Will Toms River Council Vote On Police Staffing Ordinance?

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Toms River Township Council is set to hold a special meeting at 2 p.m. Wednesday in Town Hall.

But as of Tuesday evening, it was unclear whether the council will in fact be voting on a controversial ordinance that would cut two captains' positions from the Toms River Police Department. The agenda for the meeting had not been posted and a meeting notice (see it below) was not specific.

The meeting is set for the L. Manuel Hirshblond Meeting Room on the second floor at town hall, 33 Washington St.

Opponents of the ordinance have announced a 1 p.m. rally outside town hall to again show support for the police department.

Public notices published Feb. 7 indicated that the Township Council would vote on the police staffing ordinance and six other ordinances on Valentine's Day.

Mayor Daniel Rodrick says a vote from the council is not needed as he has rescinded interim promotions of two officers to replace two captains who are retiring.

Rodrick has said he wants to eliminate the two captains' positions to fund eight EMTs to address what he says are lengthy delays in ambulance response times. He says residents have waited as much as 30 minutes for help to arrive.

Toms River's two police unions have refuted Rodrick's claims, saying the ambulance response times are much shorter, an average of 7.9 minutes in 2023, and that police officers — frequently the first to respond to a first aid call — arrived in 6.7 minutes. Read more: Toms River Police Push Back As Mayor Declares Cuts Final

The Toms River Police Department answered 71,868 calls for service in 2023, an average of almost 197 calls per day. More than 11,500 of those calls were for medical calls, including 3,735 calls for help involving heart issues, strokes or breathing issues and 92 reporting CPR in progress, according to Toms River police call data.

Other medical calls police answered included 180 requests for assistance for someone suffering a diabetic emergency; 258 calls reporting abdominal pain; 379 medical alarm calls; 93 allergic reaction calls; 8 calls reporting burn victims; 347 calls reporting seizures, and 1,905 calls requesting help for "general weakness," the data shows.

Police also answered 18 calls involving maternity issues including miscarriages, and 27 calls for help involving suicide or attempted suicide, the data shows.

There were 2,851 requests for well-being checks, the data shows.

Rodrick has criticized the salaries of the command staff in the police department as excessive. He repeatedly has said the captains' positions that are being cut — two captains are retiring and he says the town will not backfill the jobs — are desk jobs, and that the command staff can handle supervising the 112 officers in the department.

Police Chief Mitch Little has said the police department encompasses 335 employees. Deputy Chief Patrick Dellane supervises the entire patrol division, including all 112 patrol officers. The other two captains' positions supervise the remainder of the staff. One supervises the investigations bureau, including the department's detectives and the Special Enforcement Team. The other supervises the administrative bureau, including everything from school resource officers and EMTs to processing of body-worn camera videos, the records department, and the department's mechanics.

The meeting notice for Wednesday, published Monday, reads as follows:

TOMS RIVER TOWNSHIP PUBLIC MEETING NOTICE PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 10:4-8(b) and (d) the Toms River Township Council will be conducting a special meeting on February 14, 2024, at 2:00 P.M. The meeting will be held in-person in the Hirshblond Room on the second floor of the Toms River Township Municipal Building located at 33 Washington Street, Toms River, New Jersey, 08753. The meeting will also be livestreamed on the Township's Youtube Channel. The agenda shall include (1) final readings and public comment on ordinances pertaining to the restructuring of various departments; (2) final readings and public comment on various traffic ordinances; and a (3) consent agenda consisting of various purchases and other routine items of public business. Formal action may be taken. ($47.76)