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Table of Contents | i
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Section Page
Executive Summary .......................................................................................................................1
Policy Choices Framework ..................................................................................................................... 1
Seven Themes That Shape the San Luis Obispo Police Department: Its Challenges Going Forward .... 3
Citygate’s Overall Observations of the State of the City’s Police Department ...................................... 4
Summary of the City’s Crime Picture .................................................................................................... 7
Response Times ...................................................................................................................................... 9
The 20/20/20 Rule ................................................................................................................................ 11
Workload Analysis Overview .............................................................................................................. 12
Police Staffing Needs and Development Considerations Over Time ................................................... 12
Next Steps............................................................................................................................................. 14
Short-Term ............................................................................................................................... 14
Long-Term ............................................................................................................................... 15
Complete List of Findings and Recommendations ............................................................................... 15
Section 1—Introduction ..............................................................................................................29
1.1 Report Organization ................................................................................................................. 29
1.2 Department Background .......................................................................................................... 30
1.3 Project Scope of Work ............................................................................................................. 33
1.4 Approaches and Techniques Used by Citygate ........................................................................ 34
1.5 Citygate’s Assessment Factors................................................................................................. 34
1.6 Advice to the Reader: How Best to Handle Peer Review ........................................................ 35
1.7 The Story and the Good News ................................................................................................. 35
Section 2—What Citygate Heard and Observed During the Interview Process ...................37
Section 3—Calls for Service and Crime Data ...........................................................................43
3.1 Demands for Service ................................................................................................................ 43
3.1.1 Officer Activity ........................................................................................................ 43
3.1.2 Calls for Service ....................................................................................................... 44
3.1.3 Administrative Calls ................................................................................................ 46
3.1.4 Call Volume by Day of Week .................................................................................. 46
3.1.5 Temporal Charting Introduction .............................................................................. 47
3.1.6 Single-Unit Responses ............................................................................................. 49
3.1.7 Multiple-Unit Responses ......................................................................................... 50
3.1.8 Demands for Service Summary ............................................................................... 51
3.2 San Luis Obispo’s Crime Picture ............................................................................................. 52
3.2.1 Crime Summary ....................................................................................................... 54
Section 4—Response Time Data .................................................................................................57
4.1 Response Time Analysis .......................................................................................................... 59
4.1.1 Single-Unit Responses ............................................................................................. 60
4.1.2 Multiple-Unit Responses ......................................................................................... 63
4.2 Response Time Summary ........................................................................................................ 65
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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Section 5—Workload Analysis ...................................................................................................67
5.1 Examining Calls for Service by Frequency and Priority .......................................................... 67
5.1.1 Multiple-Unit Responses ......................................................................................... 69
5.1.2 Multiple-Unit Responses by Priority ....................................................................... 70
5.1.3 Single-Unit Responses ............................................................................................. 74
5.1.4 Single-Unit Responses by Priority ........................................................................... 75
5.1.5 Call Saturation Summary ......................................................................................... 77
5.2 IACP 20/20/20 Model – Workload Distribution ...................................................................... 77
5.3 Associated Workload Factors .................................................................................................. 79
5.3.1 Establishment of Performance Objectives ............................................................... 79
5.3.2 Provision of Staffing Estimates................................................................................ 79
Section 6—Operations Bureau Review ......................................................................................81
6.1 Patrol ........................................................................................................................................ 81
6.1.1 Dayshift Patrol ......................................................................................................... 81
6.1.2 Nightshift Patrol ....................................................................................................... 89
6.1.3 Bicycle ..................................................................................................................... 91
6.1.4 Use of Community Services Officers ...................................................................... 92
6.1.5 Neighborhood Outreach ........................................................................................... 94
Section 7—Administrative Bureau Review ...............................................................................99
7.1 Administrative/Investigations Lieutenant ................................................................................ 99
7.1.1 Internal Affairs ......................................................................................................... 99
7.1.2 Investigations ......................................................................................................... 101
7.2 Communications and Records ............................................................................................... 105
7.2.1 Communications/9-1-1 .......................................................................................... 105
7.2.2 Records .................................................................................................................. 119
Section 8—Economic Development Considerations ...............................................................137
8.1 Growth and Development ...................................................................................................... 137
8.1.1 Near Term Police Staffing Projections Based on Existing Service Gaps and
Population Growth Rates ....................................................................................... 141
Section 9—Next Steps ................................................................................................................145
9.1 Short-Term ............................................................................................................................. 145
9.2 Long-Term ............................................................................................................................. 146
Appendix A—Workload Time Allocation – Limited Time Frame .......................................147
Appendix B—Growth Projection References .........................................................................151
Summary of 2014 Residential Land Use Element Residential Growth .............................................. 153
Residential Unit Growth (as of April 2016) ....................................................................................... 154
Residential Unit 20-Year Growth Projection (as of April 2016) ........................................................ 155
Additional Growth Projection Information ........................................................................................ 156
Appendix C—California Police Chiefs Association Report – Effects of Proposition 47 on
Crime Rates in California ......................................................................................157
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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Table of Tables
Table 1—Part 1 Crimes Over Time – 2013–2016 ......................................................................................................... 7
Table 2—90 Percent Response Time Summary – 2011–2016 ...................................................................................... 9
Table 3—Allocation of Patrol Officer Time as Recorded in CAD – 2016 .................................................................. 11
Table 4—Staffing Increases by Full-time Count and Classification ........................................................................... 14
Table 5—Calls for Service by Priority – 2011–2016 .................................................................................................. 45
Table 6—Calls for Service (All Priorities and Responses) – 2011–2016 .................................................................... 48
Table 7—Single-Unit Responses (All Priorities) – 2011–2016 ................................................................................... 49
Table 8—Multiple-Unit Responses (All Priorities) – 2011–2016 ............................................................................... 50
Table 9—90 Percent Response Time Summary – 2011–2016 .................................................................................... 65
Table 10—Service Calls by Hour of the Day and Day of the Week (All Priorities) – 2011–2016 ............................. 68
Table 11—Multiple-Unit Responses (All Priorities) – 2011–2016 ............................................................................. 69
Table 12—Priority 1 Multiple-Unit Responses – 2011–2016 ..................................................................................... 70
Table 13—Priority 2 Multiple-Unit Responses – 2011–2016 ..................................................................................... 71
Table 14—Priority 3 Multiple-Unit Responses – 2011–2016 ..................................................................................... 72
Table 15—Priority 4–9 Multiple-Unit Responses – 2011–2016 ................................................................................. 73
Table 16—Single-Unit Responses (All Priorities) – 2011–2016 ................................................................................. 74
Table 17—Priority 1 and 2 Single-Unit Responses – 2011–2016 ............................................................................... 75
Table 18—Priorities 3–9 Single-Unit Responses – 2011–2016 .................................................................................. 76
Table 19—Allocation of Patrol Officer Time as Recorded in CAD – 2016 ................................................................ 78
Table 20—Staffing Increases by Full-time Count and Classification ....................................................................... 143
Table of Figures
Figure 1—Police Department Organization Chart ...................................................................................................... 32
Figure 2—Officer Activity by Incident in CAD – 2011–2016 .................................................................................... 44
Figure 3—Calls for Service by Weekday (All Priorities) – 2011–2016 ...................................................................... 47
Figure 4—Part 1 Property Crimes – Residential, Vehicle, and Commercial – 2013–2016 ......................................... 52
Figure 5—Part 1 Property Crimes – Theft and Theft from Vehicle – 2013–2016 ...................................................... 53
Figure 6—Part 1 Person Crimes – Aggravated Assault – 2013–2016 ......................................................................... 53
Figure 7—Part 1 Person Crimes – Arson, Rape, Robbery, Rape Attempts, and Homicide – 2013–2016 ................... 54
Figure 8—Fractile versus Average Response Time Measurements – EXAMPLE ...................................................... 59
Figure 9—Priority 1 Single-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016 .................................................................................. 60
Figure 10—Priority 2 Single-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016 ................................................................................ 61
Figure 11—Priority 3 Single-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016 ................................................................................ 61
Figure 12—Priority 4 Single-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016 ................................................................................ 62
Figure 13—Priorities 5–9 Single-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016 ......................................................................... 62
Figure 14—Second-In Unit Priority 1 Multiple-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016 ................................................... 63
Figure 15—Second-In Unit Priority 2 Multiple-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016 ................................................... 63
Figure 16—Second-In Unit Priority 3 Multiple-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016 ................................................... 64
Figure 17—Second-In Unit Priority 4 Multiple-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016 ................................................... 64
Figure 18—Second-In Unit Priorities 5–9 Multiple-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016 ............................................ 65
Figure 19—Proposed Development Projects in the City ........................................................................................... 138
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Executive Summary | 1
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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 fo r
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 civ ilian
positions that will free up time for existing patrol officers for directed duties where a peace
officer is required.
Executive Summary | 3
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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
Executive Summary | 5
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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.
Executive Summary | 7
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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 t o 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.
Executive Summary | 9
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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
Executive Summary | 11
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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 Clerk s 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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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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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Section 1—Introduction | 29
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
SECTION 1—INTRODUCTION
Citygate Associates, LLC is pleased to present this Comprehensive Services Delivery and
Staffing Review of San Luis Obispo’s Police Department. This introductory section will discuss
the organization of this report, Department background, the project scope of work, the
approaches and techniques used by Citygate, Citygate’s assessment factors, how best to handle
peer review, and the City’s unique situation.
1.1 REPORT ORGANIZATION
This report’s organization is detailed below. After an introduction to the study and Department is
provided in Section 1 and common interview themes are described in Section 2, Sections 3
through 5 provide data analysis of calls for service, crimes, response times, and Patrol Division
workload. Sections 6 and 7 examine the Bureaus of the Department. Section 8 discusses
economic development considerations and Section 9 concludes with short- and long-term next
steps.
Executive Summary: A summary of key review areas and a list of all findings and
recommendations.
Section 1 Introduction: An introduction to the study, Department, and scope of work.
Section 2 What Citygate Heard and Observed During the Interview Process: A summary of
Citygate interviews, which included several notable observations and recurring
opinions and concerns.
30 | Section 1—Introduction
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Section 3 Calls for Service and Crime Data: A data analysis of service demands across three
categories: calls for service, officer-initiated activities, and administrative activities.
Crime data is also analyzed for Part 1 crimes.
Section 4 Response Time Data: A data analysis of single- and multiple-unit responses to high
priority calls. Response time goals are also discussed.
Section 5 Workload Analysis: An analysis of Patrol workload data within the framework of
the “20/20/20 rule.” The saturation of calls for service by day of week and hour of
day is also visualized.
Section 6 Operations Bureau Review: A review of the following divisions/units: Patrol
(including Dayshift and Nightshift Patrol and use of Community Services Officers),
Traffic, Bicycle Unit, and Neighborhood Outreach.
Section 7 Administrative Bureau Review: A review of the following divisions/units: Internal
Affairs, Investigations (including Special Enforcement Team, Persons Crime
Detectives, Property Crimes Detectives, and School Resource Officer),
Communications/9-1-1, and Records.
Section 8 Economic Development Considerations: A review of the potential impacts of
growth on deployment and staffing.
Section 9 Next Steps: A summary of recommended short- and long-term next steps.
Appendix A: Workload Time Allocation – Limited Time Frame
Appendix B: Growth Projection References
Appendix C: California Police Chiefs Association Report – Effects of Proposition
47 on Crime Rates in California
1.2 DEPARTMENT BACKGROUND
The Police Department is comprised of an authorized strength of 86.5 employees assigned to the
Department’s various activities, including Patrol, Traffic, Bicycle Patrol, Criminal Investigation,
Communications and Dispatch Services, and Neighborhood Outreach. The Department also
includes necessary support personnel internally and from other City departments to provide
human resources, information technology, and other administrative services necessary to support
the mission of the Department. The Police Department has implemented numerous programs and
activities designed to strengthen its relationship with the community, and, as noted in this report,
the community has responded favorably to those efforts. The City provides its residents with a
broad array of high quality municipal services that are valued by the community.
Section 1—Introduction | 31
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
In recent years, the City, like other local governments across the country, struggled because of
the downturn in the economy. The most recent update of the mid-cycle review (the City employs
a two-year budget process) shows that the City is gaining financial traction. The City is gaining
revenue and economic activity at a pace that has been slightly ahead of the rest of the County.
Still, the City is showing judicious restraint in spending newly realized monies.
The City is home to the California Polytechnic State University as well as Cuesta College.
Although each school has its own Police Department, the City is affected by the large student
population that lives and recreates within the City.
The Department has struggled recently to maintain staffing of sworn personnel at authorized
levels. The Department has historically relied on lateral entry candidates (experienced police
officers working for other agencies) for filling vacancies. The Department found it easy to recruit
laterals given its benefit package, working conditions, and geographic location. That all changed
when the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) restructured the retirement formulas for
newly hired employees. New hires within the system are brought in at a lower service credit
system. Officers from other agencies, already in PERS at the more generous existing retirement
structure, are reluctant to leave for the San Luis Obispo Police Department and start over in the
new, lower retirement structure. This is not a problem exclusive to this Department. It is also a
temporary issue; as more and more of the law enforcement officers in the state are hired into the
new lower tier, leaving for San Luis Obispo will not have the same negative affect on those
officers already in the new, lower system.
The Department faced numerous retirements that exacerbated staffing issues. Additionally, the
retirees represent some of the most knowledgeable members of the Department; although
capable people stand ready to fill the roles, a tremendous level of experience will be lost.
The Department is under the guidance of a relatively new Chief. The Chief brings with her a
tremendous amount of experience and knowledge. She is forward-thinking and has already
instituted many changes to the way the Department operates. The employees of the Department
are enthusiastic about the job they perform and the community they serve.
The Department’s organization chart is shown on the following page:
32 | Section 1—Introduction
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Figure 1—Police Department Organization Chart
Chief of Police
Deanna Cantrell
Operations
Bureau Captain
J. Smith
Neighborhood
Outreach Mgr
C. Wallace
Student
Neighborhood
Assistance
Program
0-9 Students
Night Patrol
Lieutenant
B. Amoroso
Night
Patrol
Sgts
Patrol
Officers
Dwtn Bicycle
Sgt
K. Hixenbaugh
Dwtn Bicycle
Officers
B. Etherton
G. Benson
J. Hurni*
Day Patrol
Lieutenant
B. Proll
Day
Patrol
Sgts
Patrol
Officers
Traffic
Sergeant
J. Villanti
Traffic
Officers
G. Berrios
P. Sisemore
Vacant (1)
Administrative
Bureau Captain
C. Staley
Comm & Records
Mgr
K. Rosenblum
Comm
Supvs
M. Anselmi
C. Steeb
Comm Techs
C. Horn
D. Hixenbaugh
S. Lichty
C. McCornack
J. Murphy
J. Owens
K. Palmer
V. Recinos
K. Righetti
Vacant (1)
Overstaff (1)
Records
Supervisor T.
Rapp
Records
Clerks
J. Jensen
P. Karp
M. Menesez
A. Smith
M. Womack
T. Allen P/T
Admin/Inv.
Lieutenant
J. Bledsoe
DET/SET
Sergeant
C. Pfarr
SET Officers &
Narcotics Officers:
C. Kemp*
J. Dickel*
Vacant (1)
NTF
C. Chitty
Evidence Technician
J. Lehr
Persons
Crime
Detectives
S. Aanerud
J. Dinsmore
B. Treanor
Property
Crimes
Detectives
M. L'Heureux
E.Vitale
School
Resource
Officer
C. McCornack
Admin Sgt
F. Mickel
Sr. Admin
Analyst
M. Ellsworth
Admin Asst
T. Storton
P/T
Admin. Asst.
