Tag Cloud
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
A deeper look at city's decision to hire 30 new cops
by Kathleen Haley, published on June 29, 2010 at 10:07 PM
Storyline: City Budget
Loading images
When the Sacramento City Council resolved a $43 million budget gap last week, it also decided to hire 30 police officers during the following three fiscal years.
The decision to create 30 new police officer positions was non-controversial among council members, even though the city is experiencing harsh cuts in its departments.
“I think we felt that this was an appropriate measure to keep our police department at a level that can maintain public safety,” Councilman Steve Cohn said in an interview Monday.
The city has figured out how to pay $3.6 million for the police officers during fiscal years 2010/2011, 2011/2012 and some of 2012/2013. Sheraton Hotel parking funds will cover $1 million of that amount. The remaining $2.6 million will be paid out of funds owed to the city from Thomas Enterprises, the company developing the Railyards, according a June 22 report from city Finance Director Leyne Milstein.
However, the city will eventually need another $2.4 million to keep the positions intact for the entire fiscal year of 2012/2013, Milstein’s report said.
A filled Sacramento police officer position costs about $100,000 total per year, department spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong said. The $100,000 includes the police officer's salary and benefit package, which includes medical and retirement benefits, he said.
Even though the positions will be available, officers won’t begin patrolling right away. “While the posting for these officers can begin immediately, there is a substantial amount of lead time that is needed to complete the background/training/hiring process,” Milstein wrote.
“It takes approximately six months from the date of posting to complete the background process for each applicant. It will take an additional six months to complete academy training, and another year before the officer can function independently in the field.”
Cohn said the 30 positions are vital for the city's safety. “We don’t want to lose momentum and not have a police academy.”
While the City Council approved hiring 30 police officers, the department still faced cuts to officer positions.
In the 2010/2011 budget, the City Council cut 85 police officer positions that were vacant, according to Leong. Those positions were vacant, so there were no police officer layoffs. However, it means the department cannot hire for those positions.
The city has about 1.5 officers for every 1,000 residents, Leong said. Other capital cities such as Austin and Denver have a higher ratio of officers to residents, he said. Austin has 2.04 officers for 1,000 people, while Denver’s staffing levels are 2.61 officers to every 1,000 residents, Leong noted.
At his Tuesday press conference, Mayor Kevin Johnson pointed to the figure of 1.5 officers per 1,000 residents to make the point that the department does not have enough officers.
Johnson addressed the issue of the $2.4 million the City Council will need to find to keep the new officers in fiscal 2012/2013.
“We’ve started the process now, even in this budget cycle, to work to that end,” Johnson said. The city will need to monitor sales and property taxes, and look at how it can spur economic development to be on a path to pay for the $2.4 million, he said.
The 2010/2011 fiscal year starts July 1.
Photo of council members by Anthony Bento.
Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.
Flag Article As:
Conversation Express your views,
debate, and be heard with those in your area closest
to the issue.
Leave a Comment
http://www.denvergov.org/Portals/672/documents/Pay%20Ranges%20&%20Job%20Titles%20-%202010%20Pay%20Survey%20%28Effective%207-1-10%29.pdf
Denver-Deputy Sherrif starts at a lower pay scale than SacPD Police officer and has a 7 step advancement
Deputy Sheriff Pay Grade 710-U Job Code CY1055
Steps B-G then J
710-U
Step B $44,070
Step C $45,400
Step D $46,743
Step E $48,033
Step F $49,376
Step G $55,407
Step J $61,411
SacPD Police Officer
http://cityofsacramento.org/personnel/documents/Current-Salary-Schedule.pdf
002027 \ Police Officer
SPOA \ 002 \ PoliceOff SPOAGRD002
Steps 1-5
Step 1 55,781.65
Step 2 58,570.72
Step 3 61,499.36
Step 4 64,574.43
Step 5 67,803.22
Does Colorado have the same retirement plan as CA @ 3% per year at 50 up to a max of 90% ?
Colorado's cost of Living Index- Higher or lower than Sacramento?
Other Benefits Comparable?
Here is another article (albiet on Sac County), that discusses a similar issue:
http://reason.com/blog/2010/06/25/if-you-dont-give-us-150-percen
Also, Chief Braziel, how about that gun amnesty day we talked about? You never got back to me
Adding more cops is not always the answer.
