Reading\u2019s proposed 2027 police budget maintains funding for 175 officers and increases overtime allocations as the department works to fill vacancies and reach its staffing goal.<\/p>\n
City Council reviewed the department\u2019s spending plans Wednesday during a committee of the whole meeting, examining personnel costs, overtime, equipment and other expenses across four divisions: criminal investigations, special services, patrol and administration.<\/p>\n
Finance Director Joseph Famiglietti outlined the proposed expenditures, including adjustments intended to better reflect how the department spends its money.<\/p>\n
The department currently has approximately 160 to 161 officers, according to figures provided during the meeting, and hopes to reach its authorized complement of 175 through ongoing recruitment.<\/p>\n
Police Chief Javier Ruiz said the department has a class of 53 prospective recruits and another 26 candidates undergoing background checks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should be able to fill them out hopefully within this year, next year,\u201d the chief said.<\/p>\n
Council members also learned that three long-vacant positions will remain unfunded in 2027: a video safety unit supervisor, a telecommunicator and one of three criminal investigator positions.<\/p>\n
Famiglietti said the investigator vacancies cannot be filled until the department reaches its required officer staffing level.<\/p>\n
Councilman O. Christopher Miller questioned whether the department\u2019s overtime allocations reflect its continuing staffing shortages.<\/p>\n
Famiglietti confirmed that vacancies are a factor in determining overtime needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe make sure that if we\u2019re adjusting an overtime budget, then naturally there should be a salary savings due to not filled positions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The proposed budget includes $1.7 million for patrol overtime and $600,000 for criminal investigations.<\/p>\n
In special services, civilian overtime would increase from $750,000 to $850,000, while officer overtime would rise from $75,000 to $110,000.<\/p>\n
The patrol division, the department\u2019s largest, includes 132 full-time officer positions, with salaries totaling approximately $12.7 million.<\/p>\n
The budget also provides $690,000 for school crossing guards with the Reading School District contributing $345,000, or half, of the contract cost.<\/p>\n
Other patrol expenditures include $260,000 for fuel, $173,000 for uniforms and $38,500 for the department\u2019s canine program.<\/p>\n
Famiglietti said several significant changes in the budget reflect the reclassification of expenses rather than increases or reductions in services.<\/p>\n
For example, patrol contracted services would decrease from $700,933 to $6,750, while dues and subscriptions would increase from $500 to $699,359.<\/p>\n
Much of that funding covers subscriptions and maintenance associated with officers\u2019 body cameras and Tasers.<\/p>\n
Similar accounting adjustments were made throughout the department to place expenditures in the appropriate budget categories.<\/p>\n
The proposed budget also includes $18,500 for a youth police academy in special services.<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Melissa Ventura questioned the status of a part-time traffic secretary position, which replaced a full-time position earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Famiglietti said the position remains vacant and the department is recruiting applicants. The job pays $20 an hour.<\/p>\n
Famiglietti also said the administration will continue reviewing police-related revenue to ensure the city charges appropriate fees and recovers eligible expenses.<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Vanessa Campos thanked department officials for their work and expressed optimism about reaching the staffing goal.<\/p>\n
The review was part of council\u2019s continuing examination of the city\u2019s proposed 2027 spending plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reading\u2019s proposed 2027 police budget maintains funding for 175 officers and increases overtime allocations as the department works…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,857,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-324219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-essential-reading","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}