Sue Sanders
Total Employees 85.5 FTEs
Sworn Positions: 59
Non-Sworn Positions: 26.5
*officers working patrol
Day Patrol
D. Alexander (D)
B. Lane (D)
J. Walsh (D)
S.Jessen (D)
C.Mathews (D)
J.Middleton (D)
L. Benedetti (D)
T.Shalhoob(D)
I. Villanueva(D)
A.Stahnke (D)
Vacant
Night Patrol
Q. Rouse (N)
J. Koznek (N)
L. Edwards (N)
A. Chastain (N)
C. Locarnini (N)
J.Hyman (N)
M. Lozano (N)
S. Orozco (N)
B. Inglehart (N)
M. Magana (N)
A. Pellouso (N)
Vacant
San Luis Obispo Police Department
Night Patrol Sgts
J. Booth
K. Phillips
Day Patrol Sgts
R. Cudworth
A. Schafer
FST
J. Barrett
Property & Evidence Clerk
S. Hunter
CAT
J. Behrens
T. Koznek*
Chaplains
Thom O’Leary
Paul Sisemore III
Reserve
Rushdi Cader
Effective: Spring Rotation 2017
Updated: 2/9/17
Police Operations
Support Specialist P\T
B. Miller
Field Training:
J. Bywater (T)
N. Parsons(T)
C. Molina(T)
D. Neece(T)
Cadet
N.Sanchez
4850
T. Peterson
Section 1—Introduction | 33
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
1.3 PROJECT SCOPE OF WORK
The scope of this Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review included the
following elements:
Assessment of the current sworn and professional (non-sworn) staff levels.
Included in the assessment is an examination of whether the staffing levels will
meet the Police Department’s goals without curtailing service or requiring
excessive overtime work. Consideration is given to the Department’s existing
schedules, time for training, professional development, legal mandates, time off,
illness, injuries, and attrition.
Development of a structured and defensible methodology for the Police
Department’s staff to use in projecting future staffing needs.
Recommended staffing levels that will allow the Police Department to maintain or
increase its current high levels of service, including: responding to all crimes and
requests for service; maintaining robust crime prevention and community service
programs; and maintaining youth services, investigation and forensic crime scene
evidence collection, crime suppression, and other services currently offered by the
Police Department.
Analysis of the impact on staffing levels and calls for service resulting from
current and future City plans for economic development and future annexations.
Wherever possible, use existing data for the analysis, such as the City’s General
Plan and other published planning documents, crime statistics, payroll and
overtime work records, and computer-aided dispatch data.
Compilation of Community Policing, predictive policing, and data-driven policing
strategies. This includes assessing Community Policing efforts as an ongoing
strategy, leveraging the performance and evaluative processes in place, verifying
the current effectiveness and efficiencies of the agenc y, and assessing efficiencies
of calls for service. This also incorporates evaluating and contrasting data to
overlay response time standards, officer safety, and call prioritization.
Interviews with stakeholders—including elected officials, City management, and
Police Department staff—to assess goals, expectations, and perceived workload
levels.
34 | Section 1—Introduction
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
1.4 APPROACHES AND TECHNIQUES USED BY CITYGATE
In executing this study, Citygate engaged in the following processes:
1. Reviewed available documents and records relating to the management,
operation, and budgeting of the Police Department.
2. Conducted one-on-one interviews with members of the City Council.
3. Conducted interviews with the City Manager, Assistant City Manager / Finance
Director, and Department Heads.
4. Conducted interviews with the Department sergeants, lieutenants, and Chief of
Police, as well as Police Officers Association leaders.
5. Conducted interviews with non-sworn personnel in the Police Department.
6. Considered industry best practices for applicability in San Luis Obispo.
Throughout this process, it was Citygate’s policy to review findings of the study with multiple
sources for validation. The data also was presented and discussed with the Chief of Police to
allow an opportunity to provide evidence concerning aspects of the report that were deemed
unclear or needed further input.
1.5 CITYGATE’S ASSESSMENT FACTORS
As the Council understands, there are no mandatory federal or state regulations directing the
level of police service staffing, response times, and outcomes. San Luis Obispo’s City Council
has strived to provide budgetary support for staffing that affords patrol officers sufficient time to
respond to calls for service and engage in preventative patrol, Community Policing, and basic
crime prevention activities.
Citygate embraces the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) recommended
methods for determining appropriate staffing levels. The IACP-recommended 20/20/20 rule
suggests that for every hour worked in patrol, 20 minutes each should be dedicated to:
Call response
Administrative duties and report writing
Proactive/preventative patrol activities (foundational to a proactive Community
Policing philosophy).
Citygate is committed to the principle of consistent, conservative fiscal management. Citygate
recommends adding personnel only when all other measures of efficiency and effectiveness,
Section 1—Introduction | 35
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
such as training, technology, equipment, and shift management, have been employed. Law
enforcement management best practices dictate that police officer staffing increases be based on
empirical analysis of criminal activity, emergency calls for service, response times, clearance
rates, and outcome measurements. Justification must be linked to the Department’s service
delivery goals and providing for a safe working environment for patrol officers. In addition, best
practices dictate that the Department use non-sworn personnel wherever possible to support the
Department’s operations.
1.6 ADVICE TO THE READER: HOW BEST TO HANDLE PEER REVIEW
From time to time throughout the report, Citygate speaks clearly and to the point without pulling
any punches. This is not done with intent to offend anyone. However, Citygate believes that the
client is best served by frankness. The characteristics of the City’s Police Department have
evolved over an extended period of time due to many factors. The law enforcement services
provided by the Department, as is the case in all agencies, have both favorable and unfavorable
characteristics, none of which is attributed to any one person.
To the extent improvements need to be made, far more often than not, it is due to process
problems or resource problems, as opposed to personnel problems. The attitudes, knowledge,
talents, and philosophies of the employees Citygate had the privilege of meeting were, in a word,
impressive. Their affection for the City and the community is deep and abiding.
1.7 THE STORY AND THE GOOD NEWS
The Police Department is fundamentally and operationally in good shape. The Department is
very dedicated, talented, honest, professional, and competent. Based on interviews, both sworn
and non-sworn Department personnel are proud and grateful to be a part of the Police
Department.
The Department, as it continues to move and adjust to its new chief and key command staff
personnel changes, is well positioned to continue to modernize, adapt to new priorities, and make
law enforcement service delivery changes that will increase efficiency and effectiveness. This
will be particularly evident as the Department takes advantage of new technologies and data-
driven policing right-sized for the community and the Department.
The City Councilmembers whom Citygate interviewed are very supportive of the Department
and believe the City has a well-intended, talented, and dedicated Police Department.
Citygate also interviewed most of the leadership of the other City departments. The consensus
was the Police Department is working well with other City departments. There appears to be
36 | Section 1—Introduction
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
great appreciation for the Police Department as a whole and the responsiveness of the executive
staff.
All of the above is good news for the City.
Section 2—What Citygate Heard and Observed During the Interview Process | 37
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
SECTION 2—WHAT CITYGATE HEARD AND
OBSERVED DURING THE INTERVIEW PROCESS
As noted earlier in this report, the Citygate Team interviewed elected officials, appointed
officials, non-sworn Police Department personnel, and sworn Police Department personnel. The
interviews were conducted in a group or one-on-one format and were private and confidential,
which allowed for honest, candid, and constructive information to be obtained about important
aspects of the Police Department’s operations. Interviewees were asked to describe their view of
the Police Department’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The responses were
wide-ranging.
The comments that emerged from the Citygate interviews included several notable observations
and recurring opinions and concerns that can be summarized as follows:
Police Department staffing levels have not kept up with growth in population and
service demands within the City.
Understaffing and vacancies negatively affect many key functions of the
Department.
Not having a full complement of sworn officers results in having to pay overtime
to backfill for non-patrol activities (e.g., court appearances, training, joint policing
task forces).
Not having a full complement of sworn officers results in having to move officers
from specialty assignments into patrol or pay overtime.
38 | Section 2—What Citygate Heard and Observed During the Interview Process
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Modern data-driven policing is highly beneficial; however, it needs to be
thoughtfully right-sized to properly fit the City to ensure that it adds value.
Sergeants have too many administrative, non-patrol responsibilities to allow them
to provide a desired level of patrol officer supervision and training.
Some uncertainty exists with regard to how and when to file certain types of
complaints and incident reports.
The sergeant’s role in patrol officer personnel evaluations is underutilized.
The sergeant’s role in reviewing patrol officer incident reports is underutilized.
Property crimes have increased significantly.
The Department lacks an effective technology-based case management interface
with its current computer systems. Detectives use separate MS-Excel sheets to
track their cases.
Suspected Child Abuse Reports (SCAR), which have a statutory priority, have
increased the detectives’ workload.
The sworn personnel value the high level of specialty assignment opportunities
offered by the Department.
The Department, in order to be competitive and successful, must aggressively
reimagine its recruiting strategies.
There is a consistent backlog of reports and citations awaiting entry into the
records management system (RMS) by Records Unit staff. This is partially due to
delays in officers submitting said reports and citations and also due to insuffici ent
staffing.
The Department is routinely late in submitting Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR)
data to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) due to the backlog in the
Records Unit.
The current process for submitting and entering reports is time-consuming and
blurs the lines of supervision by having Records Clerks review and return reports
to sergeants or lieutenants if certain components are missing.
The Records Supervisor reads almost every call for service in the computer-aided
dispatch (CAD) system that was not assigned a report number to ensure that
officers completed reports when necessary.
Section 2—What Citygate Heard and Observed During the Interview Process | 39
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
The Records Unit is professional and open to employees of the Department.
These interruptions, at some point, are detrimental to efficiency and productivity.
Staffing levels in the Records Unit seem barely sufficient to stay abreast of
workload. Employee absences are not backfilled with overtime, which contributes
to the workload backlog.
The configuration of the front desk area limits Records Clerks to assisting onl y
one person at a time and there are no phone or computer capabilities at this desk.
The absence of bullet-resistant glass causes security concerns for Records Unit
personnel.
Dictation services, which are time-consuming, are still offered to sworn staff for
reports.
The fee schedule for obtaining reports is convoluted and difficult to explain to the
public.
Time-sensitive responsibilities, such as report and citation entry, are disrupted by
the intermittent and random need for Records Clerks to leave thei r workstation
and help the public at the front desk.
Records Clerks are under the impression that their suggestions for updates to the
Spillman RMS are not considered by the vendor.
The Communications and Records Manager has announced she will retire in
September 2017, after 34 years of service. Over the course of 34 years, her duties
have expanded greatly within and beyond Communications and Records, which
will make it challenging, if not impossible, for one individual to replace her.
The Communications and Records Manager performs many tasks that would
normally be completed by a crime analyst.
Projects languish in the Records Unit with no solution for completion and no
proposed completion date.
The Records Supervisor, the Communications and Records Manager, and the
Administrative Analyst are responsible for creating and contributing statistical
reports for Department staff. These tasks are time-consuming and more suited for
a crime analyst.
There are occasions each year when additional officers are deployed to the Patrol
Division on an overtime basis, without a commensurate increase in Records Unit
deployment of staff. This contributes to the backlog of report and citation entry.
40 | Section 2—What Citygate Heard and Observed During the Interview Process
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
The current staffing model for the Communications Division does not provide
supervisory coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In fact, for 88 hours
each week (52 percent), there is no Communications Supervisor scheduled to
work.
Staffing is at a critical level in the Communications Division, with only eight of
11 Communications Technician allocations filled. Even with a full complement, it
is very challenging to provide the coverage that is required in a consolidated law
and fire center, even before the anticipated population increase.
The two Communications Supervisors are the designated trainers and, when
needed, the Communications and Records Manager also serves as a trainer,
thereby interfering with their ability to supervise and manage.
Dispatchers manually and/or mentally track the number and complexity of calls
handled by each officer during a given shift.
According to the Emergency Call Tracking System (ECaTS), 100 percent of the
wireless 9-1-1 calls from 319 of 462 (69 percent) cell sectors are being transferred
to another agency, such as the California Highway Patrol (CHP), indicating a high
level of wireless 9-1-1 calls received in the Communications Division are
requiring transfer to the appropriate agency.
Communication between the Fire Department, the Police Department, and the
Communications Division could be improved.
Communications Division personnel play little to no part in the recruitment
process for new employees for the Division, and the success rate for trainees is
sub-standard.
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 the Commission on
Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies’ (CALEA’s) standard of 5 percent.
The Communications Division is easily meeting the newly implemented
(September 2016) California Office of Emergency Services 9-1-1 Emergency
Services Branch standard of answering 95 percent of incoming 9-1-1 calls within
15 seconds. However, on occasion, a limited search indicated they were not
meeting the national standard of answering 90 percent of all 9-1-1 calls during the
busiest hour each day within 10 seconds.
Section 2—What Citygate Heard and Observed During the Interview Process | 41
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
The Department measures response times from the time a call is dispatched until
the time the first unit arrives on scene, which is not an accurate reflection of
“response time.”
The 10-digit telephone lines for the Communications Division are not captured in
ECaTS reports, though they are captured elsewhere.
The Communications Division enjoys an extremely low to non-existent level of
public or first responder complaints.
The current Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is excessively restrictive,
down to the start time for shifts.
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Section 3—Calls for Service and Crime Data | 43
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
SECTION 3—CALLS FOR SERVICE AND CRIME DATA
Calls for service constitute the response element of law enforcement services. The first point of
contact the public has with the Police Department is through the 9-1-1 operator. Once the call is
dispatched, depending on availability, the patrol officer is the first point of personal contact and
the first face-to-face impression of the Department.
In examining the calls for service, Citygate analyzed the activities across three categories: calls
for service, officer-initiated activities, and administrative activities.
3.1 DEMANDS FOR SERVICE
3.1.1 Officer Activity
The City’s Patrol Division handled 224,913 activities from January 1, 2011 through December
31, 2016. From the data supplied, except for some miscellaneous incident types such as Public
Works Assist, the records Citygate has are entirely calls for service records.
44 | Section 3—Calls for Service and Crime Data
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Figure 2—Officer Activity by Incident in CAD – 2011–2016
3.1.2 Calls for Service
The Police Department responded to 127,810 calls for service from January 1, 2011 through
December 31, 2016. This is an average of 21,301 per year, or nearly 58 per day. Table 5 shows
calls for service by priority and indicates the number of multiple-unit and single-unit calls for
each priority.
Calls for service are prioritized during dispatch, although pre-designated priority codes exist for
the reported crime and/or the circumstances surrounding the request for service.
Call Priority Definitions
All nature codes are given a priority number. In the past, San Luis Obispo used nice priority
levels and is now moving to five. To quantify priority levels, the following standards have been
set. Some of these standards for dispatch are set by APCO, NENA, and NFPA. There are no
national standards for patrol response priorities.
Priority 1 calls for service are those in which there is an imminent danger to life. This includes
business and residential hold up and panic alarms and traffic accidents with injuries. Priority 1
calls will be dispatched immediately with a hot tone to indicate hot traffic.
Dispatch: Call answered and dispatched in 60 seconds.
