Police Department Staff Shrinks Again

Two police officers who recently retired will not be replaced, leaving the department with five fewer officers than it had two years ago.

But Police Chief Charles Goss said shuffling within the department has kept the same number of patrolmen on the streets and has not compromised the community's safety.

"It is important to note that the elimination of these positions has not affected the staffing levels of any of our field operations," Goss said. "Staffing of our uniformed platoons has remained at, or above, previous levels."

City Council earlier this month passed legislation to reduce the department's sworn staffing to 75 officers, reflecting the two officers who recently left. The city has had a hiring freeze in place for two years due to budgetary belt-tightening.

Goss said five positions -- one lieutenant, one sergeant and three patrol officers -- have been eliminated in the last two years through attrition.

But the department was able to absorb the losses by giving some duties to civilians to handle and by making some operations more efficient through the newly expanded police station.

"I do feel that we are adequately staffed," Goss said.

He said the question of adequacy of police staffing is often misunderstood and is mistakenly tied to population. 

"While this equation is quick and easy, it is rarely accurate," he said. "For example, we could eliminate our retail areas, including the mall, our industrial parks, and all of our interstates and commuting traffic without changing our population. But that would have a profound impact on our staffing demands."

Instead, Goss said he compares the time officers spend responding to calls vs. patrolling.

"In our city, officers are responding to calls for service or conducting follow-ups about half the time.  That means that they have nearly half of their tour of duty to conduct self-directed patrol.," Goss said. "That’s a good ratio. "

In addition, he said the department is able to provide K-9 teams, a school resource officer, a DARE program, a full-time traffic unit, school security, and secondary investigation to all cases with solvability factors, as well as participate in regional task forces.