HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-19-2017 Item 01 - Study Session - CityGate Presentation RE: Police Department Master Plan Meeting Date: 9/19/2017
FROM: Deanna Cantrell, Police Chief
SUBJECT: PRESENTATION OF COMPREHENSIVE SERVICE DELIVERY AND
STAFFING STUDY OF THE SAN LUIS OBISPO POLICE DEPARTMENT
WITH CITYGATE ASSOCIATES
RECOMMENDATION
Accept the Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Study from Citygate Associates, LLC
(“Citygate”)
DISCUSSION
Background
The City of San Luis Obispo retained Citygate Associates, LLC to perform a Comprehensive
Service Delivery and Staffing Study for the City’s Police Department after approval from City
Council in August of 2016. The study included reviewing the adequacy of the existing and future
deployment systems, scheduling, and staffing needs. Citygate’s report includes a detailed
analysis of response times, crime, and call data that drives the recommendations for staffing in
Patrol, as well as an assessment of the staffing of support functions in the Department. The
methodology utilized in the study is discussed in Section 1 of the report.
Undertaking a study of this depth, was reflective of what and how well we are providing police
services and, at the same time, illuminating to alternative systems, methodologies and
approaches based on best practices and industry standards.
We found that working with Citygate was both informative and exciting and are impressed with
the in depth analysis of the San Luis Obispo Police Department (SLO PD). You will find
throughout the study, examples of the great work being done by the men and woman of the SLO
PD. The Study also acknowledges the continuous improvement and progressive enhancement of
services that we have been working on this last year in addition to those that still need
implemented.
In the study, Citygate identified service gaps that already exist or are emerging between staffing
and desirable service delivery measures. The Study prioritizes needed position recommendations
by priority, while recognizing the current fiscal constraints of the City and deployment
capabilities of the Department. The prioritization should not be interpreted to suggest that a
lower priority is not needed as severely as a higher priority. These priorities are provided to
identify the positions that will have the greatest impact on safety and service delivery.
The Executive Summary is attached to the Council Agenda Report. The full document will be
provided via the Council Reading File.
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FISCAL IMPACT
The fiscal impact is dependent on recommendations undertaken by the Police Department and
City staff. Any changes that require additional budget authority will be requested as part of a
future financial planning or budget process. As such, there are no fiscal impacts from accepting
this report.
Attachments:
a - SLO PD Service Delivery and Staffing Review - Exec Sum (08-29-17)
b - Council Reading File - SLO PD Service Delivery and Staffing Review - Final (08-29-17)
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The City of San Luis Obispo (City) retained Citygate Associates, LLC to perform a
Comprehensive Service Delivery and Staffing Study for the City’s Police Department. The
study included reviewing the adequacy of the existing and future deployment systems,
scheduling, and staffing. The methodology utilized in the study is discussed in Section 1 of this
report. Citygate’s report includes a detailed analysis of the response time, crime, and call data
that drives the recommendations for staffing in Patrol, as well as an assessment of the staffing of
the support functions in the Department.
POLICY CHOICES FRAMEWORK
As the City Council understands, there are no mandatory federal or state regulations directing the
level of police field service staffing, response times, and outcomes. The International
Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) recommends methods for determining appropriate
staffing levels based on local priorities. The National Emergency Number Association (NENA)
provides standards for 9-1-1 call answering, and the Association of Public-Safety
Communications Officials International (APCO) and the International Academies of Emergency
Dispatching (IAED) provide best practices that illuminate staffing needs for the Communications
Center that provides dispatch services for both the Police and Fire Departments.
Personnel costs are the most significant cost center in any budget. One of the City Council’s
greatest challenges is managing the scarce fiscal resources and allocating them across the vast
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One of the City Council’s greatest
challenges is managing the scarce
fiscal resources and allocating
them across the vast needs of
municipal government safety
operations. The recommendations
in this study are made based upon
best practices, Citygate experience,
and guidelines established by
professional industry
organizations. The City’s fiscal
capabilities must be considered
when weighing these
recommendations.
needs of municipal government safety
operations. The recommendations in this
study are made based upon best practices,
Citygate experience, and guidelines
established by professional industry
organizations. The City’s fiscal capabilities
must be considered when weighing these
recommendations. Since there are no law
enforcement national standards, the City is
well advised to use the advice and counsel of
City management and the Police Chief for
guidance and to determine where to allocate
the scarce fiscal resources to meet the service
delivery expectations of the community. San
Luis Obispo’s City Council has strived to
staff the Police Department to proactive
levels that provide adequate time for patrol
officers to respond to calls for service while
maintaining a safe community environment
and engaging in preventative patrol,
Community Policing activities, and basic crime prevention. Also, sufficient dispatch personnel
are in place to process and dispatch calls for service (both Police and Fire) and meet Fire
Department response goals.
This report provides recommendations for adjusting the staffing levels in the Police Department
and offers alternatives to enhance service delivery by adding civilian positions that can
significantly reduce workload of sworn officers that, in turn, creates more preventative and
proactive patrol time to increase safety and crime reduction while averting the need for
additional sworn officers that come at a significantly higher cost. It also stresses the importance
of adding a full-time crime analyst to the Department to increase deployment efficiencies and
maximize the crime data tracking, projections, and analysis of crime patterns and locations. The
principal reasons for recommending the adjustments are to ensure that the Department continues
to meet its service delivery goals, provides for a safe working environment for patrol officers,
and uses additional non-sworn staff to support the Department’s Patrol operations. As it relates
to increasing the number of sworn officers on Patrol, the choices facing the City are to reassign
officers from specialty units, eliminate one or more units, or implement alternative civilian
positions that will free up time for existing patrol officers for directed duties where a peace
officer is required.
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SEVEN THEMES THAT SHAPE THE SAN LUIS OBISPO POLICE DEPARTMENT: ITS CHALLENGES
GOING FORWARD
Within the report, Citygate describes the community realities and complexities that are unique to
the City. These unique community characteristics shape the opportunities and constraints that are
available to the City and the Police Department. These themes are as follows:
Theme One: The City is a desirable place to live, work, and play. It enjoys many of the
benefits of a large urban area (e.g., a walkable downtown, numerous restaurants
and cultural facilities, a wide variety of retail establishments, open space, the
beach, a community college and a state university). Once employees come to
work for the Police Department, they tend to want to stay.
Theme Two: The Police Department receives a high level of community support. The support
is recognized and appreciated by the employees in the Department.
Theme Three: California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) and Cuesta College, and their
surrounding environments, place unique service demands on the Police
Department and the community and will continue to do so as Cal Poly fulfills its
20-year plan for growth.
Theme Four: The Police Department is located on the Central Coast halfway between Los
Angeles and San Francisco. Its locale creates a measure of geographic isolation
from larger professional employment candidate pools.
Theme Five: Although the City is financially sound, revenue increases will not keep up with
expenditure increases. This, combined with increased Public Employees
Retirement System (PERS) liabilities, caused the City to implement a fiscal
sustainability period.
Theme Six: Geographical location, cost of living, and the two-tiered state PERS have
impacted the Police Department’s previous long-standing strong position to
recruit experienced police officers (lateral transfers). This problem (Tier 2) is
likely to self-correct by 2022 based upon turnover and retirements.
Theme Seven: The Police Department serves a very diverse land use pattern that, in some
locations, is geographically challenged with open spaces, hills, a freeway, and
drainages, all of which impact the Department’s response times.1
1 Geographic challenges impacting response times are discussed in the San Luis Obispo Fire Master Plan Update
prepared by Citygate Associates, LLC on June 8, 2016
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The recommendations in
this study should be
considered as a continuous
quality improvement tune-
up that can be applied in
the biennial budget
process.
CITYGATE’S OVERALL OBSERVATIONS OF THE STATE OF THE CITY’S POLICE DEPARTMENT
The greatest challenge for elected officials is to
continually balance the financial capabilities and
competing demands of the municipality with the
staffing needs for not only public safety service
delivery, but all municipal services. To weigh
these decisions, Citygate presents to the City
Council an analysis of the existing staffing of the
Department, the performance measures that are or
should be in place, and industry best practices.
Citygate places a high emphasis on response times
to emergency calls, criminal activity,
proactive/preventative patrol time, and officer safety. All of these will help inform and lend
credence to the decision-making necessary to determine how to staff police services.
The recommendations in this study should be considered as a continuous quality improvement
tune-up that can be applied in the biennial budget process.
The San Luis Obispo City Council and this community have every reason to be proud of its
Police Department. In Citygate’s opinion, as well as the opinion of many people interviewed for
this report, the Police Chief and the Command staff were identified as a key strength. They were
described as being “available” to meet with community groups, actively listening to their
concerns, and taking appropriate actions. The Department is regarded as compassionate and
caring with a strong and unwavering commitment to the community.
