2020_0921_CCPacket - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Attachment D-9212020 329 Investment in Public Safety 330 Public safety is a core service that taxpayers expect from local government. 331 Over the past several years, the City Council has had several conversations regarding staffing for 332 public safety. These conversations identified some trends that are occurring which requires the 333 city to explore how to best respond to these changes. 334 335 Police Department 336 Last year, the Roseville Police Department presented information regarding the need for 337 additional police officers. The need for increased staffing is due to several factors that have 338 occurred over the past few years. They include: 339 Increasing number of calls for service 340 Decreasing case clearance rate 341 Increasing complexity of calls for service 342 Increasing crime rate 343 Increasing training demands 344 Increasing population and development 345 The 2020 budget added three officers to the Police Department: two patrol officers and one 346 investigator for criminal sexual conduct (CSC) cases. For 2020, the CSC investigator position 347 was funded by a Ramsey County grant from County Attorney John ChoiÓs office. The two new 348 patrol offices served on a flex shift to assist the department in busy times of the day. 349 350 2020 has been an unusual year given the COVID-19 pandemic and the George Floyd death as 351 previously mentioned. The city experienced near shut down of most businesses in the spring due 352 to the pandemic and micro-looting, property damage, and the institution of a city-wide curfew as 353 part of the civil unrest in the aftermath of the George FloydÓs death. As a result, it is difficult to 354 ascertain at this point the impact of these additional officers. There were more vacancies in the 355 Police Department than expected, so the Police Department not at full-strength until early this 356 summer. 357 358 The Police Department has requested three police officers (all three in patrol) in its 2021 budget. 359 In 2020, Chief Mathwig indicated that there would be a request for an additional 3 police officers 360 as part of the 2021 budget. For 2021, the costs for the three officers will be $276,300. 361 362 Finally, for the 2021 budget, the Police Department has requested funding for the Commitment to 363 Diversity staffing program which the City Council approved earlier in 2019. The Commitment to 364 Diversity program allows the Police Department to add up to two additional police officer 365 positions above the normal complement (currently at 51 officers) when there is not a vacant 366 position and there is an existing Roseville CSO, police cadet, or police reserve who is a minority 367 in law enforcement and licensed to become a police officer. 368 369 Staff originally anticipated that the Commitment to Diversity program would need to be used in 370 2020 to retain one of RosevilleÓs CSOs. However, due to unplanned vacancies, the CSO was Page 13 of 20