The Croton-on-Hudson Board of Trustees held its April 9 budget work session with a stark warning from Police Chief John Nikitopoulos: the body-worn camera program the board approved just two weeks ago will impose an "exponential" increase in workload on a department that is already stretched thin. Nikitopoulos told trustees that once the cameras are operational, discovery demands in court cases will consume significant staff hours. "Anything that goes to trial, they're gonna be looking for the cameras both in the car and on the, you know, the body worn." {{quote:340}} He noted that even routine two-officer responses will require downloading video from multiple cameras. The chief had requested three additional officers and one promotion — a sergeant — at a salary cost of $248,000 before benefits. Village Manager Bryan Healy did not include those positions in the proposed budget. Instead, the board plans to commission an independent staffing study to evaluate the department's long-term needs. ![Police chief presenting budget to trustees](/photos/1148_t340_audience.jpg) Trustee Nicholson, who serves on the Police Advisory Committee, said the department has been asking for more officers for several years. "Now we're sort of adding another layer of workload to the department, and we really do need to understand from a cost estimate perspective what that's going to cost us year over year," Nicholson said, as captured in the transcript. Nicholson asked that the study specifically account for the body-camera program's ongoing costs once the federal grant funding expires after two years. Nikitopoulos pushed back on the delay, noting that the department's existing accreditation workload through Lexapol — a policy management service that costs $14,000 annually — has already strained leadership. "That has just brought so much more work, at least for the lieutenant and I, that, you know, we can barely keep up with, you know, what we're doing." {{quote:942}} The chief pointed out that the village restored the department to its 2009 staffing level of 22 officers just last year, but that was before the body-camera mandate. Most accredited departments, he said, have dedicated staff assigned solely to camera data management. He also warned that the cameras are not a one-time expense: "This is not a one time purchase. Right? This there will be ongoing" {{quote:703}} costs for data storage, maintenance, and eventual replacement. The Axon body-camera contract, approved unanimously on [March 26](/article/1) at a cost of $414,301.36, begins June 15. The chief said he is currently negotiating camera policy impacts with the police union, a mandatory bargaining topic. He estimated the department could be ready to deploy cameras by October. **Fire department raises recruitment alarm** After the police discussion, the volunteer fire department presented a budget that rose only about $10,000 from the prior year. But the restrained spending masked a growing existential concern: the department cannot find enough volunteers. One trustee, drawing on decades of marketing experience, floated the idea of investing up to $75,000 in a targeted recruitment and retention campaign, calling the volunteer shortage something that "keeps me up at night." A shift from the volunteer model to a paid department, the trustee warned, could add millions of dollars in property taxes. ![Fire chiefs presenting budget to the board](/photos/1148_t3077_audience.jpg) Fire department leadership described a post-COVID landscape in which the traditional pipeline — multi-generational volunteer families — has largely dried up. Minimum training for even exterior firefighting now requires 147 hours, a barrier that deters prospective volunteers who work full-time. A department member described the challenge plainly: "For somebody in my age group, you know, who's working full time trying to pick up extra hours to save for a house or something like that. And then to say, oh, well, you have to go three nights in every and all day on Saturday for six months to training." {{quote:3532}} The department's membership now has a "barbell" age structure — heavy with members in their late teens and early twenties and those over fifty, with few in between. Multiple chiefs noted that volunteers come from as far as Buchanan, Montrose, and Verplanck, drawn by personal connections rather than residency requirements. The village is $113,000 under the state tax cap, giving trustees some room to fund a recruitment initiative without exceeding the levy limit. The board also recently advanced a proposal to make new affordable housing units available to first responders, a step that could help attract younger volunteers. **EMS budget rises on contract costs** The village's volunteer EMS squad presented a budget increase of approximately $42,000, almost entirely driven by rising personnel contracts. The department now employs one EMT around the clock plus a second during weekday daytime hours — an arrangement that began in early 2025 to ensure adequate daytime response coverage. ![EMS leaders presenting at the work session](/photos/1148_t4133_audience.jpg) "One of the big changes, right, from last year to this year is actually you have a building now." {{quote:4133}} The new EMS headquarters is approximately 97 percent complete, with finishing work remaining in the washroom and storage areas. The building allows paid staff to respond immediately rather than driving from home. The tri-community paramedic fly car contract with Ossining Ambulance is up for renewal with a roughly 10% increase starting June 1. EMS call volume has risen sharply, from roughly 750 calls per year before the pandemic to over 1,200 in recent years. Despite the higher costs, insurance reimbursements have remained strong, according to Proclaim, the billing service that manages revenue for the Croton, Briarcliffe, and Ossining EMS partnership. The average response time stands at about eight minutes, in line with the national average. Paid staff in the building during daytime hours have helped reduce that time, since volunteers would otherwise need to drive from home to the station before responding. Trustees will reconvene for a budget recap and capital program discussion later this month, where final adjustments to the 2026-27 budget — including whether to fund a police staffing study or a fire department recruitment initiative — will be decided.