NEW CITY – Rockland County will increase its contribution to local police departments that have a total of 13 officers assigned to the county’s Intelligence and Narcotics task forces.

Right now the county pays the communities $960,000, but County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef said that will be increased by $1.6 million next year.

“In the past, the county only picked up a portion of it and the towns had to pay for it,” he said. “It’s not that the county has a great deal of money, we don’t. We’re behind in sales tax figures and everything else, but these are the same taxpayers who town taxes, who pay county taxes, and the importance of this coordinated effort really, I think, makes good sense that the county picks up the costs that the towns bear for these officers to contribute these task forces.”

Those special cops work in the towns of Clarkstown, Haverstraw, Orangetown, Ramapo, Stony Point and the Village of Spring Valley.