Office, 120; Saratoga County Sheriff’s 120; and Colonie, 109.

Madden said the city may seek an outside grant to pay for a study. He said it’s something that needs to be discussed to determine if the city can undertake a staffing study.

Robert Worden, associate professor at the University at Albany School of Criminal Justice, said in conducting a staffing study variables like call volume must be considered but most important would be what the local government and residents want to see their police departments do in dealing with crime, Worden said.

“I know of no viable research that ultimately says what a police department size should be,” Worden said.

The commitment by Madden and his police department’s leadership is commendable. But, Worden said, it has it own unique challenge beyond adapting the philosophy.

“That’s a labor-intensive proposition. They will need more men to do it,” Worden said.

Officers involved in community policing, Worden explained, have to spend more time on calls and in resolving problems, many of them minor, that the public brings to the department’s attention. He said it comes down to problem solving.