On Tuesday, July 19, 2022, Marshal Jennifer Fine-Loven approached the Nederland Board of Trustees (BOT) at their scheduled meeting to report on the status of the Nederland Police Department (NPD) and how Town’s inability to provide affordable housing and comparable wages may soon render it without its own police force.

Recent officer resignations have left Marshal Fine-Loven as the remaining full- time officer on the NPD as of Wednesday, June 20, 2022. The department’s newest hire Officer Terrence Carrol has been working one shift a week through his 12 to 16 week training regimen which is required before he can be qualified to patrol solo; so far Officer Carrol has worked five total shifts.

“It’s been just Chief Fine-Loven and I, and that’s not sustainable. Each of us doing alternating 14-hour shifts solo gets to be extremely dangerous for us as police officers,” Former NPD officer J.P. Niehaus, whose last day of service was Wednesday, July 20, spoke to The Mountain-Ear about his reasons for leaving the job and the town that he loves. “All of the little things slip through the cracks because we’re having to deal with major stuff.”

“On my last day I was working a 16-hour shift solo. There should’ve been a Day Officer, a Swing Officer, and a Supervisor but instead it was just me solo, which is what it is. I’ll start at 7:45 in the morning and I’ll go to nearly midnight if that’s what’s needed; and that’s what I did because I love this town and the people that I needed to help deserve that, even if it is my last day,” Niehaus said.

Boulder County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) has been filling “extra duty requests” posted by Marshal Fine-Loven and the NPD, though these shifts only started being filled when offered at a double-time pay rate of $65.08 to $89.38 an hour. As of July 13, 2022 there are a total of 13 shifts being filled by BCSO, costing the NPD between $13,536.64 and $18,591.04.

It takes an estimated four to five years for the NPD to “break even” on the expense of training and equipping a new officer; meaning the department’s poor retention rate is costing it more than it would to raise officer salaries to a competitive level.

“I tip my hat to the BCSO because we wouldn’t have been able to make it this long without their help. With us being able to go to their trainings, then helping cover calls, they’ve been spectacular partners,” Niehaus mentioned. “Whether it’s Sheriff Pelle or the folks that work the mountains, they bend over backwards to help us because at the end of the day policing is a team sport and you gotta look out for one another.”

“The problem is there are things that should be getting done within a certain time period and besides us working ourselves to death that’s still not happening. I think personally, even in my few years of being a cop between Commerce City, Louisville, and here, it’s gotten to the point where the sheriff’s office needs to take over to make sure the citizens of Nederland are being taken care of,” Niehaus lamented, as he grew up in Nederland before serving as an officer here.

“I know that’s not what anyone wants to hear, I know they love having NPD and I’ve loved being here. I know despite all these issues the reason I’m this critical is because I love this town. I’m so extremely grateful for being able to come up here even for just a year and half, it’s my home town. Some of the relationships I’ve built and the people I’ve been able to help I’ll always carry with me.”

Erie is currently hiring at $95,000 to $97,468, with their sergeants starting at $103,126 and Westminster is offering a $10,000 hiring bonus. BCSO offers a litany of financial incentives as well as 104 holiday hours, 10 to 16 hours of vacation time and eight hours of sick time a month, and 24 hours of medical and personal time. Comparatively, NPD deputies are hired at less than $50,000 a year.

“Part of the reason I’m having to leave is because I drive an hour from North Denver because I can’t afford to live anywhere near here with what we get paid,” Niehaus noted the difficulties that come with being underpaid. “ I got a slight raise but it is not enough to live in Colorado and not enough to live anywhere in Boulder County. My wife and I literally can’t afford to have kids. I love this town, I always will, but it’s extremely frustrating.”

“There are other departments where they have the pick of the litter because you’re not going to recruit someone here at $50,000 when they can make $65,000 or $70,000. So unless the Town starts paying Chief what she’s worth and starts giving everyone pay raises to that level you’re not going to have applicants,” Niehaus said.

The current operating procedure for the NPD, paying double-time rates to BCSO officers to consistently cover shifts while struggling to hire, train, and retain new officers, is not sustainable. Marshal Fine-Loven stated these facts to the BOT as the unfortunate status of the NPD and presented to them and the Town of Nederland two options: to either increase NPD’s budget or to contract out to BCSO as the town’s full-time police force.

Marshal Fine-Loven provided a budget forecast for the increases necessary in order for the NPD to remain a department. A budget increase of $105,039 would be required for 2022, and an increase of $252,091.27 required to bring the 2023 budget to a total of $1,132,410. This increase would provide the NPD with better hiring salaries to hopefully incentivize recruitment of a minimum of 6 full-time officers, as well as the development of a Policy and Procedure manual and the hiring of legal personnel who specialize in law enforcement.

The NPD’s budget has typically increased by roughly $100,000 every year since 2018, with the budget of that year at $547,296.37. From 2021 to 2022 the NPD’s budget only increased by $47,877.99, culminating in a total budget of $880,319.00 for 2022.

“From what I have observed in the last year and a half the largest department problem is we have either not had the resources, as in the town has not had the resources to invest in us, or they haven’t been willing to and that has been the trend for a long time,” Niehaus, who has a Masters in Nonprofit Leadership from Regis University, talked about how his background working with Denver public schools, diversity groups, and Oppenheimer fund services, has led him to observe the relationship between the Town and the NPD in a different light.

“We don’t have computer systems in the car and that is unheard of these days in policing; it puts us at a big disadvantage. A lot of our other vehicles are outdated and very old. ‘Patrol 1’ was bought used from Boulder PD; it’s a 2008 Tahoe and I had to switch it out the last couple of days of patrol here because it literally died in my driveway,” Niehaus continued.

