Merrimac Police Department Shares Information About 2025-2026 Budget Requests

MERRIMAC – Chief Eric Shears, on behalf of the Merrimac Police Department, shares the following information regarding its 2025-2026 budget requests.

The Merrimac Police Department employs 10 full-time officers and attempts to schedule two officers for each 12-hour shift. However, the department is unable to fill all open shifts due to training, sick callouts, and paid time off; on average about one in five shifts in 2024 were covered by a single officer working.

As a result, supervisors and Chief Shears, himself, are finding themselves called into service to respond to calls or as the backup officer for some calls.

Placing a single officer on patrol is dangerous and contrary to best practice. Massachusetts Municipal Police Training Committee guidelines specify that at least two officers respond to challenging or potentially high-risk calls, to improve the likelihood of a positive outcome for the community and to ensure the officer’s safety.

Therefore, Chief Shears is requesting an additional $141,000 from the community to cover the officer’s salary and employment benefits which is needed to provide the necessary coverage for the daytime shift.

“There is nothing more stressful for a police officer than knowing they are the only cop covering the town when a critical call comes in and realizing that your closest backup, if even available, is more than five minutes away,” Chief Shears said. 

The Department envisions scheduling three officers on the day shift, all but guaranteeing at least two officers will be patrolling at all times. When one of these officers is at court, in a meeting, at a training or take a day off, there will still be at least two officers on shift. This means an increase in crime prevention and motor vehicle enforcement and a reduction in response times. It also will increase officer safety, reduce overtime, and continue the Department’s mission and vision of providing exemplary, modern, and highly professional law enforcement to the community.

The Town of Merrimac has indicated that the taxpayers would have to authorize a Proposition 2 1/2 override for the $141,000 in funding. This would result in a property tax increase of $64.90 per year for the average homeowner.

“We don’t come to our community lightly, and in past years we have been able to avoid this measure, but this year we have exhausted all funding avenues and options,” Chief Shears said. “We believe that adding another officer to the day shift will be more cost-effective in the long run, and it will provide better policing coverage and allow the department to better retain its officers long-term, as smaller agencies like Merrimac tend to lose good officers to other agencies with larger staffing. When we lose an officer, it creates an instant impact on overtime budgets plus the cost to recruit, hire and train a replacement; a process which can take up to a year to complete. By adding a third officer on the day shift, we will be better equipped and more well prepared in the future.”

The strain on administrative leaders and supervisors filling in for call response and patrol shifts is holding the department back from growing into a more modern agency. Additionally, police reform/POST requirements have created many more administrative and reporting tasks. 

One of the Department’s goals, full accreditation by the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission (MPAC), remains elusive.Accreditation is a highly coveted recognition signifying the professionalism and efficiency of a police agency. Accreditation is demanding and time-consuming, and the Department cannot support the staff hours required at this time. The Department has also been seeking State Certification or Accreditation for more than a decade but filling shifts and assisting with patrol duties have prevented the department from dedicating the many hours of time necessary to fulfill the requirements.

The staffing request is also a direct result of the Merrimac Police Department losing its 10- to 15-member reserve force, which has been all but eliminated by new police reform/POST laws.

“Most of us, me included, landed on the department full-time after serving as Reserve Police Officers, and in past years we have been able to augment our patrol capacities with these invaluable and dedicated community members,” Chief Shears said. “Those days are gone. We have gone from ten reserve officers down to just one today.”

Additional funding will be provided if approved by both Town Meeting and in a townwide referendum.

The request will appear as Article 1 on the Annual Town Meeting warrant. The meeting convenes on Monday, April 28, at 7:30 p.m. at the Frederick N. Sweetsir School.

The Proposition 2 ½ override request also will appear as Question 1 in the referendum scheduled for May 5.