Rindge Police Department staffing was a key point among voters at the town’s deliberative session Jan. 31, as a petition warrant article sought to eliminate one position while an amendment to the proposed budget included money for wage increases in the department.
Police Chief Rachel Malynowski attended the January meeting of the Rindge Crime Watch, and gave a presentation on the ongoing staffing challenges in her department.
During Rindge’s deliberative session, voters discussed a petition article that would eliminate the previously approved ninth full-time officer position.
At the same time, a budget amendment added $100,000 with the intent that it be put toward police department retention.
The adjustment to the budget came after discussion about a wage proposal was put forth by Malynowski to adjust police pay. In her original budget proposal to the Select Board she pitched a $7,100 wage adjustment across the board to make the department comparable to other New Hampshire agencies.
In an interview with the Ledger-Transcript, Malynowski said the department conducted a wage study, comparing Rindge to other departments in the state, and the findings were presented to the Select Board in July, with the wage adjustment request.
Malynowski said there have been two major stumbling blocks in attracting and retaining staff: scheduling, with Rindge being a 24-7 department, and wages.
“We can’t compete,” she said.
Currently, Rindge’s starting salary for uncertified officers is just under $56,000 annually. The average rate in the state is about $63,000, she said. The chief said the $7,100 wage adjustment would get starting salaries to the average for the state, while not leaving behind the department’s established officers.
“To get applications through the door we have to be at least comparable,” Malynowski said. “We’re not looking to be the highest, but we can’t be the lowest. We’re trying to be average, here.”
She said the department’s pay scale is currently the lowest among advertised police positions in the state, which presents challenges attracting and retaining qualified officers. Malynowski said only one other department has a lower starting range, but they offer other incentives that would put officers above Rindge’s salary by the end of the first year.
Retention and recruitment have been an issue for the department, according to Malynowski, who said during the deliberative session that the department is operating on seven filled full-time positions, when nine are budgeted, and two more resignations are expected by the spring.
She said the department has been recruiting since the fall and has received a total of 11 applications, about half of which she said dropped out of the process without notice. Two applicants took jobs with other departments, and only one applicant is going through with the process with Rindge. She said the department has not received any new applications since Jan. 2, despite continued recruiting efforts. She said that if that candidate makes it through the hiring process, it will still be about eight months before they complete their academy and field training and are able to patrol independently.
In her presentation to Crime Watch, Malynowski discussed how the department has been dealing with its current shortage, with the chief, Sgt. Nick Lavoie and Detective Chris Martin all taking on extra patrol shifts, which are not typically part of their duties.
Malynowski said among the crimes investigated by the department, there were multiple criminal mischief related fires in the last two weeks of 2025, nine burglaries over the course of 2025, and a rise in sexual assault cases.
Staffing makes a difference in response times, she said. At the outset of 2025, the department had a fully staffed department. While fully staffed, there was a 20% reduction in motor vehicle crashes, and three times as many arrests as 2023, when they were not fully staffed.
“We were on a record pace,” Malynowski said. “We were doing things that gave us forward momentum, to make us the kind of department the town has been seeking all these years.”
Malynowski said she was confident that a wage adjustment would result in a more competitive application process.
While short staffed, one of the aspects of the department that is affected is road patrols, Malynowski told Crime Watch.