As with most organizations that examine performance and staffing, the first opportunity for
improvement is to fine-tune existing operations; in the City’s case, that includes existing
positions and unfilled budgeted vacancies. This study recommends several areas of data analysis
refinement, a reassessment of call priority definitions, enhanced categorization and
documentation of adjunct patrol down time, an increase in the number of dispatch personnel, the
addition of civilian Community Service Officers (CSOs), and adding a full-time crime analyst.
Organizationally, the Department is staffed with highly competent managers and has fostered a
culture of service, commitment, and visionary leadership. Technologically, the Department is
keeping abreast with trade tools for the field that allow for greater efficiencies and
accountability. However, the absence of crime analysis significantly hinders the Department’s
ability to garner enhanced strategies and successes in the prevention and detection of criminal
activities. Citygate understands that this is being addressed in the upcoming budget process. The
Department’s Community Policing efforts are bolstered by community member involvement, the
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Student Neighborhood Assistance Program (SNAP), Neighborhood Outreach, the Bicycle Unit,
and the Special Enforcement Team (SET).
Citygate found a strong commitment from all ranks and among the civilian staff to ensure that
the Department is successful in meeting its service delivery goals. Citygate’s analysis did not
reveal anything that suggests even the slightest undercurrent of inattention on any key policing
issues.
The City is meeting its calls for service needs, though challenged geographically by current
deployment. The Department remains flexible in its staffing adjustment to accommodate the
many special events held in the City. However, there are six areas that Citygate draws particular
attention to: (1) sufficient staffing to meet the deployment needs; (2) response times for second-
in units (backup units) for urgent and emergency calls; (3) 9-1-1 answering and processing times
in the Communications Center; (4) need for greater refinement and documentation of workload
data; (5) appropriate staffing for non-emergency report calls; and (6) non-existence of a response
time goal or standard.
When examining workload performance, the actions of the Department must be evaluated
against a measurement, a standard, or best practices.
Although the Department has previously reported average response times, unlike the Fire
Department, it has not adopted response time standards for the most urgent and emergency calls
or non-urgent calls for service. This measurement can identify critical shortcomings in
deployment. The policy does not necessarily establish the need for more staffing; in fact, it very
often reflects the need to reallocate existing deployment due to call saturation and the level of
scheduled staffing during busy times.
This in no way suggests that the Department’s response times represent a crisis. To the contrary,
the fact that there is, in most cases, acceptable proactive time allocation indicates that further
examination and system enhancements are needed to allow for a much clearer answer to why the
response times are not meeting the City’s standards.
Additionally, other staffing impacts on response time can be attributed to personnel scheduled
for training time or unavailable due to long-term disabilities, workers’ compensation, or sick
leave. Urgent and hot emergency calls most often include calls that require a multiple-unit
response (i.e., at least one backup unit). Previous reports of response time averages were void of
an examination of the backup units to in-progress calls.
As previously mentioned, there are no national standards for police response times. That said,
community expectations for emergency response do not distinguish the difference between a
firefighter and a police officer responding to their particular type of emergency. When there is an
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emergency call, regardless of whether it is life-threatening, the expectation is that the emergency
response will be the most expeditious the community can afford.
The workload evaluation is coupled with the response time analysis. The International
Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP)-recommended “20/20/20 rule” suggests that for every
hour worked in patrol, 20 minutes should be dedicated to each of the following: call response,
administrative duties and report writing, and proactive/preventative patrol activities (often
referred to as Community Policing). Citygate finds that the current deployed force is at the limits
of the 20-minute time allocation for patrol activity, which impacts the ability to spend the
necessary time on prevention and administrative duties (which includes report writing).
When adding in the response time challenges, it is clear that additional staffing is needed over
time as revenues allow. Given the seven sworn officer vacancies, with impending retirements of
two to four sworn personnel in the next year, filling these vacancies must take priority before a
case can be made for full-time equivalent additions of sworn officers.
Citygate’s recommended staffing increases start with filling and fielding the existing vacancies
of sworn officers and communications technicians. These, combined with the CSOs, will address
much of the current workload saturation in the Department. However, there is insufficient data at
this time to mathematically determine a specific response time reduction. The current sworn
staffing is adequate for the immediate Patrol needs once the vacant positions are filled and CSOs
are added. This will allow more proactive and preventative time and will minimize sworn
officer’s performing duties that do not require a peace officer’s presence. Additionally, the CSO
positions can serve as an attraction and entry level for youth seeking a career with the City and a
stepping-stone to other positions, including police officer.
Citygate’s recommendation to fund a full-time crime analyst to the Department will increase
deployment efficiencies and maximize the crime data tracking, projections, and analysis of crime
patterns and locations.
It is Citygate’s opinion that by adding the staffing recommended herein and implementing
several policy and system tracking tools, a more definitive picture of what is driving the slower
response times will become very clear.
While overall violent crime has trended slightly down, the Department has been handling
increases in calls for service, property crimes, homeless related activity, and alcohol-related
incidents. Moving forward, balancing the increased demands for service will require adaptive
staffing and call distribution to spread non-emergency report calls to civilian personnel while
leaving the crime fighting and emergency response to the sworn officers.
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Throughout this report, Citygate makes key findings, and, where appropriate, specific action item
recommendations. Overall, there are 45 key findings and 47 specific action item
recommendations.
SUMMARY OF THE CITY’S CRIME PICTURE
An overview of Part 1 crime data from 2013 to 2016 is presented in the following table.
Additional Part 1 crime charts are provided in Section 3.
Table 1—Part 1 Crimes Over Time – 2013–2016
Type of Crime 2013 2014 2015 2016 Average
Difference from Average
2013 2014 2015 2016
Property Crimes
Residential Burglary 249 140 169 160 180 70 -40 -11 -20
Stolen Vehicle 63 71 98 99 83 -20 -12 15 16
Commercial Burglary 79 66 76 92 78 1 -12 -2 14
Theft 1,046 874 1,058 1,057 1,009 37 -135 49 48
Theft from Vehicle 338 288 443 669 435 -97 -147 9 235
Person Crimes
Aggravated Assault 101 168 146 120 134 -33 34 12 -14
Arson 44 17 44 26 33 11 -16 11 -7
Rape 31 44 32 39 37 -6 8 -5 3
Robbery 26 25 13 21 21 5 4 -8 0
Rape Attempt 6 3 5 2 4 2 -1 1 -2
Homicide 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
The City’s crime data is consistent with crime trends from other jurisdictions across California.
Property crimes are increasing significantly. This corresponds to the reduction of penalties and
likelihood of prosecution for these crime types. Not only have penalties for theft convictions
been reduced, the threshold for a theft to be prosecuted as a felony has been increased. Thefts of
property valued under $950 are generally treated as a misdemeanor; this was increased from
$400 (there are a few exemptions, including firearms of any value). Criminals are responding to
the changes in these laws, and the number and frequency of thefts are burgeoning across the
state.
The City’s crime data also shows a decrease in the number of residential burglaries. This could
be attributed to the penalties associated with this crime type. Residential burglary is still
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prosecuted as a strike felony in the State of California. The penalties for this crime type can be
substantially more severe than for misdemeanor theft.
Overall, this latest crime data indicates that the Police Department, in collaboration with the
community, has done an outstanding job in minimizing crime, especially given the slow
economic rebound of the economy. There are many factors that contribute to crime rates,
including economics, proactive/preventative policing, omnipresence, community involvement,
and employment. The City’s crime statistics are encouraging, but cannot and should not lull the
City into believing that staffing and performance decisions can be made with just this limited
picture. Community expectations, sense of safety (quality of life), emergency response times,
and confidence in the Police Department all factor into these decisions.
Additionally, criminal conduct is not confined by boundaries. In other words, criminals do not
concern themselves with their crime target by geographical boundaries such as city limits or
county lines. Criminal activity spills across jurisdictional boundaries and can have a significant
effect on the criminal activity in the Department’s jurisdiction.
Factors well beyond the control of the City will have a direct impact on the emerging crime
trends. The California Prison Realignment (AB 109) and recently passed Proposition 572 will
likely spawn increased criminal activity throughout the State of California. The Prison
Realignment is noted by most law enforcement professionals as being the single greatest factor
in the dramatic increase in property crimes. No one knows yet what the possible impact of
Proposition 57 will be, but it will allow even more convicted criminals to seek early release from
prison. Additionally, other City services will likely be impacted by these measures. The released
inmates will likely need assistance, either through government programs or charitable
organizations, to assist them as they attempt to reintegrate into society. Many may end up
homeless, exacerbating the homeless/transient issues already affecting the City.
