Village of Frankfort Plans to Dissolve Police Department
FRANKFORT, N.Y. — It might look like Frankfort’s mayor, in office only since July, came in wielding an ax.
He said it was more like carrying a torch.
“We spent the better part of three years, between this administration, the prior administration and from what I’ve heard, countless administrations before, arriving at some sort of option to keep the police department and not have to get rid of it at all,” says Mayor Justin Smithson.
It looks like that all will come to an end, along with the Frankfort Village Police Department, at the end of the year.
Part of it is money.
The mayor said all the PD costs—personnel, contractual services, retirement and health insurance add up to more than half a million dollars—more than a quarter of the village budget.
But it’s not only about money.
“We put out that we have jobs available and no one applies,” the mayor said.
The Village Police Benevolent Association posted on their Facebook page, against abolishing the department, warning that coverage would suffer.
The mayor says the village would be covered.
“The law states that if we close our doors, let’s say, right now, then by law, the town has to cover the police presence for the village. And that’s just how it is. Like, we don’t pay them any extra money from the village. And they just assume control over it, and they’re a bigger police force, they’re twice the size of us, so there’s no sense in consolidating, they just take it over,” says Mayor Smithson.
The mayor said job loss, if any, would likely be minimal.
“There’s jobs everywhere right now, police department-wise. Everyone is hiring, and we’ve actually had one of the chiefs in the area offer to take all three of them. All three of the full-timers,” says the Mayor.
There will be a public hearing the night of Oct. 7.
The plan following that is for the town to adopt the local law through a resolution.
And for the police department, that’s served the village for more than 100 years, to be gone at the end of this one.
NEWSChannel 2 reached out to the PBA and the town supervisor and are waiting to hear back.