You know its funny i read about how some woman wins, yes i use the word wins, 7 million dollars for "slipping" by the light rail, yet lets cut police in any aspect.

well i guess we have our prioritys straight in this country, state, citys.

give money to poeple that dont deserve it = high taxes

cut police = higher crime

i tend to side with the side of less crime and let me keep my money

ooooo i have an idea how about that lady donates some of her "hard earned" money and open up the academy

nah that wont happen she is using her money for stuff she needs like houses, vacations, cars, jewlery you know the important things in life

disgusting

I had the same question, I found a few with less. Bergen County, Passaic County, Essex County, Middlesex County are some. Turns out that even if the person doesn't pass the academy they still have to pay for the spot. If someone gets injuried and has to resign or fails out they lose the money. So I guess in some ways it would be cheaper to keep it here. Also wouldn't you rather have cops training future cops from thier own city. I would think it would they would be able to train them better on our own specific problems as well as the law.

Quote:

I imagine that 90% of the training isn't on specific laws but skills that are universal. If they are training a class for us it would be simple for them to get separate classroom instruction specifically in the different laws. It would still be tremendously cheaper than maintaining our own academy, which is clearly not cost effective. I'd love to know the stats on how many other cities of 250k have their own academies.

Got it.

NYPD can't train them the laws are different, state to state

I've seen the Port Authority training recruits around their holland tunnel complexes as well.

I wonder if NYPD would train them? Why not?

Jersey City is closing its police academy to save money

Thursday, August 05, 2010
By MELISSA HAYES - JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
The Jersey Journal

Jersey City is shutting down its police academy to save money and put more officers on the street.

The city spends $1.95 million in salaries and benefits for 12 officers at the site and an additional $56,442 in rent for the Caven Point facility, officials said yesterday.

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy said city simply can no longer afford to run its own academy. City officials are grappling with a $80 million budget deficit.

"With cuts in state aid and a decline in other forms of revenue, coupled with the fact that we have not brought on a class of officers in about two years and are not planning to in the immediate future, it became clear that this was an area where we could cut and save taxpayer dollars," he said in a statement.

Of the 13 officers stationed at the academy, three have already retired and six have been reassigned to other units in the Police Department. Four more are closing up the academy and will also be reassigned if they do not retire, officials said.

Healy said if the city decides it needs to hire officers they can be trained at another facility at a much lower cost. It costs about $1,500 in tuition per officer.

The Jersey City academy did accept trainees from other municipalities, but didn't generate enough in tuition to cover salaries, officials said.

The city has lost about 50 police officers to retirements this year, leaving the department with about 840 officers. That's still up from 788 when Healy took office six years ago.

But Jerry DiCicco, president of the Jersey City Police Officers Benevolent Association, said his union is against the closure and said it shows the city has no intention of replacing retiring officers.

"It's simply strategically not a good move," he said.

He said the police force is "facing the grim reaper" as manpower decreases and crime is on the rise.

"I'm very well aware of how bad the economy is, but this is one area that you don't want to mess with," he said.

Besides the cash crunch, there was an additional reason to drop the academy. The Army Reserve, which owns the site, is renovating the facility and needs the space to be cleared.