Additionally, California voters have recently approved the recreational use of marijuana. This
will undoubtedly create more work for the Police Department. Issues such as Driving Under the
Influence, public intoxication, grow enforcement, sales enforcement, possession by minors, sales
to minors, and many others will impact the Police Department. Areas of the country where
recreational use is already legal have noted sharp increases in many crime types. The exact
impact it will have on the City is yet to be known. The City has yet to adopt measures to address
the potential regulation of recreational marijuana use/sales/cultivation within the City.
2 Proposition 57 increased parole chances for felons convicted of nonviolent crimes and gave them more
opportunities to earn credits for good behavior. It also allowed judges, not prosecutors, to decide whether to try
certain juveniles as adults in court. Using numbers from early 2016, there were about 25,000 nonviolent state felons
that could seek early release and parole under Proposition 57.
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The time available to police officers for crime fighting is impacted by the Department’s calls for
service demands of 21,301 calls per year (as discussed in Section 3), as well as the response time
data summarized below.
RESPONSE TIMES
Nationally, law enforcement agencies are adopting the more accurate reporting of response
times, moving away from an average of the time and reporting the 90 percent arrival time. See
Section 4 for a discussion of the consequences of relying on average response times. The
Department and City do not have a standard on response times for the most urgent police
emergency calls. Anecdotally, however, the Fire Department response time standard is 7
minutes3 (90 percent of the time) from dispatch to arrival. This would appear to be a reasonable
time standard as the public’s expectation for emergency response for fire emergencies carries the
same criticality as police emergencies.
The following table presents the response times for single-unit and multiple-unit responses
across all priority calls. The higher the priority number, the less critical the demand for
immediate service or seriousness. These are the response times achieved for 90 percent of calls
for service.
Table 2—90 Percent Response Time Summary – 2011–2016
90% Response
Times (Minutes) Single-Unit
Multiple-Unit
(Second-In Unit)
Priority 1 25.7 22.9
Priority 2 29.0 19.8
Priority 3 26.4 23.6
Priority 4 32.7 28.9
Priority 5–9 31.4 31.9
Multiple-unit calls for service on Priority 1 and 2 calls represent emergency, critical, or life-
threatening calls for service. They require two or more officers, since best practices dictate that
an officer should not engage on the call until the second unit (backup) arrives. This is critical to
officer safety and to prevent the escalation of a call when only one officer is on scene. Citygate’s
3 Seven-minute response time for Fire Department emergencies (Code 3) is based on 1-minute call processing, 2-
minute “turn-out,” and 4-minute travel time. (Established by City Council adopted policy)
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Citygate recommends that
a response time goal be
established that considers
the City’s geographical
constraints, officer and
citizen safety, and fiscal
capabilities.
response time analysis for multiple-unit calls measures the time a second unit arrives at the
scene. Lower priority calls may dictate a need for more than one officer to facilitate duties
beyond the capabilities of one officer. For example, a multiple-unit response can be needed at the
scene of a car accident where the assigned officer is tending to the needs of the investigation and
the second officer is needed for traffic control.
In San Luis Obispo, many factors contribute to the multiple-unit response times being lower than
single-unit response times:
Location: Due to the density of calls for service in the downtown area and the
concentration of police officers in that area, more units are available to respond
downtown.
Frequency and time of week: More calls for service require a multiple-unit
response as opposed to a single-unit response (58 percent of all calls for service in
the City required at least two responding units). More multiple-unit calls also
occur during nights and weekends, when the most officers are available to
respond.
Number of responding units: A multiple-unit call may be dispatched to more than
two units. Since multiple-unit response time is measured at the time a second unit
arrives on scene, more responding units provide a greater chance of at least two
units arriving more quickly. This is contrasted with a single-unit response in
which only one unit is dispatched to respond.
Urgency: Multiple-unit calls for service are typically more urgent than single-unit
responses and pose a greater risk to officers, and thus often receive the fastest
possible response.
Other factors: Factors such as proximity of responding units; traffic; road
conditions; and whether the responding units are cars, motorcycles, or bicycles
can all impact response times.
The City’s response time for Priority 1 and 2 calls,
second-in units is 22.9 and 19.8 minutes
respectively, 90 percent of the time.
Citygate recommends that a response time goal be
established that considers the City’s geographical
constraints, officer and citizen safety, and fiscal
capabilities. The combination of Citygate’s
recommendations to add CSOs to increase
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availability of officers, enhance documentation of committed time to better analyze availability,
and filling the existing seven positions in Patrol are critical to improving response times.
THE 20/20/20 RULE
The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) recommendations and industry best
practices evaluate law enforcement workload and staffing in part using the 20/20/20 standard for
patrol resource allocation. Preventative and proactive patrol is foundational to safe communities
and quality of life issues in communities. By this standard, officers need at least 20 minutes per
hour to have sufficient time available to solve problems and prevent or reduce future calls for
services. The remaining portion of an hour is divided into two 20-minute blocks for
administrative time and calls for service.
The City’s actual allocation of patrol officer time is shown in the following table:
Table 3—Allocation of Patrol Officer Time as Recorded in CAD – 2016
(Of 214 Days)
Calls for Service
Time
Proactive
Preventative Time Admin Time Total Time
IACP Recommendations 0:20:00 0:20:00 0:20:00 1:00:00
Time Consumed 0:18:15 0:06:52 0:17:05 0:42:11
Available Time 0:01:45 0:13:08 0:02:55 0:17:49
The top row in this table represents an hour broken into three 20-minute categories. The second
row represents the actual committed time as reported by the Department in each category.
Subtracting the second row from the first row demonstrates the net amount of the hour that is
undocumented.
Slightly less than one-third of every hour (17:49) is undocumented time in CAD, and a very
small amount of time is being committed to proactive time; only 6:52 out of every hour is being
logged as preventative and proactive patrol time.
The changes necessary to ensure that the 20/20/20 rule is being met will require additional
documentation, supervisory oversight, and management support to ensure that the changes
garner the needed data for sound staffing and deployment decisions. These efforts will bring
about stronger community safety, reduced crime, and ultimately, an improved quality of life in
the City.
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WORKLOAD ANALYSIS OVERVIEW
The saturation of calls that occur by day of week and hour of day is important in analyzing
workload. This type of examination is also used when the Department is above minimum
staffing to compare proposed shift scheduling to calls for service and peak times.
The visualization provided in the temporal charts in Section 5.1 shows the calls for service
volume across all priorities by hour of the day and day of the week, combining both single- and
multiple-unit responses. There are two very clear patterns evident: Monday through Friday from
9 am to 6 pm, and Friday and Saturday evenings from 10 pm to 3 am are the heaviest in calls for
service.
POLICE STAFFING NEEDS AND DEVELOPMENT CONSIDERATIONS OVER TIME
San Luis Obispo before, during, and since the recession has experienced modest growth, with no
explosive growth increases. The City’s growth rate from 2015 to 2016 was just 0.9 percent, or
426 additional residents. Current City Planning data is divided into near term projects that are
under active review and development processing. The other development proposals are long-
term projects seeking entitlements and financing, with no set year for final approvals.
In the near term active projects, there are 1,365 residential units which, at an approximate ratio
of 2.2 residents per dwelling unit, is an additional 3,003 residents. The City only grew by 426
new residents last year, and if that remains the annual growth rate, reaching 3,003 new residents
will take seven years. This resident calculation does not take into account mobile populations in
hotels, tourism, or employment. However, the projections in these other categories are also
modest over time. Even if a 3,003 resident increase occurred in a much shorter time period of 3.5
years, a 3,000-person residential increase would not typically cripple a capable suburban city
police department.
Many agencies try to use a projection analysis that is a ratio of calls for service versus
population. This ratio does not estimate severity of different types of calls which impacts the
time officers spend to handle the call. Citygate examined calls for service versus population
alone in San Luis Obispo, but it is not statistically significant in that this singular measure only
explains 16.16 percent of the change in calls for service over time. The remaining 83.84 percent
of the changes in incident types are explained by other factors not currently being measured in
the City. Thus, the City should not use an assumption that calls for service increase as resident
population increases.
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A variety of other factors could or should be considered as well, when the data is available:
Socio-economic conditions
Seasonality (particularly for a university community)
Volume of code violations
Type and nature of arrests
Geographic crime density.
Given the limited ability to project officer demand, and the modest growth forecast for the next
several years, Citygate uses and recommends a workload gap analysis method.
The first step in a workload gap analysis is to determine if the current staffing level is providing
the desired level of service to the City’s residents. If the desired service level is not being met,
the necessary changes and/or staffing increases must be determined as permitted by funding.
Once the desired level of service is reached, a baseline for service levels and staffing is
established. Then, if one or more factors negatively impact the Department and cause the level of
service to erode, the availability of increased funding will determine the City’s ability to add
police staff.
Throughout this report, Citygate identified service gaps that already exist or are emerging
between staffing and desirable service delivery measures. The following table lists needed
position recommendations by priority. If funds can be found more quickly, we recommend the
City add personnel faster. If funding remains severely constrained, then the service gaps will
grow larger to the point where the Department can only handle serious emergencies, and will not
be able to provide the proactive Community Policing that it and the community desires.