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. These calls are urgent
but not known to be life threatening. This includes traffic accidents blocking a roadway and
77,371
19,732
127,810
Administrative Activities
Officer Initiated Activities
Calls for Service
0 40,000 80,000 120,000
POLICE ACTIVITIES 2011 –2016
Section 3—Calls for Service and Crime Data | 45
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
silent alarms both residential and business. Priority 2 calls with be voice dispatched as quickly as
possible.
Dispatch: Call answered and dispatched within 90 seconds.
Priority 3 calls are minor, in progress crimes with no threat of injury to a person or major loss of
property. This includes audible residential and business alarm calls.
Dispatch: Call answered and dispatched within 3 minutes.
Priority 4 calls are non-emergency requests for service for a nuisance or to report a crime after
the fact.
Dispatch: Call answered and dispatched within 1 hour.
Priority 5 calls are non-emergency requests for assistance or reports with no follow-up. They
generally have no suspect information, no evidence exists, or a report is needed for
documentation purposes only.
Dispatch: Call answered and dispatched within 2 hours.
Table 5—Calls for Service by Priority – 2011–2016
Priority Multi-Unit Single-Unit 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
Although default priorities exist for call types, the Communications Center assigns custom
priorities during dispatch relevant to the needs of the public. The data supplied to Citygate
contains priorities as dispatched. The prioritization coding system was also changed from nine
codes to five in June 2016. Dispatchers are still free to assign priorities as they deem fit;
however, they now have a narrower range of priority codes ranging from 1 to 5. Although there’s
46 | Section 3—Calls for Service and Crime Data
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
some flux in the data from the new coding system, for the purposes of this study, Priority 6 –9
calls account for only 1,701 calls (7 percent) for 2016 and will not ostensibly alter the outcome
of the subsequent analysis.
Particularly for low priorities such as 5–9, it may not make sense to deploy multiple units except
in cases where officer safety may be an issue, such as where large crowds gather. The City has a
burgeoning nightlife scene, and hence these volumes may appropriately reflect that.
3.1.3 Administrative Calls
In June 2016, Chief Cantrell directed the tracking of Administrative time for patrol officers for
the comparative analysis of the 20/20/20 model. This new data tracking coincided with the
updating of priority changes. Administrative time began being tracked with breakdowns for
every subset, including report writing, fuel, office details, briefing, meals, and unit servicing, etc.
Consistent documentation of this data has been challenging. The Department is making progress
in ensuring the complete documentation of this time. The six months of data report entitled,
Availability Time Analysis by Ten Code (see Appendix A), was not complete enough to provide a
basis for statistical analysis as it contained suspected elapsed time errors. The documentation
anomalies have since been addressed and should provide quality data in the future.
3.1.4 Call Volume by Day of Week
Calls for service are displayed by day of week in the following chart. Above-average call
volumes occur Thursday through Saturday. Volumes on Friday are 9 percent higher than the
average.
Section 3—Calls for Service and Crime Data | 47
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Figure 3—Calls for Service by Weekday (All Priorities) – 2011–2016
3.1.5 Temporal Charting Introduction
Temporal charts, or “heat maps,” are used to analyze data and provide visual acuity for
frequency of events. The “hotter” or redder the color, the higher the number of incidents. The
picture these charts provide will assist in analyzing shift deployments, response times, and calls
for service.
The reddening color scheme applies to the total column and total row as well, scaling from blue
(low) to red (high). This makes it easier to visualize the days of the week or the hours with the
highest and lowest incident counts.
The temporal chart has very clear demand periods on a volume basis. The busiest days of the
week are Friday, Saturday, and Thursday. The busiest hours of the week are between 9 am and
6 pm. The busiest times are Fridays and Saturdays from 10 pm through 2 am, with some busy
periods weekdays between 3 and 6 pm.
16,980
17,879
17,525
17,986
18,578
19,907
18,955
18,259
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
Call Volumes by Day of the Week
Distinct Incidents Average
48 | Section 3—Calls for Service and Crime Data
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Table 6—Calls for Service (All Priorities and Responses) – 2011–2016
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
The layout of this chart is consistent with that of a college town, with more significant activity
during the weekend hours.
Section 3—Calls for Service and Crime Data | 49
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
3.1.6 Single-Unit Responses
Table 7—Single-Unit Responses (All Priorities) – 2011–2016
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
Single-unit calls occur most frequently during weekday working hours. A notable surprise is the
absence of single-unit responses during the weekend evening hours. This suggests a
disproportionately higher volume of multiple-unit responses during the weekend evening hours.
50 | Section 3—Calls for Service and Crime Data
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
3.1.7 Multiple-Unit Responses
Table 8—Multiple-Unit Responses (All Priorities) – 2011–2016
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
Multiple-unit responses clearly occur most frequently during Friday and Saturday evenings from
10 pm through 3 am.
Section 3—Calls for Service and Crime Data | 51
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Given that so few single-unit responses occur during these hours, the City must recognize the
demand on staff to respond is higher during these hours than any other time of the week. That is,
if at least two officers respond to a multiple-unit call, the pool of available officers shrinks at the
rate of at least twice that of a single-unit call.
Of the 127,810 calls for service:
57.8 percent (73,912) required two or more officers.
22.2 percent (28,338) required three or more officers.
3.1.8 Demands for Service Summary
Single-unit calls take place most often during weekday working hours. This differs substant ially
from multiple-unit calls that occur most frequently during late evening weekend hours. Single-
unit calls constitute only 42 percent of all distinct incidents, suggesting that multiple-unit calls
are the standard mode of deployment during peak late-evening weekend hours.
Between 10 pm and 3 am Friday and Saturday nights, multiple-unit incidents outnumber single-
unit incidents three to one.5
From a staffing standpoint, it is prudent to have sufficient officers available for the weekend
nightlife crowds. When multiple-unit responses are required, the peaked staffing of available
Patrol units is consumed at a much faster rate, and hence more units should be deployed during
these peak critical hours.
5 2,392 single-unit responses vs. 7,398 multiple -unit responses; or multiple-unit responses are 309 percent larger
than single-unit responses during the Friday–Saturday 10 pm through 3 am window.
52 | Section 3—Calls for Service and Crime Data
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
3.2 SAN LUIS OBISPO’S CRIME PICTURE
The following charts track the volume of Part 1 crimes between 2013 and 2016, beginning with
Property crimes.
Figure 4—Part 1 Property Crimes – Residential, Vehicle, and Commercial – 2013–2016
There has been a 57 percent growth in Stolen Vehicles since 2013 and a 39 percent growth in
Commercial Burglaries since 2014.6 Residential Burglaries, down substantially since 2013, are
now fluctuating around 155 per year.
Residential Burglary still can be a strike felony; however, it is rarely charged as a strike felony.
There is a significant difference in punishment for this crime type versus theft crimes.
6 Growth Calculation: (Current Period/Prior Period) - 1
249
140
169 160
63
71
98 99 79
66 76 92
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
2013 2014 2015 2016
Part 1 Property Crimes
Residential Burglary Stolen Vehicle Commercial Burglary
Section 3—Calls for Service and Crime Data | 53
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Figure 5—Part 1 Property Crimes – Theft and Theft from Vehicle – 2013–2016
There has been a 132 percent growth in Theft from Vehicles since 2014 and 21 percent growth in
Theft since 2014.
Figure 6—Part 1 Person Crimes – Aggravated Assault – 2013–2016
There has been a 28.5 percent decline in Aggravated Assaults since 2014.
1,046
874
1,058 1,057
338 288
443
669
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
2013 2014 2015 2016
Part 1 Property Crimes
Theft Theft from Vehicle
101
168
146
120
0
50
100
150
200
2013 2014 2015 2016
Part 1 Person Crimes
Aggravated Assault
54 | Section 3—Calls for Service and Crime Data
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Figure 7—Part 1 Person Crimes – Arson, Rape, Robbery, Rape Attempts, and Homicide –
2013–2016
There have been zero Homicides in the last four years.
Arson has been fluctuating substantially year to year. There was a 61 percent decrease from 2013
to 2014, then a 159 percent increase, then a 41 percent decrease.
Rape and Robbery have demonstrated similar increases to Theft and Theft from Vehicle in the
last two years, which warrants investigation into whether there are linkages by person, location,
or another factor. Rape attempts (reported) were at a four-year low in 2016. Citygate does not
have the data necessary to cross-reference arrest data by name, but there is value in reviewing
addresses.
3.2.1 Crime Summary
The latest crime data, as shown in this study, indicates that the Police Department, in
collaboration with the community, has done an outstanding job in minimizing crime. There are
many factors that contribute to crime rates, including economics, proactive/preventative policing,
omnipresence, community involvement, and employment. These 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.
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
Part 1 Person Crimes
Arson Rape Robbery Rape Attempt Homicide
Section 3—Calls for Service and Crime Data | 55
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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 57 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.
The City’s crime data is consistent with crime trends from other jurisdictions across California.
Property crimes are increasing significantly. Also, according to 2014/2015 data from the
California Police Chiefs Association (shown in Appendix C of this report), 91 cities with a
population between 25,000 and 49,999 reported a 9.15 percent increase in property crimes. The
City’s property crimes increased by 28 percent during the same period. Locally and statewide,
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
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.
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Section 4—Response Time Data | 57
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
The Police Department
currently does not have
response time standards or
goals. However, San Luis
Obispo’s Fire Department
has established a goal of
responding to emergency
calls within 7 minutes, 90
percent of the time, from
dispatch to arrival.
SECTION 4—RESPONSE TIME DATA
Response time is calculated from the time the call
is received by the dispatcher, to the time one or
more assigned units arrive on scene. Nationally,
there are no legal mandates or standards
established for law enforcement response times.
Communities are left to determine response time
goals given their own unique geographic and
demographic considerations. The Police
Department currently does not have response time
standards or goals. However, San Luis Obispo’s
Fire Department has established a goal of
responding to emergency calls within 7 minutes,
90 percent of the time, from dispatch to arrival.7
When establishing response time standards, care
must be given to examine the realistic capabilities
7 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)
58 | Section 4—Response Time Data
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
of the agency to meet the standard. Arbitrarily setting a standard that cannot be reached creates
an unrealistic expectation of the community and daunting responsibility for the Police
Department.
Current best practice, nationally, is to measure percent completion of a goal (e.g., 90 percent of
the emergency responses) rather than an average measure of emergency calls. Mathematically,
this is called a “fractile” measurement.8 This is because the measure of average only identifies
the central or middle point of response time performance for all calls for service in the data set.
Using an average makes it impossible to know how many incidents had response times that were
way over the average, or just over.
For example, Figure 1 shows response times for a fictitious city police department in the United
States. This city is small and receives 20 legitimate calls for service each day. Each response
time for the calls for service has been plotted on the graph. The call response times have been
plotted in order from shortest response time to longest response time.
The figure shows that the average response time is 8.7 minutes. However, the average response
time fails to properly account for four calls for service with response times far exceeding a
threshold in which positive outcomes could be expected. In fact, it is evident in Figure 1 that, in
this fictitious U.S. city, 20 percent of responses are far too slow, and that this city has a potential
life-threatening service delivery problem. Average response time as a measurement tool for
police departments is simply not sufficient. This is a significant issue in larger cities, if hundreds
or thousands of calls are answered far beyond the average point.
By using the fractile measurement with 90 percent of responses in mind, this small city has a
response time of 18 minutes, 90 percent of the time. This fractile measurement is far more
accurate at reflecting the service delivery situation in this small city.
8 A fractile is that point below which a stated fraction of the values lie. The fraction is often given in percent; the
term percentile may then be used.
Section 4—Response Time Data | 59
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Figure 8—Fractile versus Average Response Time Measurements – EXAMPLE
Another critical factor in measuring response time is to be realistic about what that time
indicates. For example, for a life-threatening call for service, industry standards and academy
instruction stresses the importance of an officer waiting for his or her backup. Not only does the
presence of a backup improve safety, it tends to reduce the risk of escalating violence at a call.
With this in mind, emergency call response times should be measured based on the arrival time
of both units—the primary unit and the backup.
4.1 RESPONSE TIME ANALYSIS
Approximately 3.3 percent of 127,810 total calls for service (4,254 records) had unusual
response times of greater than 60 minutes. These records were removed to improve the analysis.
To further improve the analysis, records with Priorities of 6–9 were consolidated into Priority 5.
60 | Section 4—Response Time Data
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
4.1.1 Single-Unit Responses
Figure 9—Priority 1 Single-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016
Response times for Priority 1 calls (n=1,292) occur in 25.7 minutes or less 90 percent of the
time.
Section 4—Response Time Data | 61
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Figure 10—Priority 2 Single-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016
Response times for Priority 2 calls (n=1,714) occur in 29.0 minutes or less 90 percent of the
time.
Figure 11—Priority 3 Single-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016
Response times for Priority 3 calls (n=14,279) occur in 26.4 minutes or less 90 percent of the
time.
62 | Section 4—Response Time Data
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Figure 12—Priority 4 Single-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016
Response times for Priority 4 calls (n=14,415) occur in 32.7 minutes or less 90 percent of the
time.
Figure 13—Priorities 5–9 Single-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016
Response times for Priority 5–9 calls (n=20,414) occur in 31.4 minutes or less 90 percent of the
time.
Section 4—Response Time Data | 63
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
4.1.2 Multiple-Unit Responses
Figure 14—Second-In Unit Priority 1 Multiple-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016
Multiple-unit response times for Priority 1 calls (n=4,127) occur in 22.9 minutes or less 90
percent of the time.
Figure 15—Second-In Unit Priority 2 Multiple-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016
Multiple-unit response times for Priority 2 calls (n=11,171) occur in 19.8 minutes or less 90
percent of the time.
64 | Section 4—Response Time Data
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Figure 16—Second-In Unit Priority 3 Multiple-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016
Multiple-unit response times for Priority 3 calls (n=25,450) occur in 23.6 minutes or less 90
percent of the time.
Figure 17—Second-In Unit Priority 4 Multiple-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016
Multiple-unit response times for Priority 4 calls (n=22,282) occur in 28.9 minutes or less 90
percent of the time.
Section 4—Response Time Data | 65
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Figure 18—Second-In Unit Priorities 5–9 Multiple-Unit Response Time – 2011–2016
Multiple-unit response times for Priority 5–9 calls (n=17,224) occur in 47.4 minutes or less 90
percent of the time.
4.2 RESPONSE TIME SUMMARY
The following table presents the response times for single-unit and multiple-unit responses.
These are the response times achieved for 90 percent of calls for service.
Table 9—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
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. The
66 | Section 4—Response Time Data
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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
minutes9 (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.
Recognizing the safety factor mentioned above of two officers responding to an emergency or
urgent call, the City’s response time for Priority 1 and 2 calls, second-in units is 22.89 and 19.79
minutes respectively, 90 percent of the time, as seen in Figure 14 and Figure 15.
When establishing a response time goal, the City must look at its geographical constraints,
officer and citizen safety, and fiscal capabilities. Adding patrol officers during those peak calls
for service hours will reduce response times. The challenge is that adding one officer on the
street, 24/7, requires 5.25 additional full-time equivalents, which is inclusive of a “relief factor”
(i.e., an industry best practice used to account for staffing a position 24/7, 365 days a year).
For these reasons, the combination of Citygate’s recommendations to add Community Service
Officers (CSOs) to increase availability of officers, enhance documentation of committed time to
better analyze availability, and fill the existing seven positions in Patrol are critical to improving
response times. Once the seven officers are added, the Department will be in a better position to
re-examine the response time data and make appropriate additions in staffing to bring the time
closer to a target response time goal.
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.
