Citing more numerous and complex crimes, many committed by nonresidents of Hooksett, police officials said they couldn’t comply with the Hooksett Town Council’s request to bring forth a zero-dollar-increase budget.

“It’s a growing department in a growing town,” said Hooksett Police Commission Chairman David Gagnon. “It wouldn’t be responsible for us to bring a budget that doesn’t meet our needs.”

Said Police Chief Stephen Agrafiotis, “It’s our job to bring in a true budget.”

Agrafiotis and the police commission have now conceded nearly $240,000 of their original proposed operating budget, after councilors earlier this month expressed dissatisfaction with the original proposal.

The department’s proposed budget is now just short of $2,586,000, and is a 1.8 percent increase over the current police budget.

One of the biggest concessions, said Agrafiotis, was wages for two full-time officers. The current police roster is 26, and the cut likely means police will only be able to fill one more position. The cut allowed some other proposed costs like fuel, overtime and training to be reduced, Agrafiotis said. But police officials said the budget cuts may have their own costs.

The department has dealt with increasingly difficult cases, said Agrafiotis, like the recent bust of a house transformed into a marijuana-growing laboratory and a bank theft investigation that spanned several states. Such cases, he said, require man hours for investigation. Another thing concerning police is that some 75 percent of the arrests in Hooksett, based on two months’ worth of data collected at the end of last year by the department’s prosecution department, are of people who don’t live in town.

Agrafiotis said criminals have been making their way north from Massachusetts, and have been spilling over from Manchester in recent years.

“The crimes you have these days are usually spread over a wider geographical area,” said Agrafiotis.

Again, he said, that translates into more footwork for local investigators.

“We don’t want to find ourselves in a position like Manchester where our quality of life is deteriorating,” said Agrafiotis, “where you’re so far in the whole that you have to catch up.”

Agrafiotis and Gagnon also said they’re worried about development in the works, like several large residential complexes already approved by the town’s planning board. Agrafiotis said a new 24-hour Wal-Mart could put a strain on the overnight shift.

“At some point, this town’s going to have to face the facts and get those (police) bodies,” Agrafiotis said.

The police budget isn’t yet set in stone.

“It’s still got to go through the budget committee,” said town council chairman and council representative to that committee. “They’re not really known for doing any increases.”

Voters will also have the opportunity to modify the police budget at the April 7 deliberative session of Town Meeting.