RUMFORD — The increase in the proposed police department budget of $779,342 for 2014-15 is due to the request to bring back the detective’s position lost last year, Chief Stacy Carter said Wednesday in a news release.
With budget cuts last year, the positions of a police detective and an administrative officer were eliminated.
“The effects of the cuts weren’t without impact,” Carter said. “Duties of both of those positions were transferred to other officers. The amount of cases that continue to come in and need to be investigated can be overwhelming at times.
“We have seen a remarkable increase in referrals of child sexual abuse,” he said. “These cases require extensive investigation consuming a lot of man-hours. These are cases of both alleged physical abuse and alleged sexual abuse,” he said.
Carter said that with the detective handling these cases, there isn’t sufficient manpower to also investigate numerous burglary/thefts and drug trafficking crimes.
“These crimes are prevalent in our community and deserve the much needed attention,” he said.
“Times have changed in this town. Although our population has gone down, the calls for service have not,” Carter said. “Drug addiction and associated crimes that go with it are on the rise. We have seen numerous incidents because of drug addiction.”
Carter said Rumford police have responded to calls of subjects high on bath salts, “and most recently, a large increase in the amount of heroin that has been coming into town.”
These crimes spurn crimes of violence and there have been incidents of aggravated assault and robbery due to drug addictions, he said.
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