As they juggle the final week of budget deliberations, the City Council’s Budget & Appropriations Committee is hearing from some segments of the community to cut the police budget in favor of buoying funds for cash-strapped schools.
Chief Roderick Porter recently addressed the fiscal body with good news: crime is down, but he wants to keep pace with projected retirements.
CT Post reporter Brian Lockhart has more on this issue.
That was the bittersweet message Police Chief Roderick Porter and his top aides delivered Wednesday to members of the City Council’s budget committee as that group reviews Mayor Joe Ganim’s proposed 2025-26 fiscal plan.
“We’re taxing our officers because we’re not letting them go home,” Assistant Chief Paul Grech told council members.
Ganim’s draft municipal budget funds around 357 officers, a figure Porter supports. The force currently has 310 uniformed personnel. Twenty-six of those new hires are still on probation.
Bridgeport’s top cop said it is important for the administration to continue aggressive recruitment efforts, particularly with 58 officers eligible for retirement this year and 74 in 2027. A new academy class graduated in February, and another 30 cadets are scheduled to start training this month.
However, a recently released, independently conducted personnel study commissioned by the council to settle the question of ideal police department staffing concluded Bridgeport’s force can get by this year with 329 officers and, based on population estimates, 334 by 2035. And that could result in some cuts to unfilled cop positions before the municipal budget process wraps up this month.
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