Agenda Item - 2021-12-21 - Number 7.1 - Police Department Release of Budgeted Funds 7.1
COUNCIL REPORT
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.