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Agenda Item - 2021-12-21 - Number 7.1 - Police Department Release of Budgeted Funds 7.1 COUNCIL REPORT ___ o QREGoNI' Subject: Police Department request the release budgeted money set aside in the 2021-2023 budget. The intended use by the Police Department is funding 4 additional officers. Meeting Date: December 21, 2021 Staff Member: Dale Jorgensen, Police Chief Report Date: November 30, 2021 Department: Police Department Action Required Advisory Board/Commission Recommendation ❑X Motion ❑ Approval ❑ Public Hearing ❑ Denial ❑ Ordinance ❑ None Forwarded ❑ Resolution ❑X Not Applicable ❑ Information Only Comments: ❑ Council Direction ❑ Consent Agenda Staff Recommendation: Authorize the release of previously budgeted funds in the 2021-2023 budget. This money will be used for an additional four (4) Police Officers. Recommended Language for Motion: Motion to approve the release of budgeted funds Project/ Issue Relates To: Police Department Budget for 2021-2023 Issue before Council (Highlight Policy Question): ❑X Council Goals/Priorities ❑Adopted Master Plan(s) ❑Not Applicable BACKGROUND On April 28th, 2021, during the Bi-Annual Budget Committee deliberations, police department staff made a recommendation for four (4) additional FTE's to be added to the police patrol division. Chief Dale Jorgensen submitted a memo dated March 31st, 2021 detailing the need for the additional resources. This memo was addressed to City Manager Bennett and was also provided to the Budget Committee for the April 28th, 2021 meeting. A copy of that memo is attached to this staff report. 503.635.0215 380 A Avenue PO BOX 369 Lake Oswego, OR 97034 www.lakeosweao.city Page 2 During the deliberations the budget committee approved the additional funds with the caveat that the money would not be released until the Community Conversation on Policing was concluded, and that the release would be at the direction of the City Council. On September 28th, 2021 those recommendations were formally presented to the Council and the Community. On October 20th, 2021 City Staff and the Council held a wrap up meeting to solicit any additional feedback on the proposed recommendations. Although the action plan is not completed yet, the recommendations of the dialog call for increased engagement between the Department and the community in non-enforcement settings, increased reporting and public dialog about Department activities, and development of hiring and retention strategies and practices to continue building a more diverse work force. This increased activity, when combined with increased calls for service and pending department retirements, will require additional staffing. As noted in the March memo to the City Manager, Lake Oswego has the same number of sworn officers today as we did in 1990. The population in 1990 was 30,624 people, and the 2020 population is 40, 801, an increase of 33%. DISCUSSION The need for additional police staffing hasn't fundamentally changed since the March 31, 2021 memo. The additional officers will be added to the patrol division to increase the number of officers available to respond to calls, engage with the community and keep up with police workload. The patrol division is the one division that needs to be kept at full strength in order to respond to calls for service. If staffing levels fall below our minimum staffing we will have to pull officers from other units, traffic and detectives, to cover our patrol shifts. This in turn impacts not only our workload in those units but our response to community concerns as well. The workload for LOPD has increased this past calendar year. The total incident count, referred to in the March Budget Committee Report, is continuing to increase from the 2020 figure. As of the end of November 2021 we already have had over 2400 more incidents (year to date) from last year. We did expect an increase in 2021 as COVID impacted some of our incident volume from 2020, and we expect that in 2022 we will continue to see an increase in incidents. Additional staffing is needed to ensure that the Department can both respond to calls for service and engage in other work, including traffic enforcement and investigations. The other need identified in the report is that our agency will likely experience a high number of retirements in the upcoming few years. Due to the fact that it takes a significant amount of time to recruit and train new officers, this increase in staffing would help dampen that impact. ALTERNATIVES OR ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES The alternative would be to continue with current staffing levels and look at ways to reprioritize our response to calls for service. The advantage to this would be a saving of budgeted monies. 503.635.0215 380 A Avenue PO BOX 369 Lake Oswego, OR 97034 www.lakeoswego.city Page 3 The disadvantage would be an increased work load for our staff and the potential of not having adequate staffing to respond to calls for service. We could also experience a higher volume of seasoned officers leaving for other agencies who are looking at increasing staffing levels. FISCAL IMPACT This cost was already added to the Police Department budget during the Budget Committee deliberations and is in the current 2021-2023 Budget. RECOMMENDATION Approve release of budgeted funds for additional staffing of the police department. ATTACHMENTS 1. March 31, 2021 Memo from Chief Dale Jorgensen to City Manager Martha Bennett outlining the need for additional police staffing. 