9 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)
Section 5—Workload Analysis | 67
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Monday through Friday
from 9 am to 6 pm, and
Friday and Saturday
evenings from 10 pm to
3 am represent the largest
concentration of multiple-
unit calls for service
response.
SECTION 5—WORKLOAD ANALYSIS
5.1 EXAMINING CALLS FOR SERVICE BY FREQUENCY AND PRIORITY
In examining workload, the saturation of calls that
occur by day of week and hour of day is an
important visualization. This tool is also used when
the Department is above minimum staffing, to
compare proposed shift scheduling to calls for
service and peak times.
The following temporal chart 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 represent the largest
concentration of multiple-unit calls for service response.
68 | Section 5—Workload Analysis
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Table 10—Service Calls by Hour of the Day and Day of the Week (All Priorities) – 2011–2016
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
Further analysis of the frequency and distribution of calls for service begins by comparing
single- and multiple-unit responses, beginning with multiple-unit responses.
Section 5—Workload Analysis | 69
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
5.1.1 Multiple-Unit Responses
Multiple-unit responses across all priorities are summarized in the table below.
Table 11—Multiple-Unit Responses (All Priorities) – 2011–2016
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
There is a very clear pattern for multiple-unit responses, with the majority occurring during
nightlife hours on weekends (Friday and Saturday evenings from 10 pm to 3 am). Notice there
are comparatively fewer multiple-unit responses during workweek hours. The latter pattern very
clearly belongs to the single-unit responses.
70 | Section 5—Workload Analysis
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
5.1.2 Multiple-Unit Responses by Priority
Table 12—Priority 1 Multiple-Unit Responses – 2011–2016
Hour Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Total
00 54 9 18 17 20 30 49 197
01 73 15 10 18 25 35 53 229
02 35 16 7 17 16 18 39 148
03 19 5 14 15 11 11 16 91
04 12 3 6 9 4 11 7 52
05 9 8 5 8 8 4 13 55
06 8 12 4 6 7 7 8 52
07 12 13 10 22 14 13 13 97
08 9 25 21 17 28 23 9 132
09 13 21 30 27 27 30 21 169
10 19 24 20 31 25 25 18 162
11 22 33 30 27 31 33 23 199
12 22 31 27 31 32 45 17 205
13 32 37 19 27 23 44 29 211
14 27 30 23 30 40 33 35 218
15 28 26 31 36 42 36 21 220
16 41 33 37 41 32 38 33 255
17 24 35 38 42 43 39 23 244
18 18 22 31 33 44 30 22 200
19 18 20 26 27 34 30 22 177
20 28 31 25 26 40 33 23 206
21 27 30 23 31 42 30 35 218
22 25 18 17 22 23 33 31 169
23 20 13 19 24 29 38 36 179
Total 595 510 491 584 640 669 596 4,085
The amount of data available for Priority 1 multiple-unit responses is comparatively small,
representing just 3 percent of all calls. The volume represented here is comparatively small, but
there are allusions to the nightlife pattern discussed in the preceding table.
Section 5—Workload Analysis | 71
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Priority 2 multiple-unit responses confirm the weekend nightlife pattern above.
Table 13—Priority 2 Multiple-Unit Responses – 2011–2016
Hour Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Total
00 154 57 62 63 80 107 171 694
01 181 48 43 85 61 94 196 708
02 147 50 42 63 45 100 144 591
03 63 20 25 31 21 51 72 283
04 44 19 22 31 28 21 34 199
05 19 21 13 21 21 21 15 131
06 12 19 27 15 15 19 20 127
07 19 34 35 39 24 43 27 221
08 33 49 50 49 53 58 41 333
09 44 53 54 54 64 60 54 383
10 55 56 63 65 58 70 53 420
11 59 52 59 69 93 81 66 479
12 72 79 56 74 58 70 77 486
13 65 65 74 72 82 57 62 477
14 48 78 76 67 83 66 68 486
15 82 74 74 85 75 94 56 540
16 61 69 69 95 103 66 60 523
17 73 86 88 73 79 78 80 557
18 73 89 72 79 86 73 76 548
19 76 89 77 77 85 72 68 544
20 83 94 62 67 83 78 73 540
21 86 75 75 87 89 79 74 565
22 100 64 81 72 83 102 101 603
23 69 44 58 79 103 115 116 584
Total 1,718 1,384 1,357 1,512 1,572 1,675 1,804 11,022
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There are some differences in the Priority 3 multiple-unit responses, with moderate volume
occurring between 3 pm and 1 am every day of the week.
Table 14—Priority 3 Multiple-Unit Responses – 2011–2016
Hour Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Total
00 189 142 141 141 124 170 217 1,124
01 200 111 99 143 131 151 208 1,043
02 178 97 112 123 111 149 195 965
03 131 95 94 100 85 106 129 740
04 102 70 70 82 74 96 100 594
05 97 77 64 83 97 84 93 595
06 81 75 80 79 66 88 65 534
07 77 98 98 108 138 108 97 724
08 97 107 134 146 139 142 119 884
09 114 120 135 140 124 128 140 901
10 126 140 127 153 143 137 140 966
11 141 165 155 167 127 159 148 1,062
12 132 151 148 158 158 168 151 1,066
13 141 153 132 177 172 158 133 1,066
14 162 142 150 163 150 160 150 1,077
15 150 153 188 163 175 204 165 1,198
16 160 183 159 173 156 191 152 1,174
17 133 166 166 169 205 207 188 1,234
18 167 155 161 162 194 192 152 1,183
19 146 175 167 184 193 184 166 1,215
20 185 165 170 169 194 192 173 1,248
21 172 166 161 175 201 213 185 1,273
22 162 166 168 166 213 219 180 1,274
23 130 130 154 184 173 198 213 1,182
Total 3,373 3,202 3,233 3,508 3,543 3,804 3,659 24,322
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The remaining Priorities 4 through 9 follow the same pattern as Priority 2, with the exception of
Priority 6, which has an insignificant volume of 1,686 calls over six years. Combining the
remaining priorities demonstrates this familiar multiple-unit response pattern, with most
responses occurring during the nightlife hours.
Table 15—Priority 4–9 Multiple-Unit Responses – 2011–2016
Hour Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Total
00 417 173 183 210 178 248 358 1,767
01 300 143 133 160 125 191 274 1,326
02 284 109 88 137 109 189 263 1,179
03 199 79 80 82 73 103 195 811
04 102 63 52 62 47 91 109 526
05 54 51 70 64 67 47 71 424
06 59 80 67 71 71 79 65 492
07 88 146 155 158 140 177 106 970
08 125 207 200 217 219 215 167 1,350
09 162 234 219 229 222 227 198 1,491
10 167 240 238 226 230 212 203 1,516
11 209 235 240 243 242 219 210 1,598
12 211 262 238 235 217 243 262 1,668
13 212 267 243 251 269 288 260 1,790
14 189 259 249 255 231 257 257 1,697
15 235 250 271 251 253 251 276 1,787
16 245 292 261 262 262 285 262 1,869
17 238 230 240 236 272 299 279 1,794
18 223 196 179 206 267 248 251 1,570
19 241 193 216 196 240 256 241 1,583
20 223 213 223 209 245 212 224 1,549
21 234 221 221 188 224 244 246 1,578
22 275 241 243 233 317 368 396 2,073
23 270 189 223 231 289 411 462 2,075
Total 4,962 4,573 4,532 4,612 4,809 5,360 5,635 34,483
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5.1.3 Single-Unit Responses
Single-unit responses occur primarily during normal business hours, with the bulk of calls
occurring between 9 am and 6 pm.
Table 16—Single-Unit Responses (All Priorities) – 2011–2016
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
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5.1.4 Single-Unit Responses by Priority
Since there are only 1,315 Priority 1 and 1,754 Priority 2 Single-Unit responses for the entire six-
year data set, these are combined in the next temporal chart. This is representative of the pattern
seen in the chart above, but notice there are zero calls on Tuesdays at 4 am over the entire six
years.
Table 17—Priority 1 and 2 Single-Unit Responses – 2011–2016
Hour Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Total
00 28 7 8 9 14 19 23 108
01 48 12 4 7 8 17 37 133
02 24 3 3 8 10 15 28 91
03 15 4 3 6 3 10 15 56
04 4 2 1 1 5 3 16
05 3 6 4 1 5 5 3 27
06 7 4 7 5 6 8 7 44
07 10 14 6 10 13 15 8 76
08 12 16 19 24 28 13 11 123
09 16 22 20 22 25 26 12 143
10 10 26 24 20 28 31 18 157
11 20 27 35 27 30 27 23 189
12 20 31 30 28 41 36 21 207
13 18 33 32 29 49 30 27 218
14 20 32 31 26 41 34 23 207
15 18 37 40 29 29 37 28 218
16 19 36 41 36 31 34 21 218
17 20 29 26 25 27 28 25 180
18 16 18 29 25 21 26 15 150
19 8 10 19 24 19 20 18 118
20 18 14 12 12 20 22 11 109
21 13 14 9 15 19 12 17 99
22 7 20 11 17 13 11 15 94
23 14 5 9 8 12 13 27 88
Total 388 422 422 414 493 494 436 3,069
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There is very little difference for the remaining priorities, and hence they are consolidated below.
Priority 3 calls have slightly larger volumes later in the afternoon, whereas Priority 4 calls are
more evenly distributed throughout the afternoon.
Table 18—Priorities 3–9 Single-Unit Responses – 2011–2016
Hour Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Total
00 200 131 121 125 130 136 214 1,057
01 196 59 74 89 77 111 184 790
02 173 91 58 77 73 123 184 779
03 103 68 66 77 54 73 117 558
04 71 49 49 58 65 67 102 461
05 58 54 46 49 42 65 73 387
06 91 110 116 133 110 125 98 783
07 134 267 271 253 258 266 176 1,625
08 179 438 429 434 447 420 287 2,634
09 302 518 457 486 522 474 386 3,145
10 360 580 490 487 519 476 426 3,338
11 373 624 504 505 467 486 472 3,431
12 442 572 488 474 496 540 442 3,454
13 413 557 546 530 513 555 441 3,555
14 372 570 506 505 448 566 425 3,392
15 341 540 561 517 537 587 400 3,483
16 319 514 578 502 493 582 390 3,378
17 295 476 506 545 559 478 362 3,221
18 329 398 435 365 424 440 359 2,750
19 298 314 352 296 358 330 282 2,230
20 242 281 269 241 274 253 257 1,817
21 245 234 205 235 254 275 238 1,686
22 242 193 215 213 228 247 259 1,597
23 166 150 148 160 173 230 251 1,278
Total 5,944 7,788 7,490 7,356 7,521 7,905 6,825 50,829
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International Association
of Chiefs of Police (IACP)
recommendations and
industry best practices
suggest that law
enforcement workload and
staffing be evaluated in
part using the 20/20/20
standard for patrol
resource allocation.
5.1.5 Call Saturation Summary
These charts clearly illuminate the impacts generated during evening hours associated with social
or entertainment gatherings, where multiple-unit responses occur much more frequently than
single-unit responses by a factor of seven to five. When fully one-fifth of all calls for service
require three or more units, and these types of incidents occur during nightlife hours, it is time to
carefully assess whether staffing is sufficient during these peak demand periods.
5.2 IACP 20/20/20 MODEL – WORKLOAD DISTRIBUTION
International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) recommendations and industry best
practices suggest that law enforcement workload and staffing be evaluated 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 available to have sufficient time 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.
Having examined calls for service by frequency and priority, the next step is to review workload
distribution. Citygate used computer-aided dispatch (CAD) data to project the proportion of time
patrol officers are spending in the areas of: call response, administrative duties (including report
writing), and proactive/preventative patrol activities (foundational to a proactive Community
Policing philosophy). While this method is a strong indicator of workload allocation based on
available data, it is imperfect. Citygate emphasizes that the following table is simply an estimate
based solely on CAD activity and any activity not
reported in CAD will not be captured. As
previously stated, there are additional areas of data
input and tracking by the Department that need to
be implemented to enhance accuracy and allow for
more thorough analysis of committed time for field
and investigation work forces. There are reasons
this estimate under-reports actual police time.
Citygate’s recommendations include corrective
action to more accurately document this time for
ongoing analysis. In June of 2016, Chief Cantrell
introduced and adopted the 20/20/20 rule as part of
the overarching Community Policing model for the
Police Department, at which time she implemented
procedures to track proactive/preventative time.
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Citygate has utilized the seven months of available data and extrapolated it for the purposes of
analyzing this category of workload. As such, this data should be regarded as the minimum level
of the actual time committed to these three activities and, thus, only a part of the workload
analysis.
Citygate’s methodology compares the time for reactive, administrative, and proactive time as
currently reported in the CAD system. Using the 20/20/20 rule, 20 minutes should be spent in
each category assuming the Department meets the standard.
Table 19—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
Using this method, calls for service consumes 30.4 percent of the hour, and 91.25 percent of the
allotted 20 calls for service minutes. This emphasizes the importance of gathering more detailed
data that captures specific workload elements under the administrative time category.
The data on officer availability in CAD is inconsistent with the opinions shared during the
interviews. That is not necessarily an indication that the patrol force is not extremely busy, but it
does indicate that the Department needs to continue to improve its tracking of time utilization
data. The preferred result is that the total time committed for responding to calls, report writing,
administrative activities, and documented proactive time is accurately captured.
In doing so, the documented proactive, self-initiated time and unallocated time together provide
how much time an officer is conducting preventative patrol. This time should minimally
constitute one-third of every hour worked. In agencies where a strong emphasis has been placed
on Community Policing, intelligence-led policing, and data-driven policing, Citygate has seen
allocated time goals of as much as 51 percent for proactive/preventative time.
Slightly less than one-third of every hour is undocumented time in CAD, and a very small
amount of time is being committed to proactive/administrative time.
Finding #2: The Department needs to improve its tracking of time and
categorizing of data for field activities.
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Recommendation #2: Establish additional radio protocols to status and parse
patrol officer’s committed time for patrol activities.
NOTE: Chief Cantrell has directed the refinement of data recordation based on this finding and
recommendation. Those protocols were enacted in January 2017.
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.
5.3 ASSOCIATED WORKLOAD FACTORS
Having examined calls for service by frequency and priority, and assessed workload distribution
including the time consumed on calls for service, there are three remaining elements to be
considered in Citygate’s workload analysis:
5.3.1 Establishment of Performance Objectives
Currently the Police Department does not have any performance objectives or standards as they
relate to case management, work productivity, response time standards, and ratio of
measurements to the standards. Citygate has made findings and recommendations throughout
this study to address this going forward.
5.3.2 Provision of Staffing Estimates
As detailed in the workload analysis, accurate accounting of committed time is essential to
analyzing the needs for staffing. With the Department’s recent adoption of the IACP 20/20/20
rule, enhanced committed time documentation in CAD, and establishment of response time
goals, the combined data will provide an accurate picture of officer availability. This will provide
an articulable and defensible formulation of staffing based on community expectation and
performance measurements, as well as garner a greater level of accountability.
Growth can be a factor that contributes to staffing needs. In determining these impacts, the
increase in housing, density of housing, commercial development, and type of use in the
commercial developments must be examined. There are different staffing considerations that will
all contribute to workload, availability, calls for service, and crime. This will be discussed this
further in Section 8—Economic Development Considerations.
