NORWICH – An ongoing homicide investigation is driving up officer overtime at the City of Norwich Police Department, prompting city reps to consider the fiscal hit it’s taking to the department’s budget.

The investigation so far has cost NPD nearly $14,000 in expenses. The department invested $2,300 on new laptops to interface with New York State Police technology, and another $220 on hard drives and USB storage to help manage an electronic paper trail, according to Police Chief Reuben Roach.

But the biggest expenditure, says Roach, has been the more than $11,000 paid out for officer overtime while city police work in conjunction with state authorities and the county sheriff.

“The homicide task force consists of New York State Police (Troop C), the Chenango County Sheriff's Office, and the Norwich City Police Department,” Roach told the city council at a Joint Committees meeting held last week. “We worked with homeland security as well, and the (Chenango County) District Attorney’s Office on a few things in this case. While I can’t divulge a lot of what’s going on with this case, I can tell you that we’re close to hopefully making an arrest soon.”

The NPD budgeted $130,300 for officer overtime for the entire year, nearly 10 percent of which has been allocated over the course of the last month. Roach said officers “worked around the clock” on the homicide investigation with the support of other agencies.

“Both the sheriff and Troop C have said whatever we need, they have offered to have done; so that’s very appreciated from our perspective,” he added.

The NPD has investigated three homicide cases since 2018. Roach said he would present council members with comparable data from nearby cities at their request.

The NPD is continuing to investigate the homicide of 44-year-old Alisa Ann Martin of Norwich. Martin was found deceased in her apartment on 89 N. Broad St. on July 9 following a welfare check from city police. Friends and family expressed concern after not seeing Martin for several days.

An autopsy ruled the death a homicide. Police are awaiting autopsy results which include toxicology and other lab reports. Results of a full autopsy were said to take six to eight weeks.