(6/21) With the Fiscal Year 25/26 budget beginning in July, the City Council began working on the draft of the document in May, the first meeting for the three newest Council members. Mayor Christopher Miller introduced the Budget with reductions across all the City’s departments, partially due to the need to find funds for the salary for an additional police officer and to place another in the drug task force. "That’s kind of the final step as far as what we can do as far as drugs in this area goes," he said. "We already got the K9, we’re already making more stops on the streets, you know drug task force is the next natural step."
Another change for the Police Department was the introduction of an ordinance that would allow the City to adopt a police manual supplied by Lexipol. The Company provides state-specific public safety policies and training solutions via subscription. The adoption of the Ordinance would also make any changes available for viewing by the Mayor and City Council. "If anyone is familiar with the police manual, it’s been on the back burner of Council’s radar for probably a couple years now," he said.
The only change to the Ordinance was the removal of "sole authority", as Commissioner Christopher Tillman expressed his dislike for the singularity of the term. "If we just remove the word sole and [replace with] Chief of Police shall have the authority to adopt then that's fine," he said. The Council agreed with Tillman and approved the changes.
The last ordinance introduced, which affected the Police department, involved Police Protection Standards. According to Miller, the City is technically required to have a minimum of 17 patrol officers as its population exceeds 8,000 (two officers per 1,000 residents). However, per the Taneytown website, the City currently has fifteen officers and two civilian personnel. These positions/employees? make up two patrol squads, three administrative positions, an administrative assistant, and one crossing guard.
The introduced Ordinance would set a minimum of 16 patrol equivalent officers (your "boots on the ground" officers, not administrative positions in the force) and officially gives the Chief the ability to sign off on an incoming development if the 16 minimum hasn’t been met and he still feels that adequate police protection can be provided.
City Manager Jim Wieprecht added that once the City is staffed 24/7 and has adequate coverage for officers to take leave, court duty, etc., then the "two officers per thousand" formula may not need to be continued. "Once we have the critical mass for coverage of the City, we may be able to accommodate additional population without hiring," he said.
Resident Alex Kelly requested the Council also consider expanding the Police Force’s service area, "There are plenty of people that live in Taneytown but they're not in Taneytown proper and they’re not able to get the services," he said. "They're reliant on the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department for that, so if we are going to increase the number of officers then we might want to consider how we can help our fellow residents."
The Council has only begun discussing the introduced ordinances and will continue working on the ordinances this year.