Also, the listing of priorities should not be interpreted to suggest that a lower priority is not
needed as severely as a higher priority. These priorities are provided to identify the positions that
will have the greatest impact on safety and service delivery. Where multiple positions are listed,
the City can consider splitting or mixing new full-time positions by classification based upon the
Department’s ability to hire, train, and assimilate multiple positions in the classification. For
example, the City could hire two CSOs and two dispatchers, deferring two CSOs until the next
funding capability cycle.
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Table 4—Staffing Increases by Full-time Count and Classification
Function/Unit Position
Total
FTEs
Report
Recommendation Priority
Office of the Chief Crime Analyst .5* 7, 19, 45 1
Patrol Non-Sworn Technician (Body Worn Camera) 1 10 6
Patrol Community Services Officers 4 13 4
Communications/ 9-1-1 Communications Supervisors 2 23 3
Communications/ 9-1-1 Communications Technicians 2 24 2
Records Records Clerk 1 37 5
Total FTEs Needed 10.5
* The City has funded a part-time crime analyst position. The addition of a .5 FTE is still recommended to make this a full-time
position.
NEXT STEPS
In conclusion, Citygate has identified steps that can be taken by staff to immediately move the
Police Department forward. Some of these have already been implemented, either by the
Department’s own initiative, or as a result of discussions and examination of the Police
Department’s workload, data, and deployment with Citygate in early December 2016:
Short-Term
Prioritize policy manual update completion with a specified date
Adopt policies and procedures for capturing data for:
All committed time for workload and deployment
Calls for service with impact categories for:
Student-related incidents
Licensed alcohol establishments
Reassign supervisory duties for report review and approval at sergeant level
Fill vacant sworn positions
Implement Internal Affairs tracking protocol.
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Long-Term
Provide for overlap staffing at all scheduled shift changes
Develop CSO job description, recruit, and hire
Provide six-month update of workload data, response time impacts, and crime
information
Fund recommended positions
Expand data capture and analysis by zoning type and square footage to provide
occupancy use impacts that are articulable for staffing increases.
COMPLETE LIST OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Throughout this report, Citygate makes key findings and specific action-item recommendations.
As a reminder, the recommendations in this study should be considered as a continuous quality
improvement tune-up that can be applied in the biennial budget process. Overall, there are 45
key findings and 47 specific action item recommendations, listed below in report order for ease
of reference:
Response Times
Finding #1: The Police Department has not established a response time goal.
Recommendation #1: Establish attainable response time goals to meet community
expectations within the City’s fiscal capabilities.
Workload Analysis
Finding #2: The Department needs to improve its tracking of time and categorizing of data for
field activities.
Recommendation #2: Establish additional radio protocols to status and parse patrol officer’s
committed time for patrol activities.
Operations Bureau Review – Patrol
Finding #3: The Department has difficulty maintaining full staffing, in part, due to historical
reliance on its previous success exclusively with lateral hires. The current hiring
climate necessitates greater creativity in recruitment and expanding outreach
efforts for a cross section of candidates.
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Recommendation #3: Consider the creation of police cadet (or similar term) as an intern
classification. This classification differs from an academy cadet and
an employee who can perform non-peace-officer and support
functions while they complete their in-house training and reduces the
costs to the City during their training time.
Recommendation #4: Pursue employees from sources other than laterals. While the Student
Neighborhood Assistance Program has produced two to three
candidates, other entry-level recruitment should be expanded. Laterals
are reluctant to leave existing agencies. Department personnel should
attend military recruiting fares, advertise on the Department webpage
and social media programs, and utilize industry-recognized portals
such as California Peace Officers Association and California Police
Chiefs Association as places to advertise current job opportunities.
Finding #4: Dayshift sergeants are not currently reviewing officer reports.
Recommendation #5: Sergeants across all shifts should be the primary approver of officers’
reports. It will give the sergeants valuable insight as to the abilities of
their officers. It will help the sergeants write more accurate employee
evaluations. It will help the sergeants to mentor and train the officers
on their writing and investigative skills.
Finding #5: Dayshift sergeants’ administrative responsibilities prevent them from spending
essential time in the field with shift officers.
Recommendation #6: Define the sergeants’ responsibilities with an emphasis on being
available to assist and observe their officers in the field. Minimize
extra duties to ensure the sergeants are in the field more often.
Finding #6: The officers would greatly benefit from a crime analyst that could help them
quickly reacquaint themselves with crime targeting efforts after four days away.
Recommendation #7: Add a full-time crime analyst to the Police Department. This will help
officers and detectives utilize their time more efficiently (also
mentioned in Section 7.1.2—Investigations and Section 7.2.2—
Records).
(Add 1 FTE Crime Analyst)
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Finding #7: The Department’s policy manual is out of date creating inconsistencies amongst
supervisors regarding workflow and responsibility.
Recommendation #8: Prioritize the policy manual updates with a target completion date.
Given that the Department is aware that the policy manual is out of
date, it would be prudent to ensure all employees are aware of the
most critical policy updates and provide a date certain for the manual
to be updated.
Finding #8: The Community Action Team processes, by their very nature, are time-
consuming, keeping the officers unavailable to assist in Patrol for large periods of
their shift.
Recommendation #9: Evaluate the success of the Community Action Team program and
determine if other entities could assist with some of the administrative
tasks needed to provide help to those that need it most. Consider
personnel from other City departments or charitable organizations to
assist in this area.
Finding #9: The responsibilities of managing the video data for the Body Worn Cameras
(BWCs) are extensive and exceed the capacity of the assigned technician to keep
current primary job responsibilities while maintaining the duties of BWC data
management and storage.
Recommendation #10: Ensure there is sufficient equipment to provide each uniformed officer
with a Body Worn Camera. The tasks of maintaining equipment,
storing data, and retrieving data need to be assigned to one person.
There should be no ambiguity as to the responsibilities of this
program, which will consume a significant amount of time. These
responsibilities cannot simply be placed on anyone already impacted
with other duties, such as the non-sworn staff which is already
encumbered with existing duties.
Addition of one non-sworn staff member is needed to accommodate
this responsibility, and to reduce other responsibilities for the over-
worked non-sworn staff.
(Add 1 FTE Non-Sworn Technician)
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Finding #10: The Traffic Unit appears to be operating very well; however, staffing shortages in
Patrol often necessitate reassigning Traffic Unit personnel to cover Patrol
shortages.
Recommendation #11: Proper staffing in Patrol, and the addition of Community Services
Officers (CSOs), will eliminate the need to reassign Traffic Unit
personnel to cover Patrol shortages.
Finding #11: Officer scheduling issues affect both Dayshift and Nightshift Patrol services, and
need to be addressed holistically.
Recommendation #12: The Department needs to work with the Police Officers Association to
configure a better deployment scheduling model. This would be an
excellent opportunity for the Department to consider organizing patrol
officers into teams to resolve some of the workload and backfill
issues. The data analysis from this report will provide a clear picture
as to workload by hour of day and day of week.
Operations Bureau Review – Community Services Officers
Finding #12: Patrol staffing and response times are impacted by the calls for service in the City.
Much of the day and early evening calls are report type calls that do not
necessitate a sworn officer’s response. Hiring Community Service Officers
reduces the fiscal impact of adding more sworn positions, while providing an
avenue to continue the current high level of service delivery and reduce response
times and officer availability.
Recommendation #13: Establish a new Community Service Officer classification, capable of
performing duties that include Detention Officer, report writing,
crime scene investigation, special projects, crowd and traffic control,
minor traffic collision investigation, telephonic follow-up on detective
cases, crime prevention, and many other civilian duties. Augment
staffing in Patrol and Investigations. Specific to Patrol, Citygate
recommends four Community Service Officers be added to assist in
call load distribution and reduce response times.
(Add 4 FTE Community Services Officers)
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Operations Bureau Review – Neighborhood Outreach
Finding #13: The Department has routinely struggled to fill all allocated Student Neighborhood
Assistance Program (SNAP) positions. The SNAP members are limited in the
type of services they can perform for the community. The program is time-
consuming given the amount of recruiting, vetting, and training of students that
must occur on an annual basis.
Recommendation #14: Consider modifying the SNAP program (number of positions) and use
the cost savings to help offset the Community Service Officer
positions created for Patrol. The Department will gain more
continuity with permanent employees by hiring CSOs, which would
be able to perform the tasks of the SNAP employees plus many other
tasks to assist the community. The reduction in workload on the
Neighborhood Outreach manager will enable greater focus on true
crime prevention and citizen outreach. The SNAP program could
continue with the benefits of student involvement.
Finding #14: The Neighborhood Officer Program is not currently being utilized to its intended
level.