Very key is Rhonda's point that "many do not file reports." Not only that but many do not even call in to report a crime or if call in, tire of waiting on the phone to report a crime. Reasons for not filing also include people work the hours PD work, and cannot take time off to file or lack of ability to read and fill out report forms. Not everyone has computers or can use reporting on line.
A few years ago, the city estimated that crime was under reported by an estimated 40%. As to PD pay differences among cities, it is important to know cost of living differences when comparing cities. When setting pay rates in any occupation, variable factors include, housing, rental, food, transportation costs, etc, .
.
Mark Johnston- We are working with Sacramento Police Activities League (Sac PAL) to offer youth programs and they just had a pancake breakfast fundraiser. Please take a look at their website at
www.sacpal.com to help them out. We also are active in area youths with our Magnet School Programs, Youth Advisory Committee, and School Resource Officers. Gun turn in day is still being worked on but we need to find donations to be able to offer incentives for turning in guns.
Rich E.- I think it is important to have a balanced budget and a handle on crime at the same time. The 30 bodies will really just maintain our staffing levels where they currently are since we will lose officers over the course of the three years to retirement and other reasons. We did lost 85 officers positions that we have kept vacant to balance the police reduced budget. What is important is that Council and Mayor recognized the need to plan ahead to keep staffing levels since it is a long process before you have a functioning officer on the street.
Steve V- The Police Dept prepared earlier into the economic downturn by reducing costs and looking for saving where we could by stopping most of the overtime where possible, applying for more grants, eliminating certain units in investigations, reducing sizes of certain specialty units, and salary concessions made by the union.
William B- Most cities comparable do have larger police officers per 1000 population. It is important to look at other Capitol cities since we need more staffing for things like large protests. Other cities fund through general funds too but some add Public Safety Taxes. Unfortunately, even during properous times our department has been understaffed for years. The positive is that we have very professional and dedicated officers who have worked long hours to make the most with our staffing levels. Every City has a different economic make up which provides a different tax and income base.
Also have you reached out to the Kings yet for gun amnesty day support? As I said to chief a ways back, you could get the athletes out there, too.... kids would come out to meet them. I bet David Stern might even assist as well. You know who also should be willing to assist and lend resources? Council member Kevin McCarty. He is the sponsor of the ammo ordinance you are well aware of. If he is that gung ho to get weapons off the street he would seem like a natural choice to spearhead the effort on the city's behalf... right? Has anyone reached out him yet?
Other possible amnesty day sponsors: River Cats, NAACP, local area churches (Bishop Soto would likely be interested in assisting with locations I would think..?) , ACLU, churches in high crime areas, Kevin Johnson?
What about the Sac 60? They could sponsor the whole thing.
It seems like it would be easy to get support for this.
Are the youth programs to prevent some youth from identifying with other youth? If so, that’s okay and actually a good thing. I’d rather see some youth saved than none at all.
Considering the complaints I’ve heard from many area youth and their parents some of whom children were murdered regarding police harassment, profiling….. I find it hard to believe many truly at-risk youth are lining up to join or participate in police activities. But heck, it sounds good. Heck, if it helps some from identifying with others that’s good too. I just hope some funding is left for the truly at risk who need resources which they can believe in.
Hi, WIlliam. Check here: http://heckasac.blogspot.com/2010/06/sack-60-revealed.html
Legislators were never deemed to be producers when their jobs are involved with spending money, not making money, improving laws, not highjacking laws.
Tax cuts (or increases) are meant to operate as the levers of appropriate taxation for taxpayers, not licenses to spend, or licenses to harm the public by not having sufficient personnel with incentive to do the job. When legislators treat themselves as if they were government employees, and they are in a position to dip into the kitty first, to satisfy themselves, they are competing with local personnel for the same tax dollars. It is not so different in the scheme of HMO's vs hospitals where HMO's are paid first, while hospitals are doing the work.
Management competing with its employees is not a new phenomenon, in most cases, but it signals mismangement rather than good management. Where legislators get dibs, local government employees get the leftovers. That is not how it was supposed to be, and not how it was made under the Constitution. Legislators remain elected for good behavior, not for siphoning the public treasury for their own enrichment. When both political parties do the same, there is bound to be conflict and scarcity, as well as public poverty for those who should be paid, but cannot be, because legislators pay themselves first as if they were employees.