Over the weekend, Maplewood announced that due to budget considerations, three police officers would have to be laid off. (And Chief Robert Cimino was none too happy about it.)

The township isn’t the only state municipality shedding police jobs.

The New Jersey Policemen's Benevolent Association, which represents about 3,300 law enforcement professionals in New Jersey, said that job loss among police officers is an increasing and alarming trend. According to a survey conducted by the police union, 400 police officers in New Jersey have being threatened with layoffs or not having their jobs re-filled after retirement in the last two months.

NJ PBA spokesman Jim Ryan said the impact on communities left with reduced police presence could be felt dramatically.

“While it seems obvious, empirical studies show that increased police presence leads to decreased crime,” Ryan said. He cited a 1996 Marvel & Moody study published by the American Society of Criminology that concluded that every officer hired correlated with the prevention of 24 crimes.

Less police, Ryan said, means a lower quality of living.

“When people move to places like Maplewood, they’re looking for two things: education and safety,” Ryan said.

He suggested that Maplewood officials consider applying for a Federal Department of Justice police officer hiring and job recovery grant program.

“There’s $3.5 billion in Federal stimulus plan for allowing localities like Maplewood to retain officers’ jobs,” Ryan said. He added that the grant money could be used to hire new officers or to retain threatened jobs, and those applications for the grant will start to be accepted in two weeks.