Recommendation #15: There needs to be a clear point of responsibility for the Neighborhood
Officer Program if it is to be beneficial. The roles and expectations of
the officers must be clearly defined and communicated. There needs
to be accountability for those in the program so that it is working as
designed in all areas of the City.
Finding #15: The Volunteer Program is under-utilized and citizens are not given many
meaningful opportunities to contribute to the community.
Recommendation #16: The Department should identify opportunities for meaningful work
that would be available to volunteers. In doing so, community
members can turn the previous lackluster response to volunteer
recruitment into a sought-after community service opportunity.
Administrative Bureau Review – Internal Affairs
Finding #16: The investigatory workflow needs to be redesigned to include a formalized
checklist process. This will ensure internal affairs investigations are seen by the
appropriate supervisor or manager, in the correct order, and to identify the
investigation status at all times. This will further aid in timeline compliance.
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Recommendation #17: Amend the internal affairs investigation process to include case file
tracking and review. The updated process must include at least one
level of review above the investigator to determine findings and
recommendations before forwarding to the Chief.
Administrative Bureau Review – Investigations
Finding #17: There is considerable liability in operating a dedicated narcotics team.
Accusations against officers from unscrupulous characters can include bribes,
theft of money or drugs, illegal searches, threats, and intimidation. The officers
are often dealing with large amounts of untraceable money and large amounts of
illegal substances. While the presence of a dedicated supervisor does not
eliminate these realities, it does add another layer of protection to the officers
working the unit and reduces risk exposure.
Recommendation #18: If the Special Enforcement Team’s primary focus will be narcotics
investigations, a supervisor for the team is necessary. If narcotics
investigations will not be the team’s primary focus, having a shared
supervisor with the other units within the Investigations Division
would be acceptable.
Finding #18: The Department is in critical need of a crime analyst. With the proper software, a
certified crime analyst can become a force multiplier for the sworn staff of this
agency. By identifying trends, patterns, and “hot spots” of criminal activity, the
crime analyst can assist Patrol and detectives in focusing efforts more
successfully to combat crime.
Recommendation #19: The Department needs to hire a trained crime analyst and equip that
person with dedicated crime analysis software (also mentioned in
Section 6.1—Patrol and Section 7.2.2—Records).
(Add 1 FTE Crime Analyst)
Finding #19: The Investigations Division is not utilizing its current records management system
to improve case management tracking.
Recommendation #20: Train the detectives on how the functionality of the records
management system can be used to track their cases. Ensure data is
being entered correctly throughout the system to ensure seamless
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tracking of a case from its origination by patrol officers through its
successful investigation and prosecution.
Administrative Bureau Review – Communications/9-1-1
Finding #20: Special events and peak call load times significantly impact the Department’s
ability to meet the national standard of answering 90 percent of all 9-1-1 calls
within 10 seconds during the busiest hours and multiple special events.
Recommendation #21: Examine the benefits of staffing an additional position to specifically
cover the busiest hours and multiple special events that occur
annually in the City, as opposed to overtime shifts.
Finding #21: The 10-digit telephone lines in the Communications Division are not captured in
Emergency Call Tracking System (ECaTS)4 reports, though they are captured
elsewhere.
Recommendation #22: Install any needed hardware and software to capture all telephone
lines in ECaTS.
Finding #22: The current supervisory deployment and coverage is not adequate to provide
appropriate supervision and oversight.
Recommendation #23: At least two (preferably three) Communications Supervisors are
needed to increase supervisory coverage at all hours. This will
provide the requisite supervision for the Communications Division,
consistent with best practices, and with five Communications
Supervisors, should provide adequate relief factor coverage for
planned supervisor absences, such as training and vacation leave.
(Add 2 FTE Communications Supervisors)
Finding #23: Current staffing is at a critical level, with only seven of the eleven
Communications Technician allocations filled with fully trained personnel.
However, even if all eleven positions are filled with fully trained technicians, a
sufficient level of coverage is not provided.
4 Emergency Call Tracking System is California’s universal 9-1-1 Call Reporting System that provides real-time
reporting analytics to the 9-1-1 industry.
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Recommendation #24: Add two full-time equivalent Communications Technician allocations
and, once those are filled, maintain the over-hire allocation to reduce
the possibility of short staffing in the future.
(Add 2 FTE Communications Technicians)
Finding #24: The current Memorandum of Understanding is excessively restrictive down to the
start times for shifts.
Recommendation #25: During upcoming Memorandum of Understanding negotiations,
attempt to build in some leeway to afford management more
flexibility in decision-making that can lead to improved efficiency.
Finding #25: The two dispatch supervisors are the designated training officers and, when
needed, the Communications and Records Manager also serves as a trainer,
thereby interfering with their ability to supervise and manage.
Recommendation #26: Work with the Communications Technicians, the union, and human
resources to include training responsibilities in the job description for
Communications Technicians and compensate them accordingly.
Finding #26: Communications Division personnel play little to no part in the recruitment
process for new employees for the Division, and the success rate for trainees in
the Communications Division is less than desirable.
Recommendation #27: Involve Communications staff at every stage of the recruitment
process, from pre-employment testing to the final interview.
Finding #27: Dispatchers are manually tracking call volume and complexity to manage officer
workload.
Recommendation #28: Patrol supervisors should be directed to manage the workload of the
field officers in concert with beat deployment considerations.
Communications Division staff should be removed from this process.
Finding #28: The Communications Divisions transferred 100 percent of the wireless 9-1-1 calls
from 69.2 percent (319 of 461) of cell tower sectors countywide to the correct
agency outside of the City, such as the California Highway Patrol.
Recommendation #29: Meet with the County 9-1-1 Coordinator and the State 9-1-1
Coordinator to review cell sector routing decisions and reroute cell
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sectors to the appropriate agency when historical data shows that
more than 60 percent of the incoming calls were transferred from the
San Luis Obispo Police Department to another agency.
Finding #29: The abandoned call rate for the Communications Division’s 9-1-1 calls (9.35
percent for 2016 and 7.83 percent for 2015) is greater than CALEA’s
recommended standard of 5 percent.
Recommendation #30: Although a high abandoned call rate often serves as an indicator of
staffing shortages, explore reasons for the abandoned 9-1-1 call rate
and attempt to resolve the issue.
Finding #30: Communication between the Fire Department, the Police Department, and the
Communications Division does not occur regularly, which leads to
Communications Division employees feeling disconnected and unappreciated.
Recommendation #31: Establish a small group, inclusive of executive staff, comprised of
representatives from the Communications Division, the Fire
Department, and the Police Department to meet routinely and discuss
operational policies and procedures.
Finding #31: The Department’s current method for measurement of response times does not
include call processing time. This method does not coincide with industry
standards.
Recommendation #32: Adopt a response time measurement policy that measures the time
from when the telephone call is received until the time first unit
arrives on scene. (See Section 4 for further discussion on response
time measurements.)
Administrative Bureau Review – Records
Finding #32: There is a consistent backlog of reports and citations awaiting entry into the
records management system. One of the results of this practice is that the Police
Department is routinely late in submitting Uniform Crime Reporting data to the
Department of Justice and ultimately the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
Recommendation #33: Institute and enforce a policy that requires officers to submit
completed and approved reports and citations to the Records Unit by
the end of watch. Consider adopting a policy wherein the Records
Unit workload must be caught up prior to a trigger date, such as the
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fifth day of each month. In an effort to determine the feasibility of this
goal, consider conducting an efficiency study to determine if Records
Clerks are maximizing productivity and performing to industry
standards.
Finding #33: The current process for submitting, reviewing, and entering reports is time-
consuming and blurs the lines of supervision by requiring Records Clerks to, at
times, read the entire report, checking for thoroughness, accuracy, and
attachments, before forwarding it to the sergeant or lieutenant for review and,
after it has been approved, returning the report to the Records Unit for entry. It
also unnecessarily creates a bottleneck when a Records Clerk reviews a report that
requires correction and sends the report to the sergeant, who reviews it and sends
it to the officer for correction before the cycle starts again.
Recommendation #34: Management of the workload and quality of the work product for field
officers should rest with field supervisors (sergeants). Officers should
submit reports to their sergeant or lieutenant before the end of their
shift, and the sergeant or lieutenant should read the entire report,
checking for thoroughness, accuracy, and attachments. Upon approval
by the sergeant or lieutenant, the report should then be forwarded to
the Records Unit for entry and assignation of the Uniform Crime
Reporting code, based on the complaint type and summary.
Finding #34: The Records Supervisor’s time is consumed performing ancillary quality control
duties that are more appropriately handled by sergeants.
Recommendation #35: While the Records Supervisor’s commitment and concern are
admirable, this position should not review calls for service. It is
recommended that a sergeant or lieutenant conduct this type of
oversight in the form of random spot checks.