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SECTION 6—OPERATIONS BUREAU REVIEW
The Operations Bureau is commanded by a captain whose primary responsibility is to provide
general management direction and control for the Bureau. The Operations Bureau is responsible
for responding to emergency and non-emergency calls for service, proactive patrol, traffic safety
and investigations, and general law enforcement. The Bureau is the uniformed presence of the
Department that interacts with the community on a daily basis. The Operations Bureau consists
of uniformed Patrol, Traffic Safety Unit, Bicycle Unit, Community Action Team, and
Neighborhood Outreach.
While Citygate’s assessment of the Bureau was thorough, for the sake of brevity and the
usefulness of this document, certain units or squads have been omitted from this report for which
there are no issues or elements of concern to be reported.
6.1 PATROL
6.1.1 Dayshift Patrol
Dayshift Patrol is led by a lieutenant. He oversees the two Dayshift Patrol sergeants, 14
authorized Patrol officers, the Traffic Unit sergeant, and three authorized Traffic Unit officers.
There are also two officers assigned to the Community Action Team (CAT). The CAT
specifically manages complex issues related to chronic homelessness and the possible psychiatric
and addiction issues exacerbating the problem. The purpose of the Dayshift Patrol Unit is to
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From approval of a funded
position through advertising the
position; testing; background
investigation; medical,
psychological, and polygraph
testing; academy training; and
FTO training, it can take 11–12
months before an approved
officer position is filling a
scheduled shift as a police
officer and sharing the
responsibilities of safety for the
community.
respond to calls for service, enforce state and
local laws, act as a crime deterrent, enforce
traffic laws, investigate criminal activity,
investigate traffic collisions, and assist with
special assignments as requested.
Vacancies
The hiring process for police officers is
extensive and arduous at best. Application,
testing and background investigation, and
medical, psychological, and polygraph
processes can take as much as six months to
complete. Agencies of similar size in California
experience a ratio of two successful candidates
for every 100 applicants. Once a candidate is
hired, the field training officer (FTO) program
will last three to four months, if the candidate is
a lateral hire (meaning they have completed the
police academy and served in another department for at least one year). If the candidate is an
entry-level hire (with no academy training), they will have to successfully complete a POST -
approved police academy lasting a minimum of four months. From approval of a funded pos ition
through advertising the position; testing; background investigation; medical, psychological, and
polygraph testing; academy training; and FTO training, it can take 11–12 months before an
approved officer position is filling a scheduled shift as a police officer and sharing the
responsibilities of safety for the community.
As of this writing, the Police Department has four officers in FTO training, one candidate in the
police academy, and two lateral applicants in the hiring process.
Dayshift currently has two vacant authorized positions. The staffing is being augmented using
overtime and the reassignment of officers from specialty units. The inability of the Department
to maintain full staffing is, in part, a product of its historical reliance on lateral hires. The
addition of Community Service Officer (CSO) positions will help in the recruitment process and
allow CSOs an opportunity to train and perform under the Department before the significant
investment of the police academy. This is a wonderful stepping-stone on the career path and will
garner multiple benefits for the Department.
Currently, police officers are reluctant to lateral to another agency because it would mean
entering employment in a lower-tier PERS retirement plan. While this issue will be temporary as
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more and more people are hired under the new lower plan, thus making a lateral move less
punitive, it is the Department’s current reality. Additionally, greater creativity and dedication of
personnel to the recruitment process is needed. Operating with these vacancies is affecting the
entire Department, not just Dayshift 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.
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.
Officer Reports
Reports taken by officers on Dayshift Patrol are reviewed by the lieutenant for approval. The
sergeants of the shift are responsible for annual evaluations of the officers, but they are not
currently reviewing and approving their reports. This is not an optimal arrangement, as the
sergeants would benefit from first-hand knowledge of the officers’ writing competencies for
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evaluation purposes and they are most likely familiar with the call the officer handled. Assigning
sergeants the responsibility of approving officers’ reports would represent a significant change in
responsibilities for the sergeants and lieutenants and will require cultural reform to instill the
importance and benefits Department-wide.
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.
NOTE: Effective January 2017, the sergeants have begun reviewing and approving officers’
reports. This was instituted by the Chief after Citygate’s initial interviews. This issue was
highlighted to Command staff in a briefing conducted that relayed initial discoveries from
Citygate’s research. The Chief and her staff should be commended for taking quick action in this
area.
Field Time
The sergeants are tasked with many administrative responsibilities. This leads to an inability for
the sergeants to spend sufficient time in the field. This too is not optimal. The sergeants would
benefit from first-hand observations of how the shift officers are conducting their
responsibilities. Additionally, the officers are not benefitting from the wisdom and experience of
the sergeants, who would be a valuable resource on calls for service.
Finding #5: Dayshift sergeants’ administrative responsibilities prevent them
from spending essential time in the field with shift officers.
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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.
Crime Analysis and Scheduling
There is no crime analysis unit to help the officers target specific crime trends, locations, or
types. Officers could more efficiently use their proactive time if they better understood the areas
of the City where they should target specific crime issues. This is exacerbated by the patrol
officers’ schedules of three consecutive 12-hour shifts followed by four days off.
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)
Scheduling, as mentioned, is a challenge. The current method used in Patrol (three 12-hour shifts
a week) makes communication between shifts difficult and costly. There are no built-in overlaps
of the 12-hour shifts, which contributes to longer response times and disrupted briefings. All
briefings and shift training must be done on overtime, and do not happen as often as they should.
There is currently discussion between the Police Department and the Police Officers Association
(POA) for possible restructuring of the current work schedule.
In Citygate’s experience, the most effective work schedule is 8-hour shifts. However, these are
rare in today’s market and are major detractors for recruitment and morale. Given the current
authorized staffing, the 12-hour shifts are the most malleable for San Luis Obispo. If, in the
future, funding were available for five additional sworn positions, a 10-hour, overlapping
schedule would serve the City very well and allow sufficient staffing through shift changes, with
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a greater staffing emphasis during peak calls for service times. Other benefits to special events
staffing and costs may also be realized.
Policy Manual
The Police Department policy manual has been converted to Lexipol™ services. This service
system is widely used throughout the state as one of the premiere quality policy services and
provides an excellent nexus between policy and in-service briefing training sessions that ensure
the competency of officers in their understanding of current policy and situational awareness.
Almost everyone Citygate interviewed agreed that current manual is considerably outdated. This
was partially attributed to workload of the previous Administrative Sergeant. As recently as
January of 2017, the updates have resumed with the newly assigned Administrative Sergeant and
two other supervisors working through the backlog of needed updates. It is critical that these
updates are completed. This delay is contributing to confusion on the part of supervisors
regarding critical sections of the policy manual, most notably supervisory responsibility in the
reporting or documentation of certain activities. To clarify this point, Citygate found that the
policy requirement that documentation occurs is understood and being followed; however, the
documentation, beginning with the first-line supervisor, is often not completed in a timely
manner. Clear direction under standardized policy and adherence to policy assures consistency
and compliance.
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.
Using standard Department practices for teaching and tracking, all officers must be aware of the
most current updates if determined necessary. This should minimally include Use of Force,
Firearms, Code Three Driving, Pursuit Policy, Citizen’s Complaint Policy, Discrimination
Policy, and Sexual Harassment Policy.
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Special Weapons And Tactics Team
The Police Department is part of a shared Special Weapons And Tactics Team (SWAT).
Currently 11 members of the Department are part of a 26-person team that includes multiple
other cities and Cal Poly. The role for the individual officer is part-time, with training happening
monthly. The SWAT training is covered by overtime, which can be costly. However, the
education, skillset, and experience gained by the members of this team is valuable, both in a
critical incident when they form as a team, and in everyday law enforcement activities.
Community Action Team
The Community Action Team (CAT) team is involved in chronic homelessness and transient
issues. The citizens they interact with often have psychiatric issues and/or addictions. The
members of this team spend much of their time in court trying to obtain court-ordered assistance
for some people who are resistive of obtaining the help they may need.
The administrative time they spend in court is valuable, in that it can lead to court -ordered
conservatorship of individuals deemed by the court to need such assistance. That being said, the
time they spend in court for the hearings and procedures is time they are not available in the
field. If there were alternatives available to reduce the amount of time the officers spend in court,
they would be in the field more to help with additional contacts and interventions.
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.
Body Worn Cameras
The Department has recently begun issuing Body Worn Cameras (BWCs). Not everyone has
been issued one yet. There is a significant amount of labor involved in the entire patrol force
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using BWCs. The challenges include the added volume of video as well as the need to maintain
the archived video and be able to produce it when needed and/or ordered. At present, the
responsibility for the maintenance and process of BWC video is assigned to the Property and
Evidence Technician. The workload for storing, managing, producing, and redacting this data
will be daunting. It will quickly overwhelm the Property and Evidence Technician given the
current duties they already perform. Ideally, the technician would have some existing duties
removed, and/or the responsibilities of managing the BWC program would be as signed to a new
position within the Department.
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)
NOTE: In early 2017, a part-time evidence technician position was funded and filled to assist
with all property and evidence duties. Based upon the added workload, the recommendation is
still for this to become an FTE.
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As BWC technology is continually evolving, there are enhancements being made almost yearly
that could mitigate staff hours for the processing and evidentiary needs of BWC media. As an
industry, law enforcement needs to remain malleable to changing hardware and focus on
software-centric solutions that allow for greater ease of transitioning advancements, without
loss, or minimizing expense of capital investments in cameras and other related equipment.
Traffic
The Traffic Unit is under the command of the Dayshift lieutenant. The Traffic Unit currently has
one sergeant and three officers authorized. The Unit is not fully staffed because members of the
team have been reassigned to cover staffing shortages in Patrol.
The primary task of the Traffic Unit is traffic enforcement, collision investigation, and Driving
Under the Influence (DUI) enforcement.
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.
CSOs could also directly benefit the Traffic Unit. The job description of the created class should
identify traffic-specific job duties of the CSO. The duties should minimally include the ability to
take minor traffic accidents, tow vehicles, issue parking citations, and assisting with traffic
control.
6.1.2 Nightshift Patrol
Nightshift Patrol is led by a lieutenant. He oversees the two Patrol sergeants, 15 authorized
Patrol officers, the Bicycle Unit sergeant, and three authorized Bicycle Unit officers. The
purpose of the Nightshift Patrol Unit is to respond to calls for service, enforce state and local
laws, act as a crime deterrent, enforce traffic laws, investigate criminal activity, investigate
traffic collisions, and to assist with special assignments as requested.
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There are currently two vacancies on this shift, and one officer is off on a work-related injury
(Labor Code § 4850). The staffing shortage is being augmented through overtime and the
temporary reassignment of other assets.
Nightshift is also impacted by the issues that impact Dayshift. However, unique aspects of this
shift are discussed below.
Officer Scheduling
The current scheduling model is not an efficient use of the officers assigned to Nightshift. The
12-hour-shift model does not allow for overlap of officers’ shifts between Dayshift and
Nightshift. Therefore, the entire Nightshift has to be staffed to accommodate the highest hours of
demand for services. The first half of the shift usually experiences a substantial call volume, and
by the last third of the shift, from 0300 hours to 0700 hours, the call volume drops significantly.
Furthermore, the lack of overlap between Dayshift and Nightshift means they both start and end
their shifts at the same time. There are two periods during the day (shift changes) in which
coverage on the street is impeded. The shift changes occur when officers are briefed at the
beginning and end of their shift. With the exception of one cover shift, that has been
implemented since Citygate conducted interviews, more than half of the week, twice a day, the
lack of overlap means that overtime must be expended to provide field coverage, or no officers
will be available in the field. This increases response times significantly because there are
virtually no officers in the field for 20–40 minutes surrounding the shift change hours.
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.
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NOTE: During Citygate’s Mid-Project Review, we were informed that there will be a change to
the current patrol staffing model. Patrol will be organized into teams, and a third shift, or
overlap shift, will be utilized to lend extra resources to late afternoon/evening hours. This was
implemented in April.
Nightshift Sergeants
The Nightshift sergeants are the field supervisors for the Student Neighborhood Assistance
Program (SNAP) employees. To staff this program, seasonal, part-time employees are hired from
local colleges to address quality of life issues in residential neighborhoods. It is administered by
the Neighborhood Outreach Manager. However, the SNAP employees are deployed in the late
evening/night, and are supervised in the field by the Nightshift sergeants.
Nightshift Patrol responds to calls for disturbances, parties, and related events from residential
neighborhoods. Nightshift Patrol receives assistance from the SNAP unit, but the SNAP Unit
does not possess law enforcement powers, and is very limited in the actions it can take. The
SNAP personnel are helpful with noise complaints, but cannot lend assistance to sworn staff on
most other types of calls for service.
Officer Reports
As indicated in the Dayshift Patrol section, the sergeants of the shift are responsible for annual
evaluations of the officers, but they are not currently reviewing and approving their reports.
However, one of the Nightshift sergeants does approve his officers’ reports. This is preferred, but
it is not the norm. This inconsistency needs to be addressed across all shifts, as the sergeants
would benefit from first-hand knowledge of the officers’ writing competencies for evaluation
purposes.
The Nightshift lieutenant performs scheduling, leaving the sergeants sometimes surprised as to
who has been allowed to be off or assigned to training thus not being available for their patrol
shift. There is nothing inherently wrong or ineffective about the lieutenant performing
scheduling, but it does require timely and effective communication between the lieutenant and
the shift sergeants.
6.1.3 Bicycle
The Bicycle Unit is under the command of the Nightshift lieutenant. The Bicycle Unit
historically has had one sergeant and three officers authorized. Presently, to ensure appropriate
supervisory staffing in Patrol five sergeants have been assigned. The Bicycle Unit works varying
days and shifts with no direct sergeant, and will instead report through the swing shift sergeant.
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The Bicycle Unit is primarily responsible for the downtown business district. The bicycles
provide excellent mobility around the very congested shopping, dining, and entertainment
district. Officers riding on bicycles will generally have a height advantage over pedestrians and
vehicles, which provides a greater field of view for spotting suspicious/criminal activity. The
officers are also very visible to the pedestrians, which creates a sense of security for the average
citizen and acts as a visible deterrent for criminals.
The Unit’s primary goal is to ensure a safe experience for the customers and business
owners/employees in that area. Depending on the day of week and time of year, the downtown
corridor can become heavily congested with people seeking an enjoyable evening. There are
numerous restaurants and bars in the area, and large crowds, public intoxication, and public
disturbances have the potential to disrupt the area.
This Unit is very much appreciated by the people Citygate interviewed for this study. It is an
asset to the City, and it has been well received by the community.
6.1.4 Use of Community Services Officers
Community Service Officers (CSOs) are non-sworn (civilian) positions without powers of arrest
and do not carry firearms due to liability issues. The Department currently has no CSO positions
authorized.
While a staple for support functions in many small and mid-sized agencies, CSOs have become a
valued position that usually handle lower priority calls which do not require an armed police
officer with arrest powers, freeing sworn officers to concentrate on those incidents requiring their
specific skill set. CSOs typically are paid significantly less than sworn officers, allowing
departments to field more people for the same amount of money. This has the effect of providing
quicker response times to citizen requests for police services.
With increasingly constrained budgets, agencies are now considering the versatility of this
position to augment the ever-increasing demand on sworn staff. Such is the case in San Luis
Obispo. In a municipal police organization, the position of the CSO could perform a multitude of
duties and provide career path alternatives for this classification through assignment rotation.
Cross-training and expanded duties for this classification can include Detention Officer, report
writing, crime scene investigation (CSI), special projects, crowd and traffic control, minor traffic
collision investigation, telephonic follow-up on detective cases, crime prevention, and many
other civilian duties. Data and interviews with Patrol lieutenants and sergeants indicate that a
large portion of the calls, Priority 3 and below, could be handled by a CSO.
