Proposed Randolph Police Budget Compared to Vermont Towns

The following is a comparison of the Randolph Police Department proposed budgets for FY 2025, including two options - the village district does not expand, or the district expands to cover the entire town. I have included Vermont towns with similar size populations and which also have their own police department i.e. not using the sheriff or state police for coverage. The comparisons include the proposed budget for the existing Village Police District with no expansion, and the proposed budget for expanding the district to cover the entire Town of Randolph.

The comparisons also include the cost per officer, cost per square mile of coverage, and the cost per reported incident for 2022. The average cost per officer, for example, ranges from a low of $122,064 in Hardwick to a high of $199,783 in Bristol. The estimated cost per officer in Randolph is $171,250 if the village district remains "as is" to $167,500 if the district expands to cover the entire Town of Randolph. The historical cost per officer in Randolph was roughly $125,000 for the fiscal years 2014 to 2017, the last year of department activity prior to the contract with the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

Based on the comparison, it appears the projected cost to Randolph is similar to the cost experienced by towns of similar size, however, it is considerably more than the town has spent per officer in the past. This is due to inflation - both general inflation, and more significantly, inflation in the salary and related costs of police officer employment. The department is currently operating with fewer officers than in past years, yet they are handling more calls for service. These costs are projected to rise in the near future as all police departments are dealing with a severe staffing shortage of qualified, trained personnel. Due to economies of scale, the smaller the department, the more it costs per officer, and the harder it is to maintain existing staff i.e. prevent competing offers from neighboring towns causing officers to seek employment elsewhere.