Three townships in Franklin County want voters to approve levies for their police departments.
Police chiefs in Blendon, Clinton and Perry townships said everything is more expensive, and that even though bigger departments patrol much of Franklin County, township police departments offer township residents more community-based policing.
“Because of the increase after Covid, our costs have gone up 32 to 34% in some cases," said Clinton Township Police Chief Michael Jones.
Voters turned down a new police levy in the spring. That would have cost homeowners $210 more a year for each $100,000 in property value.
This levy would cost about half that much. Find out how a levy would effect your property taxes with the Franklin County Auditor's levy calculator.
The levy in the spring lost with only 30% of the vote. Only about 400 people voted to decide the outcome of the spring levy.
“Now that that levy didn't pass, we kind of asked the voters, you know, what's the issue? Because we have never lost a levy in the township since I've been here. I've been here about 30 years,” Jones said.
This time the Clinton Township Police Department is asking voters to replace a handful of old levies from the 1970's and 1980's. If voters approve the move, it will allow the township to collect more money thanks to higher property values. The levy would generate more than $600,000. That’s four times the amount the levy was previously bringing in.
“The funding we currently have is the funding we had in 2016. And just like everyone at home, your groceries have gone up, gas prices have gone up. That means our operations, our law enforcement have gone up as well," Jones said.
Jones said the department is already operating under a study’s recommended staffing levels for Clinton Township’s call volume.
But, this levy wouldn’t bring in enough revenue for new hires.
“We understand that that request was way too much for our residents. We re-evaluated that need for additional officers. Now we're requesting to update old millage to keep services we currently provide with no additional staffing or services,” Jones said.
He said insurance costs are up 14% since 2016. And technology costs are always rising.
"We use the Axon Company, (which is) very pricey. And we're hoping that the state, the governor's office or the attorney general, puts out more grants, more funding to help replace these body cameras. The original departments that got these grants, that funding is running out," Jones said. Most of the body cam companies, they have contracts that are three or five years long. And when those expire, there's going to be a lot of departments that aren't going to be able to afford these cameras systems unless they get more grant money coming up. And that's kind of what we're predicting or trying to fight off. But all technology costs are going up."
Jones spoke about the levy at an informational meeting with about half a dozen residents earlier this month. No one spoke out against the levy.
Townships in Franklin County have lost a lot of territory to the city of Columbus. Annexations over the years have left a mix of jagged borders and disconnected sections of townships divided by other jurisdictions.
Clinton Township once contained all of Clintonville, but it's now a couple of specks of white on this map.
Jones, Perry Township Police Chief Steve Cesaro and Blendon Township Police Chief John Belford said there are benefits to keeping and funding smaller police departments, even as they've lost land over the years.
Clinton Township can afford to train every officer in first aid, mental health awareness and different tactics.
“Officers are also trained in de-escalation techniques (and) response to aggression from persons under mental health-related stress. That's been a real important focus of ours. We also began using more less lethal options for officers,” Jones said.
The chiefs say they have better response times in their communities than other jurisdictions.
“We have a better response time. Normally we're more involved in the community. Larger agencies have...I think it's a little harder for them to get to know people. A lot of our officers are known by first name by our residents,” Cesaro said.
Belford said the township officers respond to callers directly.
“A lot of municipal police departments have stopped doing a lot of service-oriented type response to calls, raccoons under the deck, people being locked out of their houses. A lot of those animal complaints and lock out complaints that other police departments no longer handle, we still do,” Belford said.
Belford also said maintaining a department concentrates resources.
"When you have a township police department, those resources are concentrated in your neighborhood. And we prioritize the crimes in those neighborhoods. Where large organizations are spread out, they have to have their priorities spread out. You don't always get the amount of patrol, but the focused concentration of the targeted investigations that you do from a police department or a sheriff's office, that is more directly dialed in to the community," he said.
About 50% of what’s left of Perry Township is scattered around, the other half is in two neighborhoods. There, police want to raise more than $2 million a year with a new levy. That would cost the owner of a median-valued home in that community, which has an average price of $485,000, about $1,200 more per year. Perry Township residents last approved a police levy in 2015.
Blendon Township is asking voters for about $160 more a year on a $100,000 house. The levy is expected to raise $1.4 million. The township is spread out across four big neighborhoods and several shopping centers. Belford said the department has recently had to handle more serious crimes more often.
“So 2022, for example, we had one shooting in the township, six felonious assaults. But we doubled that. We had two shootings in 2023. And so far, year to date, we've had three shootings in 2024," Belford said.
Belford said they’re also operating with a staff shortage, but the levy would only cover operating costs.