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The cost saving benefits over sworn staff include a lower salary range, a less expensive
retirement program, less time to train, lower cost to provide equipment and for transitioning
CSOs to Officer, and less training time as a new Officer.
Most importantly, having the versatility of CSOs in the field can provide greater flexibility in
distribution of sworn officers and response capabilities for police officer response to the more
serious calls for service. Officers freed from report calls are available for those call type where
response times are critical.
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)
The cost of this investment could be mitigated by modifying the current number of allocated
positions in the SNAP program and the cost savings from reducing overtime for patrol officers,
given the efficiencies to be gained by having CSOs. This is further discussed in
Recommendation #14 in the next section.
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6.1.5 Neighborhood Outreach
Neighborhood Outreach is managed by a non-sworn manager. She is responsible for a variety of
programs established to address quality of life issues and to broaden the relationship between the
Police Department and the community. She is a dedicated employee with tremendous enthusiasm
for her duties.
This manager has many tasks:
Manager of the Student Neighborhood Assistance Program (SNAP):
This is a part-time job program for which students are hired from local
colleges for the school year. In practice, it has become seasonal as the
students return home for the summer. Each year, new students have to be
recruited, vetted through a background process, and trained. There are
nine authorized positions in the SNAP program and a budget of just over
$60,000. Currently, only six of the nine spots are filled. Filling the spots
and retaining the employees for the whole year is challenging and time-
consuming.
The SNAP program works at night. They are sent by dispatch to respond
to party calls to educate and advise the partiers about the responsibility to
maintain peace. They can issue warnings, but not citations. They are often
ignored when they knock on the door of the party as they are not respected
as having any authority.
The SNAP program can also issue warnings for parking violations, but
they have no authority to issue a citation or tow a vehicle.
The SNAP program does hold some symbolic value in uniting students
and law enforcement in solving quality of life issues for the community.
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.
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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.
College Outreach:
The Department meets on campus with incoming students each year to
advise them of their responsibilities in the community. Students are
advised of citations related to loud party calls, and the trouble that can be
caused by public intoxication. Students are also educated on how to avoid
being victimized as they adapt to their first time experience living away
from home.
The Department meets with the leaders of all of the recognized sororities,
fraternities, and student organizations seeking to gain cooperation on
keeping parties under control.
The Neighborhood Outreach manager administers the “Avoid Party
Regret” program, to educate students on how to protect themselves from
being victimized at parties, and how to avoid causing negative quality of
life issues for their neighbors and community.
Administrative Appeals Evidence Preparation:
The Neighborhood Outreach manager prepares material/evidence for the
Administrative appeal hearings. Citizens and property owners cited for
Municipal Code noise violations can request an appeal of the fine through
the City. It generally takes an entire day to prepare for a morning of nine
hearings. There is usually one hearing day a month. The City averaged 96
hearings annually for 2015 and 2016. The City has a progressive fine
system for noise offenses. The first violation is $350, then $700, and
thereafter $1,000. The fine is for both the primary renter of the house as
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well as the property owner. Either party can request a hearing to try to
avoid the fine.
Crime Prevention Specialist:
One of the roles of the Neighborhood Outreach manager is to act as the
Department’s Crime Prevention Specialist. That role is commonly defined
as someone from the Department that educates individuals and community
groups about how to effectively use crime prevention tools to reduce
crime and stay safe.
This portion of the duties is often hard to create time to perform due to the
demands of the SNAP program and the quality of life issues related to
parties, student outreach, and administrative hearings. There does not
appear to be great community involvement in the current system of
community meetings. Several have been conducted in the recent past with
only a handful of citizens in attendance.
This is a missed opportunity for the Department to build relationships with
the community and to gain valuable input as to what issues are impacting
the lives of the citizens.
Update: The Department has been very busy, and successful, in
reconstituting rapport with the community. There have been numerous
steps taken since Citygate’s initial interviews to maintain and grow even
further the relationship established with the community. The Department
gained high praise from most of those interviewed for the improvement in
Department-wide community outreach efforts.
Neighborhood Officer Program (NOP):
The Department divided the City into 13 neighborhoods and assigned two
patrol officers to each neighborhood. The idea is that they can be a point
of contact for the citizen for quality of life issues. This program is an
excellent example for building cooperation and trust between the
community and the officers.
The officers are to seek information from the citizens through routine
contacts in their area. They act as liaisons with the Department.
There seems to be confusion from many in the Department as to when and
how officers should be interacting in their neighborhoods. There does not
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appear to be much accountability from Patrol sergeants and lieutenants to
ensure this program is functioning as intended.
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.
NOTE: The Department has recently required all officers to check in regularly at schools
located within their designated neighborhoods. This is an excellent step in bringing officers into
children’s lives outside of some type of enforcement activity. It also helps address desires raised
during Citygate’s City Councilmember interviews about doing more to unite law enforcement
with the youth of the community. This was an excellent development by the Department.
Volunteer Program:
This is not a very vibrant program with only a few volunteers. Overall,
few people from the community are interested in volunteering with the
Department as the program currently exists. This is an under-utilized
resource. The program needs to be revised to create meaningful
opportunities for citizens to contribute to the community. The Department
could recruit for those specific skills needed to assist in the identified
areas. Volunteers need to know their work is needed and appreciated. The
City probably has a tremendous number of highly skilled citizens who
have retired from their careers or other working members who have time
that they would like to apply to community service. Those skills are still
valuable. If the Department can capitalize on this work force opportunity,
the results would pay dividends in workload and community interaction,
and create citizen ambassadors who know and understand the quality
interworking of the Police Department.
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There are currently no student interns in the Department. The background
check was a big hurdle, and students need to sign-up a semester in
advance. This is a missed opportunity to not only garner improved
relations with this segment of the community, but also attract prospective
full-time employees.
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.
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SECTION 7—ADMINISTRATIVE BUREAU
REVIEW
This section reviews the Administrative Bureau, including the Administrative/Investigations
Lieutenant (overseeing Internal Affairs and Investigations functions), Communications/9-1-1,
and Records.
While Citygate’s assessment of the Bureau was thorough, for the sake of brevity and the
usefulness of this document, certain units or squads have been omitted from this report for which
there are no issues or elements of concern to be reported.
7.1 ADMINISTRATIVE/INVESTIGATIONS LIEUTENANT
This position is responsible for all of the Department’s investigations teams, the School Resource
Officer (funding ends in May 2017), the Evidence Technician, and the Property Bureau. This
lieutenant also acts as the point person for Internal Affairs.
7.1.1 Internal Affairs
The Department, as with most agencies, investigates its own internal complaints. During
Citygate’s interviews, it was obvious that the Department is very concerned about maintaining
public trust. Citizen complaints are taken very seriously and are thoroughly investigated.
Complaints against staff can originate from two sources, citizen complaints and employees
within the Department. Once a complaint is filed with the Department, the Administrative
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Lieutenant must ensure that the executive staff is aware of the complaint, and then determine the
proper level of action required.
Minor issues can be assigned to the Subject Officer’s direct supervisor. More involved issues
will be investigated by the Administrative Lieutenant.
It appears the Department has an excellent understanding of the legalities pertaining to internal
investigations. The Department has recently switched to using IAPro to track and store all
information related to Internal Affairs. This is an excellent product that allows for tracking of all
issues related to risk management including complaints, use of force, vehicle accidents, pursuits,
property damage, and others.
The Administrative Lieutenant is charged with completing a thorough investigation, complying
with all the requirements of the Peace Officer Bill of Right (POBR), City requ irements, and
contract language with Recognized Employee Organizations (REOs—employee bargaining
units).
The Administrative Lieutenant makes findings and recommendations on his investigation before
sending the investigation to the captain of the subject officer’s division for a second review of
findings and recommendations. This is not ideal. The investigator should be nothing more than a
neutral fact gatherer. The sole purpose of the investigator should be to find all facts and
document them, not make findings and recommendations.
The internal affairs investigation review process should be updated to include at least one level
of review above the investigator, before it is received by the Chief. That is happening now, but
one of the review levels is the investigator. It would be a better practice for the Administrative
Lieutenant to conduct the investigation and forward it to the employee’s Division Commander to
make findings and recommendations. The file could be forwarded to the subject officer’s captain
for first review of findings and recommendations. It could then be reviewed a second time for
findings and recommendations by the other captain.
During Citygate’s interviews with Police Department staff and with representatives from the
City, it became clear that confusion is created or mistakes are made when routing an internal
investigation through the review and approval process. The investigation needs to be reviewed
by many people in the Department and with City staff. Depending on the severity of proposed
discipline, the case may need to be reviewed by the Chief, the City Attorney, and possibly the
City Manager. To clarify, there were no indications of improprieties or partiality in the current
investigatory process. However, Citygate’s recommendations and findings in such an important
area are offered as critical fine tunings that bring the Department’s processes into alignment with
best practices.
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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.
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.
Implementing such a process would eliminate the investigator having a predetermined outcome
during the investigation, or structuring the investigation to support a finding resulting in a
predetermined outcome. It also preserves the ability of a case to be reviewed by multiple people,
giving the review process greater thoroughness and impartiality. The Administrative Lieutenant
has command over many members of the Department, including all of investigations and the
School Resource Officer. It may become necessary for that Lieutenant to conduct an
investigation of a subordinate as the subject officer. By concentrating solely on an objective
investigation, without determining findings, the integrity of the process will still be protected.
Better tracking is needed to know where every case is in the review process. This is critical,
because statutory time limits dictate how long a case can be held against an employee before the
imposition of discipline must occur. A tracking form should be created and attached to each file.
It will let the person who receives it know how long they have to review the case, and who the
next person is in the process that needs the file.
7.1.2 Investigations
Special Enforcement Team
The Special Enforcement Team (SET) is comprised of a sergeant and three officers. In addition
to this team, the City has one officer assigned to the County Narcotics Task Force. County Task
Forces such as this are force multipliers for the participant agencies. Managing participation in
these is critical to ensure that the Department believes commensurate time and resourcing is
being spent in the City thereby supporting the value added of participating in the Task Force.
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The primary focus of SET has been on narcotics, but is evolving under new direction to add the
duties of any pressing issue facing the community.
In a slight modification of the Investigations Division, the sergeant over SET is also now
responsible for the Investigations Division detectives. Given the increased liability that surrounds
narcotics cases, undercover operations, handling of narcotics, evidence and informant
management issues, commitment of a dedicated supervisor to this function is highly encouraged
and consistent with industry best practices.
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.
Suspected Child Abuse Report
Suspected Child Abuse Report (SCAR) reports can come into the Police Department from a
variety of sources, such as school personnel, hospital staff, doctors, and others who are
mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse or neglect (Penal Code 11166). The Police
Department receives forms when the crime is believed to have been occurring in the City’s
jurisdiction.
SCAR reports are directed to the Persons Crimes Sergeant. Because of the possible severity of
the crime and the vulnerability of the victim, these reports take precedent over other work
occurring within the unit. The work is important and taken very seriously by the investigators.
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Citygate found no issues with the Department’s management of SCAR cases. In fact, the
Department is to be commended for recognizing the potential severity of these cases and making
them top priority.
Detectives
The Investigations Division has separated its detectives into two disciplines: crimes against
people and crimes involving property.
Persons Crime Detectives – Person Crime Detectives investigate crimes against
people including sexual assaults, physical assaults, robberies, homicides, and
child abuse.
Property Crime Detectives – Property Crime Detectives investigates thefts,
burglaries, vandalisms, and identity thefts.
The Investigations Division works very well with patrol officers to advance cases to prosecution.
By allowing detectives to take over long-term investigations, patrol officers are able to return to
their patrol function quicker and be available for the community. The investigators have the time
and some of the resources needed to complete the investigation and present it for prosecution.
The lack of a crime analyst is severely impacting the effectiveness of the Investigations Division,
especially the Property Crime Unit. Many property crime suspects are prolific in the amount and
frequency of the crimes they will commit. Serial burglars and thieves are common in urban
areas, and are usually supporting a drug habit through the victimization of others. When they
need another dose of their drug of choice, they need to commit a theft/burglary to ac quire the
funds for the purchase.
There are crime anal ysis programs available that can track and forecast where a serial
burglar/thief may strike again. Through advance algorithms, patterns can be identified and
predicted based on the activity of serial criminals. Forecasting allows the crime analyst to
predict, with some reliability, a geographical area and time frame when the suspect is likely to
commit another crime. Once the area/time is identified, patrol officers can target their efforts in
that area. Often, through target deployment, the criminal is contacted and identified. These
programs work best when they are performed by a classically trained and skilled crime analyst.
Serial crimes are also committed against people, most often relating to peeping, sexual battery,
indecent exposure, and sexual assault. These patterns can also be detected and predicted through
advanced crime analysis software.
At the time of our interviews, neither the Persons Crime nor Property Crime Units in the
Investigations Division are using any measure of advanced case management. They were relying
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on MS-Excel spreadsheets and manual calculations to determine individual caseload and
clearance rates among the detectives. This can be better handled by migrating this information to
a case management system. The ability to do so already lies within the records management
system (RMS) utilized by the agency.
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 tracking of a case from its
origination by patrol officers through its successful
investigation and prosecution.
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School Resource Officer
The School Resource Officer is assigned to the middle and high schools. The officer assists the
schools in areas related to facility security, crime prevention and investigation on campuses,
serious student behavioral issues, and crime deterrence.
The School Resource Officer is also a tremendous asset for community relations and positive
police interaction with the youth of the City. By all accounts, the School Resource Officer is well
received and supported by both the community and the Department.
Citygate did not identify any issues with this program.
NOTE: Due to overtime, staffing, and budget constraints, effective February 2017, the School
Resource Officer program has been suspended and the position returned to Patrol. Patrol
officers still commit time to the schools; however, the assigned officer position is filling patrol
staffing needs.
7.2 COMMUNICATIONS AND RECORDS
7.2.1 Communications/9-1-1
The Communications Division is a dynamic environment that fluctuates from calm to frenetic,
with little or no warning. As the first point of contact with the public, and with the omnipresent
threats to public, officer, and firefighter safety, the Communications Division requires personnel
and levels of staffing capable of responding accordingly.
The Communications Division is a consolidated 9-1-1 communications center that serves the
Police and Fire Departments. Communications Division personnel are responsible for handling
emergency and non-emergency requests for service and information from the public via the
telephone and via the radio from officers and firefighters. They interact with other county
agencies via the computer aided dispatch (CAD) systems to request and coordinate field
resources. Communications Technicians monitor all radio traffic on the police and fire radio
frequencies and utilize the radio to dispatch units to calls for service, receive unit status updates,
and receive information from field units. They dispatch Police and Fire personnel to calls for
service and provide pre-arrival emergency medical dispatch (EMD) instructions to members of
the public via the telephone.
Workload
In 2016, the Communications Division handled 95,294 incoming and outgoing telephone calls,
which represents a decrease of 960 telephone calls overall compared to 2015. Included in the
2016 total are 19,318 calls to 9-1-1, an increase of 1,078 calls to 9-1-1 compared to 2015. Of the
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9-1-1 calls, 74 percent were from callers using a wireless device and the majority of those, 55
percent, were Phase I, meaning they offered no location information other than the cell tower.
This is noteworthy as it requires the Communications Technician to take more time to pinpoint
the caller’s location if the caller is unfamiliar with the area or not capable of providing his or her
location.