Finding #35: The open door policy in the Records Unit allows officers and other personnel to
engage Records Unit personnel in conversation that is not work related and can
affect the productivity and efficiency if not judicially managed.
Recommendation #36: Limit access to the Records Unit to those who have official business,
or have the Records Supervisor provide the assistance needed, when
possible.
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Finding #36: Staffing levels in the Records Unit are insufficient given the existing workload
and the added workload due to absences caused by vacations, holidays, sick leave,
and training (which are not usually backfilled with overtime).
Recommendation #37: Add another full-time Records Clerk allocation to provide adequate
staffing during scheduled absences. Also, use overtime to maintain
staffing when Records Clerks are absent. These actions should
eliminate data entry backlog.
(Add 1 FTE Records Clerk)
Finding #37: The configuration of the front desk area limits Records Clerks to assisting only
one person at a time. Additionally, there are no phone or computer capabilities at
the desk, and the absence of bullet-resistant glass causes security concerns for
Records Unit personnel.
Recommendation #38: Redesign the front desk area with input from the Records Unit staff
and an emphasis on enhancing efficiency, improving customer
service, and increasing security. Include a telephone and a computer
with network access.
Finding #38: Dictation services are still offered to sworn staff for reports. This time-consuming
practice should be discontinued.
Recommendation #39: Although not extremely time-consuming with only six reports
dictated over a period of 13 days, this process is archaic and should be
discontinued. As an alternative, the Department may want to explore
the use of dictation software, such as Dragon Speak, to enhance
efficiencies when transitioning to field-based reporting.
Finding #39: Easy public access to obtain reports is hindered by the lack of current technology
and a convoluted fee structure that is difficult to explain.
Recommendation #40: Review and simplify the fee schedule, especially with regard to traffic
reports, and implement an online reporting system that is user-
friendly for the public and staff.
Finding #40: Time-sensitive responsibilities, such as report and citation entry, are disrupted by
the intermittent and random need for Records Clerks to leave their workstation
and help the public at the front desk.
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Recommendation #41: In addition to adding the full-time Records Clerk, which was
previously mentioned, consider a deployment schedule that assigns a
specific Records Clerk to assisting the public at the front desk and
have this person work on data entry that can be more easily
interrupted and resumed, whether it is citation entry or priority
reports.
Finding #41: Over the course of 34 years, the Communications and Records Manager duties
have greatly expanded within and beyond Communications and Records. The
incumbent manager possesses a wealth of organizational history and knowledge,
as well as specific expertise within her field, which will make it challenging, if
not impossible, for one individual to replace her.
Recommendation #42: Bifurcate the current Communications and Records Manager position
and establish two separate allocations: a Communications Manager
and a Records Manager. Also, consider a third allocation, such as a
crime analyst, to assume responsibility for all data and statistical
components currently performed by the Communications and Records
Manager and the Records Supervisor.
Finding #42: Projects languish in the Records Unit with little progress, no solution for
completion, and no proposed completion date. This includes projects to modify
records that date back as far as the 1950s.
Recommendation #43: Review incomplete projects for value and liability issues to the
Department to determine the appropriate course of action.
Recommendation #44: Review the Department’s records retention schedule to ensure that it
is consistent with industry and City standards and complies with all
applicable legislation. As a starting point, ensure that appropriate
records are purged in accordance with the City’s accepted retention
schedule, thereby reducing the workload of the projects. At that point,
review the outstanding projects and consider the value of the projects
before prioritizing the order of completion. Finally, consider
additional volunteers and/or temporary, short-term employees to
complete these tasks.
Finding #43: The Records Supervisor, Communications and Records Manager, and Senior
Administrative Analyst are responsible for creating or contributing to statistical
reports for Department staff.
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Recommendation #45: Add a staff allocation for a trained crime analyst and have this
individual utilize the Spillman Technologies ComStat Management
Dashboard, as well as other available tools, to meet the Department’s
needs. This will allow the other managers and staff members to focus
on their areas of expertise and should significantly enhance the
information data set that is provided to the Department. (Also
mentioned in Section 6.1—Patrol and Section 7.1.2—
Investigations.)
(Add 1 FTE Crime Analyst)
Note: The City has now funded a part-time crime analyst position
which will help address the some of the Department’s needs. This
recommendation still remains unchanged as a full-time position is
recommended.
Finding #44: Planned events and occasions that require the deployment of additional officers
historically increase the number of reports, citations, and arrests. Additional
Records Clerks have not been deployed during these events, and the resulting
influx of reports and citations contributes to the backlog in Records Unit
workload.
Recommendation #46: Any time extra officers are deployed to the Patrol Division and there
is a probability that the number of citations and reports will increase,
it is necessary to also increase staffing in the Records Unit to allow
the Records Clerks to enter reports and citations as they are submitted
rather than creating additional backlog.
Economic Development
Finding #45: Current data for commercial and residential impacts are not sufficient to provide
verifiable impacts based on land use, calls for service, and contributing
influences.
Recommendation #47: The Department needs to add categories to its report processes that
will capture commercial and residential impacts based on land use,
calls for service, and contributing influences. Providing this data
along with adding development guidelines for law enforcement
impacts will aid in community safety and reduce the potential for calls
for service.
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47 Recommendations
•Fully completed
•Partially completed and in progress
•Administrative and Operational
•Requires additional research
•Adopt immediately
13 –Fully implemented
#5 Sergeants reviewing officer’s reports
#6 Define Sgts. responsibilities in order to spend more time in the field
#8 Prioritize and update policy manual –Continual
#10 Full implementation of BWC’s –Fully complete
Single point of responsibility for BWC’s –Fully complete
Hire additional non-sworn staff for evidence -PARTIAL with a PT
#15 Neighborhood officer program clearly defined and communicated
#17 Internal Affairs tracking and review update
#18 Evaluation of Special Enforcement Team/Supervision
#20 Utilization of RMS system for case tracking in investigations
#27 Involve communications staff with hiring process
#31 Increase communication with Fire/PD and Comms personnel
#34 Police reports to be entered into RMS and approved in patrol
#35 Calls for service to be reviewed by other than records
#39 Stop dictating reports in records
9 –Partially implemented & In Progress
#9 Evaluate effectiveness of the CAT team –In progress
#7 Full time crime analyst (Ofc. efficiency) –PARTIAL with PT
#12 New deployment schedule to address mid shift coverage –PARTIAL
#16 Re-evaluate volunteer opportunities –fully completed evaluation not
all hired
#19 FT Crime Analyst for additional efficiency for investigations –PARTIAL
with PT
#26 Include training responsibilities for communications techs –In-
progress
#33 Update process for records to enter citations and reports in a more
timely manner -PARTIAL
#42 Bifurcate Comms manager and Records manager and utilize Crime
analyst –PARTIAL
#47 Categorize CAD to capture impacts based on land use type, student
related and alcohol establishment related –In progress
Administrative & Operational
#1 & 32 Establish a response time goal and measurement
#2 Improve tracking of time and categorizing of data for field activities.
#3 & 4 Consider police cadet as a pre-hire and broaden recruiting efforts
#11 Properly staff patrol and add 4 CSO’s in order to reduce pulling from
other units
#21 Staff a mid-shift in communications to cover busiest hour/day/special
events
#25 Renegotiate MOA to allow for more management flexibility
#30 Evaluate reason for increased abandoned call rate (9.35% in 2016)
#37 Add FTE records clerk –also utilize OT for absences to eliminate back log
#38 & 41 Redesign records front desk for safety, efficiency and customer
service –then re-deploy records clerks for better efficiency and
time management
Needs Further Research
#10 Evaluate Video evidence processing -need for Evidence FTE
#13 Establish a new CSO classification and add 4 FTE’s to reduce response
times and distribute calls more effectively
#14 Evaluate effectiveness of SNAP and consider savings to hire CSO’s
#22 Install software/hardware to capture all telephone lines in ECaTS
#23 Add additional 2 communications supervisors to provide a relief factor
#24 Add 2 FTE communications techs and maintain the over hire position
for vacancies
#28 Patrol Sgts. Should be managing workload considerations
Adopt Immediately
#29 Review call sector routing for appropriate routing of calls
#36 Limit access to records to reduce distractions
#40 Review process for public to obtain reports and simplify fee schedule
#43 Review records incomplete projects and implement solutions
#44 Review records retention schedule then re-evaluate #43
#7, 19, 42, 45 Add a FT Crime analyst when financially feasible
#46 Increase records staff for special events
Response Times
Priority Multi Single Total
1 4,085 1,315 5,400
2 11,022 1,754 12,776
3 24,322 14,528 38,850
4 18,989 14,997 33,986
5 11,778 9,839 21,617
6 1,686 3,078 4,764
7 1,503 4,455 5,958
8 457 2,968 3,425
9 70 964 1,034
Total 73,912 53,898 127,810
Redefined data collection and priorities and implemented new practices
so data will be more meaningful and useful in deployment of resources.