“It’s beyond unacceptable. It feels like watching the Town walk into a glass door sometimes. It’s social investment; if you don’t invest in your public services you won’t have them eventually.”

Marshal Fine-Loven also presented to the BOT financial information involved with a potential contract between the Town of Nederland and the BCSO. BCSO Deputies are available at a cost of $147,853 per deputy and they would provide 50% of non-committed time in town. BCSO Sergeants are available at a cost of $189,895 and would essentially provide the role of Chief of Police by being 100% assigned to town.

Nederland would require three deputies and one sergeant, costing the Town somewhere between $633,454 to $700,000. This cost includes equipment, training, uniforms, and the BCSO dispatch fee, though excludes office space and office equipment.

“We all love our PD and the benefits that come with local policing. But a responsible and responsive BOT needs to look at other options to bring to our citizens to weigh in on,” Mayor Pro Tem Tom Mahowald clarified to the public on Nedheads on Facebook, commenting as an individual Board Member. “One of those options is to follow what Lyons, Superior and Erie have done and subcontract local policing 24 hours to the Boulder County Sheriff’s department, as we do now for our overnight shift.”

“The cost for Ned would be substantially lower; 20% to 40%, with some additional services we don’t have now. And the annual cost increases would be much more in line with our budget, allowing us to pay our town staff more competitively and invest in infrastructure our town badly needs and has deferred,” Mayor Pro Tem Mahowald said.

At the BOT meeting on Tuesday, July 19, Marshal Fine-Loven provided in her presentation several benefits to the community if the NPD were to be adequately funded. If the NPD were to remain as Nederland’s police force they would be preserving the trust and historical working knowledge of the community that they’ve nurtured and grown. They would retain invested agency members who would provide 100% coverage, as opposed to the 50% non-committed time provided by contracted BCSO Deputies, as well as provide faster response times.

“Something I respect so much about Chief Fine-Loven is that she’s objectively concerned about what is right,” Niehaus noted. “She isn’t concerned with what serves her or what serves people from certain interest groups; that’s the type of cop she is. That’s who she is as an investigator, that’s who she’s been to me as a mentor. And it’s the same with Chief Johns. He’s concerned with what is right.”

“Chief Johns, even though he’s retired, came and helped with the Ned Gravel Race. He volunteered because that’s the person he is; that’s the sense of honor he has.”

Marshall Fine-Loven also provided a 2013 article by BCSO Sheriff Joe Pelle on how contracting with the BCSO helps small towns with budget predictability and provides, as well as mitigates the costs of, advanced training and services.

“Injuries, overtime, lawsuits, equipment breakage, new cars, new technology and the like can all wreak havoc on a small town budget,” Sheriff Pelle states in his article. “Over time we have worked out a budget process that averages all of the costs of hiring, equipping, training, legally defending, paying, insuring, and putting good wheels under our deputies. The town and the sheriff’s office negotiate the level of coverage they desire and we bill according to the averages.”

“If the resources aren’t there or if the town doesn’t have the ability then I think it should be turned over to the BCSO,” Niehaus explained. “And it hurts me to say that because I want to believe in NPD, but more than that we have to be concerned for what is right for this community.”

“Good police officers are social creatures. We adapt to situations and are able to talk to people; our best tool is our ability to speak to people to de-escalate them, and BCSO understands that.”

“The deputies that I’ve worked with up here are specific to the mountains and BCSO will recruit more of those people who want to work up here. I think the best thing that the Town can do is to contract in a way that will be more cost effective for the town itself so they can put it into other departments, because the town of Nederland has other departments that are at critical levels too,” Niehaus said.

The BOT did not make a vote or decision at their July 19 meeting in regards to whether to fund the NPD or to contract out to BCSO, nor did Trustees appear to lean in either direction. However, later in the meeting during discussions concerning the Town pursuing additional revenue sources and concerning how to distribute American Rescue Plan Act funds, Trustees and Town Staff noted those topics as possible avenues for funding the NPD.

“It’s unfortunate but I’m hoping that Town can pivot and realize that unless they invest in the community, and I’m not talking about just volunteering or showing up and getting your picture taken, I’m talking about putting money and resources, they’re not going to have much of a town much longer,” Neuhaus concluded. “I just hope on the way out that there’s no finger pointing, that they can acknowledge that there’s some hard work to be done.”

“I think there will be an adjustment period but I don’t think anybody should look negatively at the BCSO. And I think a lot of credit should be given to the people who have done everything that they can to do right by this town. There has been no lack of effort on Miranda Fisher’s part, and Chief Fine-Loven, Chief Johns and Troy Hendricks. These people have dedicated their physical and mental health, their time with their families, to serve this town.”

“I will always love this community. Ned is truly a unique positive place and I think that despite the growing pains that are going to happen and the adjustment I know that I’ll be back up here and I’ll see that the town is thriving. But it’s going to be a lot of hard work and a lot of critical conversations,” Niehaus added.

The BOT will continue to hear from the community and will discuss the matter of funding the NPD or contracting with BCSO at future meetings.

“We need to lay out the situation we face. But with 2023 budgeting on the horizon, we need to make some key decisions soon. The decisions will not be easy, unanimous, or uncontroversial and we will live with them for a long time,” Mayor Pro Tem Mahowald stated in his post to the public.

“This is our culture, our budget, and our future. To fund our police department properly we would need additional income sources and that could well mean a tax increase that BOT would need to bring to voters in the autumn.”

“Ultimately, this will be your decision, so start thinking about it. Talk with your family and community and share your thoughts. That process has already begun.”