In California, there are two industry standards used to measure PSAP performance as it relates to
9-1-1 answer times. The State of California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services 9-1-1
Emergency Communications Branch’s most recent standard calls for dispatchers to answer 95
percent of all incoming 9-1-1 calls within 15 seconds. It is important to meet this standard
because failure to do so could adversely impact funding provided by the State. The Center easily
met this standard since it was implemented on September 23, 2016 through June 7, 2017 by
answering 99.75 percent of all 9-1-1 calls within 15 seconds.
The other standard was established long ago by the National Emergency Number Association
(NENA). The NENA Operational Standard/Model Recommendation Call Taking Standards are
that, “Ninety percent (90%) of all 9-1-1 calls arriving at the Public Safety Answering Point
(PSAP) shall be answered within ten (10) seconds during the busiest hour (the hour each day
with the greatest call volume).” The Communications Division’s overall answer rate for 2015 for
all incoming 9-1-1 calls within 10 seconds was 96.77 percent. However, while there currently is
no report available through ECaTS to provide a daily report for answer times for the busiest
hour, when data was reviewed for the busiest day in each month of 2015, t here were periods of
time that the Center was well below the national average. For example, during the 2200 ho ur, on
May 5, 2015 (Cinco de Mayo), the Center was only able to meet the standard for 40.91 percent
of the twenty-two 9-1-1 calls received. Any 9-1-1 center can be overrun by a significant incident.
However, the drastic shift in the 9-1-1 answer time during the 2200 hour reflects the effect of
minimal staffing and the impact of not adding staffing for Citywide events that are known to
likely result in a heavier call load.
Again, the Center enjoyed an average overall answer rate for 2016 of 98.12 percent of all the
incoming 9-1-1 calls answered within the first 10 seconds. However, once again, data indicated
that when the busiest day each month was reviewed for 2016, an incident on April 29, 2016
(Good Friday), at 1700 resulted in twenty-two 9-1-1 calls and the Center was unable to meet the
standard with an answer rate of only 63.64 percent. While neither of these instances represents
the overall performance of the Center, which is generally acceptable, they reveal the
vulnerability of the Center and that the minimal staffing of the Center can easily be overrun by a
low number of 9-1-1 calls.
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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.
The Communications Division dispatched 32,737 Police calls for service in 2016, representing
an increase of 818 calls for service compared to 2015. The Division also dispatched 6,187 Fire
calls for service in 2016, representing an increase of 599 calls for service compared to 2015. Of
the Fire calls, 3,899 were medical events, and the Communications Division provided EMD pre-
arrival instructions (PAI) during 3,702 of the medical calls. This is noteworthy, as it required the
Communications Technician to remain on the phone with the caller until the fire and/or medical
resources arrived on scene or until the situation no longer warranted EMD. These types of events
are time-consuming and prevent the Communications Technician from answering other
incoming telephone calls.
In late 2016, non-emergency, administrative business calls, that were previously answered by the
Chief’s secretary, were redirected to the Communications Center with an estimated increase of
200 calls weekly. This increased call load compounds the 9-1-1 call volumes, particularly at peak
hours.
The Communications Division experiences an extremely low level of public or first responder
complaints, with only two complaints in 2016, one of which was unfounded and the other still
pending review. Complaints or issues regarding action or lack thereof and/or attitudes of the
Communications staff in correlation to the workload will often reflect public and first responder
satisfaction. Any substantial increase in complaints can be attributed to an overwhelming and/or
excessive workload, indicating additional staff may be needed.
Additional Telephone Workload
Currently, the data for the telephone lines other than 9-1-1 within the Communications Center,
meaning 10-digit business lines, emergency lines, and outgoing lines, is captured in the Intrado
Management Information System (MIS) instead of utilizing ECaTS. While there are varying
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The Communications Technicians
must make split- second decisions
and, currently, they are doing so
without oversight during the many
hours when there is not a
supervisor on duty or when the
supervisor is performing the duties
of a working dispatcher.
MIS reports available through the Intrado MIS, including these other lines in the
Communications Center in the ECaTS reporting will offer a way for the Communications and
Records Manager to confirm or crosscheck that data. Having these lines included in the ECaTS
reports also provides the ability to easily monitor the length of time required for dispa tchers to
answer these incoming lines.
Although there is no national standard regarding the answer times for all of these other 10-digit
(emergency/non-emergency/administrative) lines in communications centers, the best practices
taught by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) and
the International Academies of Emergency Dispatching (IAED) instructs dispatchers to answer
these lines within two to three rings.
The time from one ring to the next equals approximately six seconds. Monitoring the answer
times on these lines will provide a more accurate picture of the overall efficiency of the
Communications Division. Longer ring times on these lines would suggest a need for additional
personnel, assuming all technology is functioning correctly.
Finding #21: The 10-digit telephone lines in the Communications Division are
not captured in Emergency Call Tracking System (ECaTS)10
reports, though they are captured elsewhere.
Recommendation #22: Install any needed hardware and software to capture all
telephone lines in ECaTS.
Supervision and Oversight
The Communications Division is supervised
by two Communications Supervisors who
report to the Communications and Records
Manager. At one point, staffing included 12
dispatchers who reported directly to the
Communications Manager. When the two
current Communications Supervisor
allocations were added, two positions were
10 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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eliminated from the Communications Technician allocations, dropping the number of dispatchers
who report directly to the Communications Manager from 12 to 10. Since then, one of the
Communications Technician allocations was restored, but the other was not.
The Communications Division is the first point of contact when people have an emergency that
requires a Police and/or Fire response. The Communications Technicians must make split-
second decisions and, currently, they are doing so without oversight during the many hours when
there is not a supervisor on duty or when the supervisor is performing the duties of a worki ng
dispatcher. Absent a supervisor, the Communications Technicians are in the position of having to
make supervisory decisions, without the benefit of the training and guidance that is provided to
supervisors. This is problematic, as it increases the possibility for inconsistent application of
policies and practices and can increase the Department’s exposure to risk and liability.
The importance of communications supervisor is similar to that of a field sergeant in Patrol.
While communications supervisors can assist with workload of the unit they supervise, their
primary responsibility is to provide oversight and management of the call load and ensure
efficient and effective workflow in the Communications Center. This includes administrative
work that is necessary to the daily, 24/7 operation of an all-risk, 9-1-1 and radio communications
center. Risk management is essential in the communication center especially given the dual
discipline responsibilities of police and fire.
The current staffing model does not provide supervisory coverage 24 hours a day and seven days
a week. In fact, for 88 hours each week, there is no Communications Supervisor scheduled to
work. This includes 0300 – 0700 every day and all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, as well as
Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights. Communications Supervisors are a working position.
They are counted as and function as dispatchers when on duty.
Adding three Communications Supervisors will provide supervision 24 hours a day and seven
days a week. It will also provide supervisory coverage, even when a Communications Supervisor
is on vacation, with minimal overtime. Most importantly, it provides continuity of operations,
supervisorial decision-making, guidance, and the expanded knowledge base that is required
during critical or high-risk situations. During the early morning hours (0300–0700), the
supervisor can work as a radio dispatcher and call-taker, if needed.
Communications Supervisor allocations are recommended in this case, rather than “lead” or
“senior” dispatcher allocations. Lead/senior dispatcher allocations are most often successful in
large agencies that have a layer of supervision between the dispatch supervisor and the line level
dispatcher. These allocations are also sometimes used in very small agencies and answer to a
supervisor or sworn personnel.
In reality, if the lead/senior dispatcher is going to be the only supervisorial figure on duty, then
they are a supervisor and should be classified as such. This person is responsible for exercising
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all supervisory authority and responsibility and should have the commensurate title, authority,
and compensation. It is also important to note that lead/senior dispatchers in smaller agencies
tend to straddle a fine line between being a full-fledged supervisor, which would be new to them,
and a regular dispatcher, which is a position they have been and the position held by their peers
and, most likely, friends.
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)
Staffing
As of January 3, 2017, staffing includes 11 Communications Technicians, down from the high of
12 Communications Technicians, though there are currently four vacancies. There is also an
over-hire allocation that was created in preparation for known staff departures due to retirement.
If enough qualified candidates are found, the Communications Division could hire five new
Communications Technicians to bring staffing to 12 until the experienced Communications
Technician retires in 2017, assuming nobody else leaves.
There are two individuals in training and two applicants for which background checks are being
performed. If all four successfully complete training, and if there are no additional staff
departures, the Communications Division will achieve full staffing.
The Communications Supervisors work four 10-hour shifts during a seven-day period. The
Communication Technicians work six 12-hour shifts and one 8-hour shift during a 14-day
period. Overtime is utilized to cover absences due to sick leave and vacation leave, as well as
staffing shortages caused by vacant allocations.
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Staffing in the Communications Division is precarious on several levels. While overall 9-1-1
answer times are within standards, for somewhere between zero and twenty-two 9-1-1 calls
within an hour (the exact number of which is unknown), the Center’s ability to perform
diminishes dramatically. Significant incidents in the City of San Luis Obispo can routinely and
easily generate this volume of calls into the Center exposing vulnerability and resulting in risk
that calls will go unanswered or be mishandled.
Another concern is working with only two Communications Technicians on duty during the
early morning hours. This does not provide sufficient staffing to handle the number of telephone
calls and the radio traffic that occur when there is an incident requiring both a police and fire
response. It also does not allow sufficient coverage for break and meal periods.
Incidents that occur during the early morning hours and require a police and fire response will
occupy the attention of both Communications Technicians—one to operate police radio and one
to operate fire radio. This means that any telephone calls, incoming and outgoing, are competing
with radio traffic associated with these incidents. And, if one Communications Technician is on
meal break, that leaves just one Communications Technician to work both radio channels and
handle incoming and outgoing telephone calls.
Increasing the Communications Technicians allocations, as well as the Communications
Supervisor allocations, will allow adequate coverage to ensure there are at least two
Communications Technicians and one Supervisor on duty during the early morning hours. It will
also allow staff coverage during the busier evening hours, while allowing employees to take
requisite rest and meal breaks.
The existing schedule needs revisiting, with a goal of maximizing coverage during the busier
periods to correspond with peak telephone call and radio traffic levels. The 10-hour shifts for the
Supervisors are not conducive to providing this type of coverage. For all employees, explore
variations of 8-hour, 11-hour, and 12-hour schedules.
It is critical to retain the over-hire position in anticipation of four staff departures in the relatively
near future. Recruitment, hiring, and training should be conducted in advance of these departures
to avoid the dangerously low staffing levels that are present today.
There was discussion about creating contract call-taker positions, at a lower rate of pay, to
increase staffing and introduce additional candidates to the Communications Technician
position. In Citygate’s experience, this tends to be an exercise in futility on many levels.
If the current compensation package is not sufficient to attract qualified candidates, it is unlikely
that more candidates will be attracted when the pay is lower and the position is not permanent.
Additionally, a call-taker is limited to handling telephone calls and cannot operate the radio. This
is extremely limiting and an inferior solution for a communications center of this size.
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Instead, Citygate recommends expending the time and resources to increase outreach and
recruiting efforts. Citygate also suggests conducting a compensation study to determine if pay
and benefits are commensurate to the work required and sufficient to attract the best candidates.
With a university nearby, it seems that there may be opportunities to appeal to students ready to
enter the workforce after graduation.
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.
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)
In discussions with the Communications and Records Manager, many questions regarding
potential changes were answered by explaining that the topic was protected by the current
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). These included, but were not limited to, the length of
the shifts; the start time of the shifts; the compensatory leave time that could be accrued, which
has no limits; and who will train new personnel. It is incredibly difficult to implement change
when the MOU restricts so many aspects of the working conditions. Management should work
together with employee groups included in the MOU to gain some flexibility in trying new ideas
and pilot projects to evaluate any potential changes.
Finding #24: The current Memorandum of Understanding is excessively
restrictive down to the start times for shifts.
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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.
Training
Of all of the jobs in the Communications Division, the trainer is one of the most critical. The
trainer imparts valuable knowledge and helps trainees develop the knowledge, skills, and
abilities critical to a well-run communications center. Among other things, the trainer must be
flexible and able to shift their training style to meet the trainee’s learning style, while providing
the training in a live emergency communications center that allows little to no room for error.
The current training process removes the Supervisors from their supervisorial role, as it requires
all of their attention to be focused on training the new Communications Technician, as well as
functioning as a dispatcher. With only two Supervisors, this limits the Department’s ability to
hire only two Communications Technicians at a time or requires the Communications and
Records Manager to abandon her duties and train new personnel, which prevents the
Communications and Records Manager from conducting her daily duties and is not conducive to
peak productivity, efficient oversight, and basic management. Efforts to shift training
responsibilities to the Communications Technicians were thwarted, reportedly due to union
resistance.
After they have been taught how to train, the line level Communications Technicians are best
suited for conducting the training of new hires. Citygate strongly encourages attendance at the
POST Communications Training Officer course for each staff member who is going to conduct
training. This will help ensure a more consistent delivery of information and structure training in
learning styles.
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.
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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.
Recruitment
The process for recruiting, selecting, and hiring personnel is expensive and time-consuming. In
public safety communications, it is also frustrating as the process often yields one or two new
hires for every 100 or so applications. Industry-wide, the success rate of these new hires is
abysmal, with some agencies reporting a mere 25 percent success rate among those newly hired
employees. It was conveyed during interviews that four of the past six new hires at the
Communications Division are no longer employed. This is a very low success rate for an
expensive and time-consuming process.
Currently, Communications Division personnel are not involved in the recruitment or selection
process. As a result, it is easier to blame trainee failures on the caliber of the person who was
hired and on the decision of the person who hired the trainee. Citygate’s experience indicates that
this results in less ownership from the trainer(s) in the trainee’s success. Involving
Communications Division personnel in the selection process will encourage buy-in and shifts the
responsibility for the caliber of the chosen candidates from Police or Fire Administrators to the
communications personnel involved.
Communications Division personnel also anticipate a minimum of four tenured dispatchers
leaving within the next three years. This will result in a tremendous drain in knowledge, skills,
and organizational history. Involving dispatch personnel and considering new ideas, such as an
information meeting for potential applicants to learn what the job entails, would be beneficial.
Also, implementing newer testing technology, such as one of the industry leaders, CritiCall,
would increase the chances and rate of success.
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.
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Recommendation #27: Involve Communications staff at every stage of the
recruitment process, from pre-employment testing to the
final interview.
Call Load Management
The dispatchers describe a system in which they manually and/or mentally track the type and
complexity of calls for service, as well as which officer has been assigned each call to more
evenly distribute the workload to all field personnel on duty. They work within the CAD system
and track on paper the calls assigned to each officer in an attempt to equally disperse the varying
calls. This adds a layer of work and decision-making that is not necessary. It also lends itself to
tension between the Communications Division personnel and field personnel when there are
perceptions of an imbalance in the assigning of calls.
Workload volume is a function of patrol supervision, beat structure, and deployment metrics. If a
particular beat officer is handling more calls for service, it is the field supervisor’s (sergeant’s)
responsibility to manage the workload. If the workload is consistently unbalanced, then
deployment metrics should be analyzed to determine beat boundary alignment or if it is
necessary to add officers to the beat. Additionally, settings in the CAD system can assist in
assuring a more even call distribution by beat.
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.