Response Times
The most urgent calls are being
dispatched and responded to in the
most urgent manner.
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1 www.citygateassociates.com | (916) 458-5100
The Business of Better Government
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review
City Council Presentation
San Luis Obispo Police Department
Presented on September 19, 2017
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2
•Comprehensive Service Delivery and Staffing Study
•What was examined?
–Analysis of the response time, crime, and call data
•How should this study be viewed and applied?
–A continuous quality improvement tune-up that can be applied in
the year -to-year deployment decisions and the budget process
•Every reason to be proud of the Police Department
–Dedicated, professional, and competent
–Proud and grateful
Introduction and Project Scope of Work
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3
•Desirable place to live, work, and play; urban benefits with relatively
few urban headaches
•High level of community support
•College population creates unique service demands
•Central Coast location contributes to professional isolation
•Financially sound; however, revenues and PERS liabilities = fiscal
sustainability period
•Two -tiered State retirement; no longer in strong recruitment position
•Geographically challenged – infrastructure, open space, freeway, etc.
Study Context and Themes
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4
•No mandatory federal or state regulations directing police staffing levels
•International Association of Chiefs of Police recommendations
•Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies
•Elected officials challenged to balance fiscal capabilities
•Analysis of existing staffing
•Performance measures and best practices
•Emphasis: response times to emergency calls, criminal activity,
community interaction, proactive/preventative patrol time, and officer
safety
Policy Choices Framework
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5
•Committed, dedicated work force
•Enthusiastic about job and community
•Staffing has not kept up with growth in population and service demands
•Understaffing and vacancies negatively effect many key functions
•High use of overtime
•Many upcoming retirements; tremendous loss of experience
First and Lasting Impressions
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•Although Department flexibility accommodates vacancies, staffing
concerns due to deficits include:
–Investigations
–Crime analysis
–Community Service Officer (CSO) positions
–Communications/dispatch center
–Records
–Property and Evidence
Key Staffing Themes / Areas of Concern
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7
Summary of Crime
Part I Violent Crimes 2013 2014 2015 2016
Aggravated Assault 101 168 146 120
Arson 44 17 44 26
Rape 31 44 32 39
Robbery 26 25 13 21
Rape Attempt 6 3 5 2
Homicide 0 0 0 0
Part I Property Crimes 2013 2014 2015 2016
Theft 1,046 874 1,058 1,057
Theft from Vehicle 338 288 443 669
Residential Burglary 249 140 169 160
Stolen Vehicle 63 71 98 99
Commercial Burglary 79 66 76 92
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Part I Property Crimes
249
140
169 160
63
71
98 99
79
66 76 92
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
2013 2014 2015 2016
Residential Burglary Stolen Vehicle Commercial Burglary
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Part I Property Crimes (cont.)
1,046
874
1,058 1,057
338 288
443
669
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
2013 2014 2015 2016
Theft Theft from Vehicle
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Part I Person Crimes
101
168
146
120
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
2013 2014 2015 2016
Aggravated Assault
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Part I Person Crimes (cont.)
44
17
44
26
31
44
32
39
26 25
13
21
6
3 5
2
0 0 0 0 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
2013 2014 2015 2016
Arson Rape Robbery Rape Attempt Homicide
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•Volume
•Categories
•Types
Review of Calls for Service (CFS)
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Police Activities 2011 - 2016
77,371
19,732
127,810
Administrative Activities
Officer Initiated Activities
Calls for Service
0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000 120,000 140,000
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Calls for Service by Priority 2011 - 2016
Priority Multi Single Total
1 4,085 1,315 5,400
2 11,022 1,754 12,776
3 24,322 14,528 38,850
4 18,989 14,997 33,986
5 11,778 9,839 21,617
6 1,686 3,078 4,764
7 1,503 4,455 5,958
8 457 2,968 3,425
9 70 964 1,034
Total 73,912 53,898 127,810
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201 620152014201320122011
24,000
23,000
22,000
21,000
20,000
19,000
18,000
YearIndividual Value_X=21,3 0 2
UC L=24,1 3 1
L CL=18,4 7 2
San Luis Obispo Calls f or Service by Year
Calls for Service 2011 - 2016 Trending
Click to edit Master title style Call Volumes by Day of Week 2011-2016
•Above average call
volumes occur
Thursday through
Saturday
•Friday volumes are
9% higher than
the average
16,980
17,879
17,525
17,986
18,578
19,907
18,955 18,259
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
Distinct Incidents Average
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•Priority 1 calls for service are those in which there is an imminent danger to life.
•Priority 2 calls are those in which a crime in progress might result in a threat of
injury to a person, major loss of property, or immediate apprehension of a suspect.
•Priority 3 calls are minor, in progress crimes with no threat of injury to a person or
major loss of property.
•Priority 4 calls are non-emergency requests for service for a nuisance or to report a
crime after the fact.
•Priority 5 calls are non-emergency requests for assistance or reports with no follow-
up.
Call Priority Definitions
Click to edit Master title style (CFS) All Priorities Peak Times and Days by Call Volume
Hour Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Total
00 1,042 519 533 565 546 710 1,032 4,947
01 998 388 363 502 427 599 952 4,229
02 841 366 310 425 364 594 853 3,753
03 530 271 282 311 247 354 544 2,539
04 335 206 199 243 219 291 355 1,848
05 240 217 202 226 240 226 268 1,619
06 258 300 301 309 275 326 263 2,032
07 340 572 575 590 587 622 427 3,713
08 455 842 853 887 914 871 634 5,456
09 651 968 915 958 984 945 811 6,232
10 737 1,066 962 982 1,003 951 858 6,559
11 824 1,136 1,023 1,038 990 1,005 942 6,958
12 899 1,126 987 1,000 1,002 1,102 970 7,086
13 881 1,112 1,046 1,086 1,108 1,132 952 7,317
14 818 1,111 1,035 1,046 993 1,116 958 7,077
15 854 1,080 1,165 1,081 1,111 1,209 946 7,446
16 845 1,127 1,145 1,109 1,077 1,196 918 7,417
17 783 1,022 1,064 1,090 1,185 1,129 957 7,230
18 826 878 907 870 1,036 1,009 875 6,401
19 787 801 857 804 929 892 797 5,867
20 779 798 761 724 856 790 761 5,469
21 777 740 694 731 829 853 795 5,419
22 811 702 735 723 877 980 982 5,810
23 669 531 611 686 779 1,005 1,105 5,386
Total 16,980 17,879 17,525 17,986 18,578 19,907 18,955 127,810
Click to edit Master title style Single-Unit vs Multi-Unit
Hour Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Total
00 228 138 129 134 144 155 237 1,165
01 244 71 78 96 85 128 221 923
02 197 94 61 85 83 138 212 870
03 118 72 69 83 57 83 132 614
04 75 51 49 59 66 72 105 477
05 61 60 50 50 47 70 76 414
06 98 114 123 138 116 133 105 827
07 144 281 277 263 271 281 184 1,701
08 191 454 448 458 475 433 298 2,757
09 318 540 477 508 547 500 398 3,288
10 370 606 514 507 547 507 444 3,495
11 393 651 539 532 497 513 495 3,620
12 462 603 518 502 537 576 463 3,661
13 431 590 578 559 562 585 468 3,773
14 392 602 537 531 489 600 448 3,599
15 359 577 601 546 566 624 428 3,701
16 338 550 619 538 524 616 411 3,596
17 315 505 532 570 586 506 387 3,401
18 345 416 464 390 445 466 374 2,900
19 306 324 371 320 377 350 300 2,348
20 260 295 281 253 294 275 268 1,926
21 258 248 214 250 273 287 255 1,785
22 249 213 226 230 241 258 274 1,691
23 180 155 157 168 185 243 278 1,366
Total 6,332 8,210 7,912 7,770 8,014 8,399 7,261 53,898
Hour Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Total
00 814 381 404 431 402 555 795 3,782
01 754 317 285 406 342 471 731 3,306
02 644 272 249 340 281 456 641 2,883
03 412 199 213 228 190 271 412 1,925
04 260 155 150 184 153 219 250 1,371
05 179 157 152 176 193 156 192 1,205
06 160 186 178 171 159 193 158 1,205
07 196 291 298 327 316 341 243 2,012
08 264 388 405 429 439 438 336 2,699
09 333 428 438 450 437 445 413 2,944
10 367 460 448 475 456 444 414 3,064
11 431 485 484 506 493 492 447 3,338
12 437 523 469 498 465 526 507 3,425
13 450 522 468 527 546 547 484 3,544
14 426 509 498 515 504 516 510 3,478
15 495 503 564 535 545 585 518 3,745
16 507 577 526 571 553 580 507 3,821
17 468 517 532 520 599 623 570 3,829
18 481 462 443 480 591 543 501 3,501
19 481 477 486 484 552 542 497 3,519
20 519 503 480 471 562 515 493 3,543
21 519 492 480 481 556 566 540 3,634
22 562 489 509 493 636 722 708 4,119
23 489 376 454 518 594 762 827 4,020
Total 10,648 9,669 9,613 10,216 10,564 11,508 11,694 73,912
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•Single-unit calls occur most often during weekday working hours; multi-
unit calls occur most frequently during late evening weekend hours
•Between 10 pm and 3 am Friday and Saturday nights, multi-unit
incidents outnumber single-unit incidents three to one
•When multi-unit responses are required, the pool of available patrol
