Shrewsbury Police Facing Rising Number of Car Burglaries and a Short Staff

At Shrewsbury’s council meeting Monday night, councilman and liaison to the borough’s police department Tom Menapace addressed some issues facing the department and the town, the latter including something that in the past month has included just about every other surrounding town, too.

Menapace said Chief John Wilson reported more than 30 car burglaries in Shrewsbury in the past few weeks, many of them occurring on the west side of town. Shrewsbury has not been alone in facing a rash of car burglaries, towns like Red Bank and Fair Haven, relative neighbors, have also addressed similar issues in the past month.

And, like those towns, the solution, for now, seems like an easy one: lock your car doors. Menapace said residents have made it too convenient for thieves by leaving their cars unlocked. We’re not talking about break-ins, he said, just a person or persons opening an unlocked door.

Perhaps not completely unrelated, Menapace also discussed the current staffing of Shrewsbury’s police force. Recent retirements of high-ranking officers has dropped the number of cops in the borough to 13, down from the 16 the department previously had.

In weighing options about whether or not to hire new officers, the council has declined to make any hiring decisions recently, even as Wilson has warned that short staffing will likely lead to higher overtime expenses.

His hope, Menapace said, is two hire two new patrolmen and to bring the department’s totals up to 15 by July.

Ads have been posted in local papers advertising for new positions, but members of the council said Monday night that the decision to hire new officers hasn’t yet been made. Councilman Tony Pellegrino said he doesn’t object to Wilson beginning the interview process and even narrowing down candidates, but when it comes to any job offers he wants the council to have say.

“I don’t want (Wilson) to believe he can go out tomorrow and hire them,” he said. “I don’t want him to make any promises.”

Though the conversation did not center on whether the police department could handle the same job with fewer officers, some council members wondered what the roles of the new officers would be. Councilman Pete Meyer correctly pointed out that new hires wouldn’t be replacing officers in the same position, but senior officers who have retired.

Delaying the decision on whether to go ahead with new hires, the council asked that Wilson appear before them to discuss what the new officers will do and what they’ll be used for going forward.