What Should be Size of Nazareth Police Department?

While Nazareth Police Chief Thomas Trachta's contract status must be determined, another major piece of the police department puzzle for the Nazareth Borough Council is determining the number of full-time police officers.

At recent council meetings, proposals have been tossed out about plans for having five full-time officers or eight full-time officers.

Right now, the department comprises Trachta and two full-time officers, complimented by part-time officers.

The council weighed options of having Colonial Regional handle police coverage but that fell through. And many residents have pointed fingers at borough officials for putting the borough in such a predicament.

Now that Nazareth is going forward with rebuilding its own police department, the council must figure out what size force is best for protecting its residents.

New Mayor Carl Strye Jr. has asked for patience since the process may take some time.

So how many full-time officers would be ideal? That is the million dollar question.

The Police Committee may take up that discussion at its monthly meeting Monday night.

Trachta has stated that he prefers at least six full-time officers, maybe more.

In a conversation with Nazareth Patch, Strye didn't think that eight full-time officers was necessary.

"We don't need eight, maybe between four and six," the mayor said. "We will discuss this with the police committee and take it one step at a time."

A key piece in moving forward was the council getting seats filled on its three-member Civil Service Committee, in which full-time police officer hirings must go through first before the council signs off on them.

Councilman Jack Herbst, who chairs the Police Committee, stated that maybe "eight would be an ideal number" because "it gives us a lot more flexibility."

The police officers must go through a year's probation period.

Herbst believed it might be good to hire two full-timers off the bat but Councilman Charles Donello favored maybe hiring four, protecting the borough in case say two officers didn't make it through probation.

"It's just a number we're throwing out," Councilman Carl Fischl said. "We might hire four. We're going to discuss. It could be two, four, six, eight."

So how many officers do you believe would be the right number? Leave your comments below.