503.635.0215 380 A Avenue PO BOX 369 Lake Oswego, OR 97034 www.lakeoswego.city ATTACHMENT 1 p 0tr MEMORANDUM i: n o o °REG0� TO: Martha Bennett, City Manager CC: Shawn Cross, Finance Director Megan Phelan, Assistant City Manager/ Human Resource Manger FROM: Dale Jorgensen, Chief of Police SUBJECT: Addition of 4 FTE to Police Department DATE: March 31, 2021 Executive Summary The Police Department is requesting four additional full-time equivalent positions (4 FTE) in the Patrol Division (General Fund 100-405) for the 2021-2023 Budget. These positions are needed to cover current and anticipated workload that is currently being done in the Police Department. Background The Lake Oswego Police Department, in part, is made up of 43 sworn Police Officers broken up into 4 divisions; Detectives/Investigations, Traffic, Administration and the Patrol Division. Our Patrol Division, when fully staffed, is staffed with 20 Patrol Officers, 6 Patrol Sergeants (overseeing three shifts) and 1 Patrol Lieutenant for a total of 27 assigned to Patrol. The Patrol Division is responsible for Calls for Service (CFS) from our community members reporting crimes, traffic enforcement, special events/duties and general patrol. We currently break-up our staffing into three shifts; days, swing and graveyard. Generally, at any one given time, there are only 3 Patrol Officers and 1 Supervisor patrolling the city. Many of our priority calls require the response of at least 2 Officers leaving just 2 available for any other calls in our City. A number of these take a considerable amount of time to clear. It is not uncommon to have two priority calls come in simultaneously which can leave us with no Officers available. Police officer staffing (sworn officers) has not increased in a significant way over the past 30 years. In 1990 there were 41 sworn officers assigned to the Police Department and since then the number has fluctuated between 41 and 43. Our population has increased by nearly a third over that time frame, as has the complexity of our services, our CFS, and training requirements. A measurement used to determine staffing levels is the number of Incidents that we respond to. Incidents are made up of our CFS and our Officers' Self-Initiated Activity (S-INIT). S-INIT are traffic stops, extra patrols (such as business checks and requested specific property checks), and community contacts. Below is a chart showing, since 2017, our Total Incidents, Incidents per 503.675.3984 380 A Avenue PO BOX 369 Lake Oswego, OR 97034 www.ci.oswego.or.us Page 2 of 2 Officer and our Average CFS per day. The Incidents per Officer is based on 37 Officers as there are some sworn that don't typically respond on Incidents (Administrative group for example). 1 Calendar Year 2017 2018 2019 2020* 1 Total Incidents 26547 25457 26936 21297* Incidents per Officer 717 688 728 575* Average CFS Daily 50 52 54 47 *2020 number reflects decrease in traffic stops due to COVID As illustrated in the above table, our CFS over the 4-year period has been more than 45 calls per day. This doesn't take into consideration the public safety services we provide and the community engagement we participate in for the many City special events typically held throughout the year. Discussion The proposed four additional FTE's will be dedicated to the Patrol Division to start moving toward a 4th shift, designated as a relief shift, that will generally work later in the afternoon into the early hours of our night shift.This will give us the needed coverage when most of our high priority calls occur and when our staffing is stretched thin. For example, there were two times in the past four months that due to our call load we had to have two other agencies respond to our city to help with priority calls. We are grateful that we have good relationships with those outside agencies, but we are finding that they are seeing an increase in their call loads as well. The additional Officers will also help staff some of the events that we have had in the last few years and reduce the amount of outside help that we currently have to call in to assist. Normally it takes five to six officers to create a complete work week shift, but with the added four Officers we plan on assigning them to those days that are statistically busier and more problematic to fill. We will continually evaluate how the additional staffing has benefited our responses to the busier CFS times and adjust scheduling where necessary. Another benefit the four additional Officers will provide is to stabilize our staffing over the next few years. We are entering a phase where many of our officers are becoming retirement eligible and as they transition out we will spend more on overtime if we don't have officers already trained and working. It takes close to a year to hire and train an officer to begin filling a shift on their own. Conclusion and Alternatives Considered Due to existing and projected workload, the Police Department is requesting approval of four FTE's, to be assigned to the Patrol Division. The salary and benefits cost are approximately $170,000 for each position annually. The alternative is to continue with current staffing levels and begin to look at ways to reprioritize CFS taken, which may not align with our community or organizational values. Adding Officers means we will be able to more safely, effectively and efficiently provide Police Services to our community.