REDDING - Some residents have recently questioned the size of the town’s police department and whether it’s needed in a mostly rural community like Redding.

The 17-officer department costs the town about $2.4 million a year, money that some residents think could be better spent on other needs.

At one recent meeting of the Board of Selectmen, resident Wolf Boehme proposed a return to the resident state trooper program, which the town used until about 15 years ago.

“The town has a lot of financial pressures today, including education funding and discussions about hiring a full-time social services director,” Boehme said in an interview. “I don’t believe the amount of crime in Redding warrants having our own police department.”

First Selectman Julia Pemberton agreed to look into the issue.

“There are certainly some residents in our community who are concerned about the size and cost of the department,” she said. “It’s always a worthy discussion, and it is one of our largest line items in the budget. I have been doing some research on the subject.”

But Pemberton defended the size of the department, noting that the number of officers actually helps the town minimize overtime costs.

“With the exception of contractual increases, we’ve actually been able to reduce other operational costs within the department in the past few years,” she said.

Pemberton said call volume has increased in Redding over the years, owing to the aging population and the frequency of calls from facilities such as Meadow Ridge, the sprawling senior living community. Police are required to respond to all emergency medical calls, she said.

She also noted that the department has little administrative staff, and many employees often have multiple responsibilities. The communications officer, for example, does most of the department’s IT work and himself installs and maintains its radio systems.

“These are people who put their lives on the line every day,” she said. “And while people think not much happens in Redding, an officer never knows what to expect when a driver rolls down the window.”

Most Connecticut towns have their own police departments, but 54 communities are covered by the resident trooper program.

In some towns, including Kent, the resident trooper is the sole local law officer; in others, like New Fairfield, the trooper is aided by one or more constables, who have some police powers and are paid by the town. Towns contract with the state for the services of resident troopers themselves and cover 85 percent of the cost of their salaries and benefits.

Another 24 communities have no law enforcement agencies of their own, relying on the State Police to enforce the law within their boundaries.

The state does not dictate which arrangement each town uses.

“Those are really decisions that are made locally, depending on the size and the needs of the town,” said Watertown Police Chief John C. Gavallas, who serves as president of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association.

In 2001, when Redding was considering whether to set up its own department, a consultant suggested that it might not be the best option.

“The cost-benefit analysis provided in this report seems to suggest that the costs outweigh the potential benefits at this time,” said the report, compiled by the Washington, D.C- based Police Foundation. “The main reason for this is the slow rate of population growth.”

The report suggested the town, which then had 8,100 residents and now has 9,000, consider increasing its resident state trooper program or regionalizing police services in cooperation with neighboring towns such as Easton and Weston.

Some officials argued at the time that the town needed its own department because of the redevelopment project contemplated at the Gilbert and Bennett property, which was to become a pedestrian-friendly housing and retail center. That project, however , never came to fruition.

But the consultant’s report was written at a time when towns were required to pay just half the cost of a resident state trooper. That cost has since climbed to 85 percent, and state officials in recent years have called for towns to bear the entire cost of the program. And it is not clear how many constables might be needed to work under a trooper.

Kent, a town of some 3,000 residents, brought back the resident state trooper program about five years ago after the Sandy Hook massacre. The town had withdrawn from the program years before owing to budgetary constraints.

“After Sandy Hook, we were approached by some of the private schools in town ... concerned about our lack of police presence,” said First Selectman Bruce Adams.

The town eventually arranged for each of the schools to contribute $20,000 annually to the program, which costs the town about $100,000.

Warren, a town with about 1,400 residents, has neither a police department nor resident trooper. First Selectman Craig Nelson noted that State Police are required to provide services to towns in Connecticut regardless of what local department they have.

“We are very happy with what we have,” he said. “If there is a big incident, there are resident state troopers in adjoining communities who can come to our aid. And of course the State Police are also required to respond.”

Adding more than $100,000 to the town’s $5.4 million yearly budget would be unacceptable, Nelson said.

“That would be a huge spending increase for our town and for our taxpayers,” he said.

Redding’s Boehme noted that his concerns predated problems surrounding Police Chief Doug Fuchs, who has been put on paid administrative leave pending the investigation into how he handled a suicide that occurred in April 2016.

“I’ve been talking about this for years,” he said. “This is about the best and most efficient way for us to allocate our tax dollars.”

dperrefort@newstimes.com