Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda Packet - January 18, 2005 - CC MIP • AZUSA AGENDA ITEM TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL FROM: KING DAVIS, CHIEF OF POLICE VIA: JOE HSU, INTERIM CITY MANAGER' J `1'' DATE: JANUARY 18, 2005 SUBJECT: UNIVERSAL HIRING PROGRAM RECOMMENDATION It is recommended that the City Council authorize staff to move forward with the hiring of two of the four officers previously approved (April 29, 2004), with funds supplemented by the Universal Hiring Program. Due to financial constraints, it is impossible to move forward with the four positions. BACKGROUND The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services is a division of the Department of Justice whose central goal is to help law enforcement agencies implement and enhance community policing. Community policing is, "a policing philosophy that promotes and supports organizational strategies to address the causes of and reduce the fear of crime and social disorder through problem-solving tactics and police- community partnerships." The community policing "model" balances reactive responses to calls for service with proactive problem-solving centered on the causes of crime and disorder. Community policing requires police and citizens to join together as partners in the course of both identifying and effectively addressing these issues. The Universal Hiring Program (UHP) is a grant that was established by the COPS Office under the provisions of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of oi/46,(1,///1/5-- ad/216Z 641, sto . 1994. This grant authorizes law enforcement agencies to hire additional sworn law enforcement officers as part of an overall plan to address crime and related problems through community oriented policing. The COPS programs were intended to promote d. community oriented policing activities throughout the nation by increasing the number of police officers on the streets of the United States by 100,000 officers. Over the past decade, the Azusa Police Department has taken steps to introduce the philosophy of community policing to the entire department through various training programs including a 20 hour block of instruction to all its police officers over a one year period by the Pat Brown Institute. Moreover, the department restructured its command staff to have lieutenants responsible for a geographic region (i.e. beat) referred to as the Service Area Command program to be more responsive to citizens in the spirit of community oriented policing. However, the department has been faced with increasing calls for service and reported crimes while operating at minimum staffing levels. With the City Manager's support and approval, police department staff applied for and was successfully awarded a grant from the COPS office to assist in the hiring of additional officers to further our community policing efforts in March 2004. The U.S. Department of Justice has authorized the police department to hire four (4) additional police officers under this program. Despite financial hardships, City Council continued to move forward with the addition of four officers by approving the plan in April 2004. There are several terms and conditions that were agreed to when the application was submitted, and the award was accepted. No Supplanting: During the life of the grant, we must continue to hire as many new officers as we otherwise would have if we had not received the grant. We may not cancel or postpone spending money in our budget that is committed to hiring other officers. We must take positive and timely steps to fill any locally funded vacancies resulting from retirement, resignation or other reasons with new locally funded officers. This would include the corporal's position that has been "frozen." According to this language, this position must be filled as soon as possible. Any exception must be authorized in writing by the COPS Office. Retention: We must retain newly hired officers for one full budget cycle after the initial 36-month period. Grantees cannot use attrition to meet the retention requirement. Retaining officers beyond the grant period is to be accomplished through the tax revenues that are expected to be generated by the Monrovia Nursery Project and other development projects. Community Policing: While the COPS office would like "veteran" officers to be immediately deployed to community policing, they understand smaller agencies do not have the available staff to meet this expectation. The newly hired officers will be POST certified, complete a training and probationary period in the City of Azusa, and then be deployed as full-time solo police officers. This will take approximately one 2 year to accomplish, at which time we can assign seasoned personnel to community policing positions as outlined in our grant application. FISCAL IMPACT The federal government funds a portion of the officer's salary for a period of three years, to a total of $300,000 for four officers. Although we applied for four officers, we can reduce the numbers if absolutely necessary. We feel that we can still have a significant impact with the addition of two officers. These individuals will work within our service area command concept and will be charged with the responsibility of pro- actively engaging and developing partnerships with the community. This reduction from four to two officers decreases the federal share awarded by half ($150,000 / two officers) and reduces the City's four year commitment to $890,000. See Attachment A for full cost breakdown. On April 5, 2004, Chief Davis informed Council that the grant had been awarded, and advised Council that the City Manager had been directed to "earmark $1 million from the city reserve funds to finance this investment in the City's future." These funds have been set aside for this community policing program. Prepared by: Captain Bob Garcia Crime Analyst Cynthia Haebe 3 COPS Universal Hiring Program 2004-2008 Projected Budget for 2 Officers TOTAL FOR 4 YRS/2 OFCS $480,562 ONE OFFICER FOR 4 YEARS X 2 OFFICERS = $961 ,124 TOTAL COST FOR 2 OFFICERS FOR 4 YEARS $78,969 + PLUS COSTS NOT ALLOWABLE UNDER GRANT * $1,040,093 COST FOR 2 OFFICERS FOR ENTIRE 4 YEAR PERIOD -$150,000 - MINUS AMOUNT FUNDED BY GRANT ($75,000 per Officer) $890,093 TOTAL FUNDED BY CITY OVER 4 YEARS FOR 2 NEW OFFICERS *Estimated Hiring Costs, Overtime, Equipment, Uniform Allowance, FTO Training Pay, Etc. Budget-COPS UHP-BG.xls 1 of 1 1/13/2005