units are consumed at a much faster rate
•May indicate more units needed during these hours
Calls for Service Summary
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Of the 127,810 calls for service:
•57.8% required two or more officers
•22.2% required three or more officers
Calls for Service Breakdown 2011 - 2016
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22 22
Response Times
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•Calculated from time received to arrival of one or more on scene
•Nationally, no legal mandates or standards for law enforcement
•City Fire Department , 7 minutes; 90% of time (established by Council policy)
•When setting response time goals
–Realistic capabilities
–Fiscal realities
–Community expectations
•Best practice:
–Measure completion of goal 90% of time on emergency response
•Alternative:
–Measure the average of emergency response
Response Time
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Fractile vs Average Response Time Measurements – EXAMPLE
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•Average vs. 90th percentile response times
–90th percentile response times should be read as:
•“Responses occur within 𝑥𝑥 minutes 90% of the time or less” or
•9 times out of 10, the public can expect a response in 𝑥𝑥 minutes or less
–90th percentiles help illustrate:
•The effect of outliers
•A more realistic estimate for the public than a simple average
•A starting point for developing response plans and metrics
Response Time Data
Click to edit Master title style Single-Unit Response Times Priority 1 and 2
Priority 1 calls – 25.7 minutes or less 90% of the time Priority 2 calls – 29 minutes or less 90% of the time
6050403020100-10-20-30
99.99
99
95
80
50
20
5
1
0.01
Response TimePercent25.7290
12.7350
Single Unit Response Time
Inci dent s >60 Minut es Excl ud ed from Analys is
Priority = 1
6040200-20-40
99.99
99
95
80
50
20
5
1
0.01
R esponse TimePercent 29.090
14.550
Single Unit Response Time
Incidents >6 0 Minut es Excl ud ed fro m Analys is
Priority = 2
Click to edit Master title style Multi-Unit Response Times Priority 1 and 2
Priority 1 calls – 22.9 minutes or less 90% of the time Priority 2 calls – 19.8 minutes or less 90% of the time
6050403020100-10-20-30
99.99
99
95
80
50
20
5
1
0.01
2nd Unit R esponse TimePercent22.8990
10.7050
M ulti-Unit Response Time
Incid ent s >60 Mi nutes Exclud ed from Analysis
Priority = 1
6050403020100-10-20-30
99.99
99
95
80
50
20
5
1
0.01
2nd Unit Response TimePercent19.7990
9.8050
Multi-Unit Response Time
Incident s >60 Minut es Excluded fro m Ana lysis
Priority = 2
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Response Time Summary
90% Response
Times (Minutes) Single-Unit
Multi-Unit
(2nd-In Unit)
Priority 1 25.7 22.9
Priority 2 29.0 19.8
Priority 3 26.4 23.6
Priority 4 32.7 28.9
Priority 5–9 31.4 31.9
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Workload Analysis
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To effectively analyze patrol time utilization:
•IACP recommends 20/20/20
•Community Policing strategies suggest that data-driven policing can only
react to what is being tracked
–Needs:
•Analytical tools
•CAD/RMS upgrade
•Committment of personnel to manage, view, and share data
Workload Analysis – Patrol
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Allocation of Patrol Officer Time
(Of 214 Days)
Calls for
Service Time
Proactive
Preventative
Time Admin Time Total Time
IACP Recommendations 0:20:00 0:20:00 0:20:00 1:00:00
Time Consumed 0:18:15 0:06:52 0:17:05 0:42:11
Available Time 0:01:45 0:13:08 0:02:55 0:17:49
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•Officer-initiated activity is described as proactive action through the
officer’s own initiative. Examples include:
–Alcohol Offense was the #1 officer-initiated activity (3,564)
–DUI (1,636)
–Suspicious (1,463)
–Trespassing (1,339)
–Traffic Offense (1,123)
Officer-Initiated Activity
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Key Recommendations
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•The Police Department’s authorized and effective actual patrol officer
staffing level is sufficient to meet service level expectations and officer
safety needs, if:
–A significant volume of service requests could be handled by Community Service
Officers
•Recommendation:
–Fill sworn officer vacancies
–Hire Community Service Officers (4 FTEs)
Patrol Officer Staffing
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•Police cadet classification
•Non-lateral employees
•Sergeant report approval and responsibilities
•Crime analyst
•Policy manual updates
•Community Action Team program
•Body Worn Cameras (Non-Sworn FTE)
•Deployment scheduling model
Patrol
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•Establish response time goals
–by Council Action
•Considerations
–Reasonableness and capabilities
–Realistic expectations
•Given fiscal capabilities
•13-square-mile geography
Response Times
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•Adopt new radio protocols for CAD data
•Utilization of new data from CAD
–Data is only as good as the input
–Need for enhanced classification of time
–Capture community policing efforts
–Capture report writing time and other administrative time
–Additional associated factors in Communications/9-1-1
Workload
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•Case file tracking and review
Internal Affairs
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•Narcotics investigations supervision
•Crime analyst
•Data tracking
•Clearance rates in records management system
Investigations
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•Emergency Call Tracking System reports
•Continuity of supervision (2 FTEs)
•Manager duties
•Training
•Recruitment
•Staffing
–Possible additional peak-call position
–More Communications Technicians (2 FTEs)
•Response time measurement
Communications/9-1-1
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•Utilization of data from CAD is only as good as the input
–Need for greater classification of time
–Capture community policing efforts
–Report writing time
•More clearly define like incidents
–Clean up the Dispatch variations of call types
–Assigning of Priorities
Documentation of Activity in CAD – Relative to Dispatch
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•Report completion, review by sergeant
•Supervisor duties
•Insufficient staffing (1 FTE Records Clerk)
•Backlog of data entry
•Front desk efficiency
•Records duties and workplace layout
•Manager position – two separate positions
•Crime analyst
Records
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•Data reporting vs. analysis
•Full-time crime analyst position
•Add crime analysis software
•Staff needs to modernize analytical skill-set
•Staff needs to invest in learning new analytical tools
Crime Analysis
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•Capture additional data to analyze:
–Commercial and residential impacts:
•Land use
•Occupancy type / classification / square footage
•Contributing influences
•Calls for service
Economic Development
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•Police headquarters is insufficiently sized for current staffing and
functions, as identified in the City’s Facility Master Plan:
–Insufficiently sized and inefficient utilization of space
–Limited parking
–Electrical code violations
–Abandoned equipment
•Recommendation:
–Fund space needs evaluation to begin planning for new facility needs
Facility Needs
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•Adopt data-driven policing tactics to address frequent crime locations
–Particularly locations where sex crimes and domestic violence are occurring;
remember broken windows theory
•Locations where over 100 incidents a year should be given proactive
attention
•Data examples below; not San Luis Obispo data
Frequent Locations – Data-Driven Policing
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•Prioritize policy manual update completion with a specified date
•Adopt policies and procedures for capturing data for:
–All committed time for workload and deployment
–Calls for service with impact categories for:
•Student-related incidents
•Licensed alcohol establishments
•Reassign supervisory duties for report review and approval at sergeant
level
•Fill vacant sworn positions
•Implement Internal Affairs tracking protocol
Next Steps – Short-Term
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•Provide for overlap staffing at all scheduled shift changes
•Develop CSO job description, recruit, and hire
•Provide six-month update of workload data, response time impacts, and
crime information
•Fund recommended positions
•Expand data capture and analysis by zoning type and square footage to
provide occupancy use impacts that are articulable for staffing increases
Next Steps – Long-Term
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Staffing Increases by FTE and Classification
Function/Unit Position
Total
FTEs
Report
Recommendation Priority
Office of the Chief Crime Analyst .5* 7, 19, 45 1
Patrol Non-Sworn Technician (Body Worn Camera) 1 10 6
Patrol Community Services Officers 4 13 4
Communications/ 9-1-1 Communications Supervisors 2 23 3
Communications/ 9-1-1 Communications Technicians 2 24 2
Records Records Clerk 1 37 5
Total FTEs Needed 10.5
* The City has funded a part-time crime analyst position. The addition of a .5 FTE is still recommended to make this
a full-time position.
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Questions