9-1-1 Call Volume and Location Accuracy
Wireless 9-1-1 calls are an increasing part of the incoming calls to any communications center,
and this trend is expected to continue. Communication centers generally receive over 70 percent
of their calls from wireless callers. This includes the San Luis Obispo Police Department, which
received 74 percent of its 9-1-1 calls from callers using a wireless device such as a cell phone.
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These calls may take additional time for the Communications Technician to process if the caller
does not know where they are or are unable to communicate their location.
Wireless 9-1-1 calls are routed to communications centers based on many factors, some of which
may be variable, such as cell sector antennae coverage, signal strength, and network volume. The
process used to determine which agency receives the wireless 9-1-1 calls from a given cell sector
requires collaboration with the Communications and Records Manager, the County 9-1-1
Coordinator, and the State 9-1-1 Coordinator, using data that is available from Emergency Call
Tracking System (ECaTS).
Among other things, ECaTS allows users to identify how many calls are received from each cell
sector and how many calls are transferred to another agency. According to ECaTS reports, 100
percent of the wireless 9-1-1 calls from 319 out of 461 (69.2 percent) cell sectors assigned to the
Communications Division are being transferred to another agency, such as the CHP. This
indicates a high level of wireless 9-1-1 calls received in the Communications Division are
requiring a transfer to the appropriate handling agency.
When more than 60 percent of the wireless 9-1-1 calls for a given cell sector have been
transferred to another agency, that indicates the cell sector may need to be rerouted to that
agency. This will allow a greater number of future wireless 9-1-1 calls from that particular cell
sector to go directly to the appropriate agency without transfer. As a result, this should reduce the
number of wireless 9-1-1 calls that are incorrectly being received by the Communications
Division.
It is also possible there may be other cell sectors that have been incorrectly routed to other
agencies. During the cell sector review, the users may identify cell sectors that are routed to other
agencies that have a high percentage of call transfers. In this case, it is possible that some cell
sectors will need to be rerouted to the City’s Communications Division. This could cause an
increase in wireless 9-1-1 calls or it could offset the deficit caused by rerouting other cell sectors
to other agencies. Either way, rerouting cell sectors and reducing wireless 9-1-1 call transfers
will enhance service delivery to the public.
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.
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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 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.
Abandoned Calls
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.
Calls are considered abandoned when the caller hangs up prior to the call being answered in the
9-1-1 center. Although there is no national standard, a 5 percent overall abandoned 9-1-1 call
rate is considered acceptable. A percentage higher than 5 percent may indicate one, or a
combination, of three scenarios. The first scenario is due to inadequate staffing to answer the call
in a timely manner so the caller terminates the call prior to it being answered. The second
scenario involves the loss of cell sector coverage. The third pertains to inadequate call
management where staff does not place the existing call on hold to answer a newer incoming
call.
One of the first steps to resolving this would be to analyze the abandoned calls and determine
how long the call was ringing before the call was abandoned. Long ring times would indicate
insufficient staffing or inadequate call management. Another option would involve tracking the
times when the Communications Division receives the highest average number of abandoned
calls and comparing those times with staffing levels, as well as reviewing incidents that ma y
have caused a spike in calls for a major incident wherein dispatch staff could not possibly have
answered every incoming call.
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.
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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.
Inter- and Intra-Department Communications
The Communications Division is located in a portion of the Fire Department building, in a
separate building than the Police Department. It is not uncommon for employees to feel
disconnected or isolated in this type of setting. Whether it is a major policy decision or an
announcement to wear mourning ribbons for a slain officer, it is important for the Police
Department to maintain open lines of communication and ensure that the Communications
Division employees are provided with information in a timely manner. Routine meetings with
Police and Communications personnel, as well as timely email notifications to Communications
personnel, will help bridge that gap.
There is a perception that decisions are made by the Fire Department without a complete
understanding of the potential impact on workflow in the Communications Division. Variations
in the types of equipment that are used to respond to certain calls appear to have increased and
seem to be much more nuanced when compared to other centers. Generally speaking, fire
dispatching is rather straightforward and very structured, which should lend itself to faster
processing times. The nuanced variations that have been introduced in the City may be detracting
from this. In some cases, a change of protocol or procedure may not create an efficient process in
the Communications Center. Additionally, if the desired outcome is an increase or change in
deployment, including Communications personnel in the formulation of a dispatch protocol to
affect that change may produce a more desirable result. Routine meetings can improve
communication and decisions that impact the workflow in the Communications Division. These
meetings can also provide greater understanding for the reasoning behind a particular change
and/or the reason why a particular change may not be beneficial.
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.
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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.
Response Time
The Department measures response times from the time a call is dispatched until the time the
first unit arrives on scene, which is not an accurate reflection of “response time.”
Calculating response times from the time the officer is dispatched is in conflict with the public’s
expectations as well as the industry standards. Response times should reflect the time frame from
when the public requests a response to when the assistance arrives. Response times consist of
five components: the call answer time, the processing time by the dispatcher, the amount of time
the call for service holds in the queue until a unit is dispatched, the amount of time that lapses
from the time the unit is dispatched, and the time the first unit arrives on the scene. Calculating
response time from the time a unit is dispatched to the time the first unit arrives artificially
improves the time for the Department and misrepresents the total agency response time.
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.)
7.2.2 Records
The Records Unit is responsible for reviewing, entering, and updating police records, reports,
and citations. Records Clerks must research records and provide requested information to law
enforcement personnel, courts, and the public, as appropriate. In doing so, they must adhere to
complex regulations regarding the release of information and public records requests, both
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statewide and nationwide. The Records Unit must also respond to subpoena requests, discovery
orders, and other requests for information. This requires a thorough understanding of the
California Public Records Act (PRA) and the Federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The Records Unit is supervised by one Records Supervisor, who functions as a quasi -manager
and reports to the Communications and Records Manager. Staffing includes five full-time Police
Records Clerks, though there is currently one vacancy, and one part-time Police Operations
Specialist. By all accounts, the Records Unit is a cohesive team that works well together. In
2015, the Records Unit processed 8,629 reports and 6,619 citations, and in 2016, those numbers
increased to 8,907 reports and 7,047 citations.
Until 1998, the Records Unit had its own manager. However, when the Chief fired the Records
Manager, those duties were assigned to the Communications Manager and she became the
Communications and Records Manager. This created a significant increase in workload and
requires a substantial depth and breadth of knowledge, above and beyond what was required
when that position was only overseeing the Communications Division.
Over the years, the duties associated with a Records Manager have changed dramatically. In
addition to the need to possess a thorough understanding of PRA and FOIA, the Manager has to
respond to an increasingly knowledgeable and curious media and public, ensuring the right
information is released under the right circumstances. The Manager also acts as the California
Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS) Agency Terminal Coordinator (ATC),
ensuring that security is maintained for all Department personnel and regulations are strictly
adhered to for computer access to state and national crime databases. These include, but are not
limited to, Stolen Vehicles, Department of Motor Vehicles, Wanted Persons System, Automated
Property System, Restraining Order System, National Crime and Information Center, Automated
Weapons System, and Uniformed Crime Reporting. In addition, there are new reporting
requirements that legislatively will require complex audits on use of force incidents and racial
profiling.
Report Review and Input
As of January 4, 2017, there were 24 reports from December 2016 that had not been submitted
by the responsible officer to the Records Unit for review and entry. There were also hundreds of
citations that had not been processed. These types of delays are not uncommon in t he Records
Unit and have become more or less accepted as a way of life. As of October 11, 2016, there were
still 12 reports from September 2016 that had not been submitted by the responsible officer to the
Records Unit for review and entry. In addition to the reports, there were also estimated to be
more than 100 citations in the Records Unit awaiting entry into the records management system
(RMS). It was explained that the citations are entered after certain reports have been entered,
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based on priority, usually within four weeks of receiving the citation and within a couple of
weeks before the court date.
The Records Unit cannot be held accountable for reviewing reports and citations and entering
them in the RMS when the reports and citations have not been submitted to the Records Unit.
The delay in submitting reports and citations extends far beyond the timely entry of the
information. This is similar to the distribution of duties discussed in the Call Load Management
subsection, which describes the field sergeant’s responsibilities. Management of the workload
and quality of the work product of the field officers is, or should be, the responsibility of the field
supervisors. Performing that task in a timely manner should greatly reduce any delay in data
entry, or at the very least determine if the Records Unit is adequately staffed to handle this
portion of the workload.
These delays adversely impact service delivery to the public, prohibit the required timely
reporting of Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) statistics, and prevent the accurate gathering,
analysis, and dissemination of statistical information that is useful for intelligence-led policing.
By way of example, the November 2016 UCR data was not submitted until the end of December.
This also exacerbates the workload in the Records Unit by causing members of the public to call
repeatedly, over the course of up to four weeks, requesting a report, only to be told that it is not
ready yet. The inconvenience of having to call repeatedly is detrimental to cus tomer service and
community partnership. The follow-up phone calls could be eliminated completely if reports and
citations were submitted and entered in a timely manner.
While the late submission of reports and citations is clearly an inhibitor to timely data entry and
reporting, an efficiency study is suggested to determine if there is disparity in the quality and
quantity of workload being completed by each Records Clerk. By having each Records Clerks
focus on one task for a day (i.e., one Records Clerk is responsible for entering citations and
nothing else), the Records Supervisor can compare productivity by quality and quantity. It is also
recommended that this task be rotated daily, and that productivity be measured at the end of the
week. The same approach should be taken with reports, even breaking the reports down by type,
if necessary.
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.
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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 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.
The current process for submitting, reviewing, and entering reports places the Records Clerks in
a quasi-supervisorial role over sworn personnel and also creates a time-consuming bottleneck in
the process by having the Records Clerk review the report prior to the sergeant or lieutenant
reviewing the report. If there are questions, inconsistencies, or other issues with the report, the
Records Clerk attaches the appropriate slip and forwards the report to the sergeant or lieutenant.
The sergeant or lieutenant reviews the report and returns it to the officer for correction. Once the
officer makes the corrections, the report is submitted to the Records Unit and the process is
repeated.
This process can be easily streamlined by having the officers submit their reports directly to their
sergeant within the specified timeframe. This will allow sergeants to be more aware of those
officers who are submitting their reports on time and those officers who may benefit from
additional guidance or training when completing reports. It also places the sergeant in the role of
supervising the quality and quantity of each officer’s workload instead of placing the civilian
Records Clerks in that role. This process also provides the opportunity to prompt interaction
between the officer and the supervisor regarding a work product that is likely to be seen by the
public and the courts. Modifying this workflow may require additional training for the sergeants
and lieutenants who will be viewing and approving the reports prior to Records staff.
Instituting a change with the implementation of the new Law Forms software would provide
officers the capability to write reports on their mobile computers. It was discussed that this
policy has not been established regarding the workflow on this new system. Typically, officers
will enter their reports on their mobile data computers and the report is electronically forwarded
to a sergeant for review and approval. Once the report has been approved, it is electronically
forwarded to the Records Unit and, if appropriate, detectives for follow-up. This shifts the role of
the Records Clerk away from data entry to more of a quality assurance role, focusing on specific
areas of the report, such as location and victim information and application of the correct UCR.
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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.
Records Supervision and Distribution of Duties
Citygate discovered a high level of commitment within the Records Unit to quality control,
starting with the Records Supervisor. While this level of commitment and concern is admirable,
the level of effort oversteps boundaries and is taking valuable time away from time-sensitive
tasks that need to be completed and are within the purview of the Records Unit.
For example, the Records Supervisor reviewed 1,971 calls for service in July 2016 and 1,936
calls for service in August 2016 that were cleared without a report being written to ensure the
calls were cleared correctly. When extrapolating these two months out to 12 months, the Records
Supervisor will review approximately 23,442 calls for service in CAD. For 2015, the amount
reviewed added up to more than 29,000 calls for service, which was found by subtracting the
number of reports that were completed from the total number of calls for service for the year.
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Even if it only takes 60 seconds to review each call for service and move on to the next one, this
task consumed more than 32 hours of the Records Supervisor’s time each month in July and
August. For 2016, it is projected that this process will consume more than 390 hours of the
Records Supervisor’s time (23,442 calls for service divided by 60 minutes for an hour equals
390.7 hours).
This type of quality control is better suited for sergeants, as they have supervisory responsibility
over the patrol officers, and they can conduct the task as time allows, as well as disperse it over a
group rather than have the responsibility fall on one person. With the sergeants conducting
random spot checks on calls for service that were cleared without a report being written, it also
allows the sergeants to notice individual officer response times and miscellaneous information
that may shed insight on an officer’s productivity and understanding of what types of incidents
should be documented. The Department can establish policy to determine how many calls for
service the sergeants should review per officer per month. Placing this responsibility with the
sergeant or watch commander is consistent with industry best practices.
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.
Workload
The Records Unit environment is professional and open to members of the Department to walk
in and conduct business and/or visit. While open communication between the Records Unit
personnel and Department personnel may be desired, at some point interruptions are detrimental
to productivity and efficiency.
While it is desirable to have an open door policy that allows the cultivation of professional
relationships, this practice can be disruptive and counterproductive. This is not intended to
discourage open communication on business-related matters. Rather, it is intended to reduce non-
work-related activities and conversations that prevent the Records Clerks from completing their
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job related duties. This is one of the responsibilities of the Records Supervisor and should be
factored when assessing the management of workload and need for appropriate staffing.
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.
Staffing
Staffing levels in the Records Unit seem barely sufficient to stay abreast of workload and absorb
absences for vacations, holidays, training, and sick leave, which are usually not backfilled with
overtime. The Records Clerk vacancy that was not filled until early 2017 exacerbated the
situation, especially as it pertains to managing the data entry backlog for reports and citations.
Filling this vacancy should certainly help managing the current workload and reducing the
backlog of report and citation entries. However, it is not certain this will be sufficient to
eliminate the backlog, especially considering there is anticipated population growth for the City.
Adding a full-time Records Clerk allocation offers an array of opportunities to eliminate backlog
and enhance customer service. Additionally, if staffed, this position should allow the reallocation
of business calls previously redirected to dispatch, to be answered by records personnel during
normal business hours. This allocation can be utilized to cover scheduled absences, such as
vacation leave, holiday leave, and training leave, thereby eliminating the need to use overtime. It
can also be used to enhance staffing at the front desk and provide assistance to the public without
interrupting the remaining Records Clerks.
Currently, Records Clerks periodically work overtime on weekends in an effort to reduce the
backlog. It was discussed that when working overtime on Saturday or Sunday, Records Clerks
are more efficient because they are able to work uninterrupted. As a stopgap, or possibly in lieu
of additional staff, consider a schedule modification wherein at least one staff member works a
weekend day. This will allow the Records Unit to process reports and citations as they are
submitted during the weekend, rather than waiting until Monday to try to catch up. Although this
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can be a difficult change for staff at first, with time the realization of the benefits could offset the
adjustment pains.
Furthermore, discussion revealed that the staffing vacancy in the Records Unit existed for about
one year. Streamlining the recruiting and hiring process, with consideration given to outsourcing
the background investigation to private contractors, will allow new employees to be hired in a
timelier manner.
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)
Functionality of Work Area
When fingerprinting services were moved to the current location in the Records Unit, it
eliminated the second service window. This makes it challenging for Records Clerks to assist
people in a timely manner and also makes it challenging to maintain the customer’s privacy
when discussing their needs. Focus on the ability to assist more than one citizen at a time with
the appropriate level of privacy. Rather than have staff return to their desks to make inquiries,
provide a telephone and a computer with network access. In addition, consider installing bullet -
resistant glass to protect staff from any threats and increase the Records Unit’s surveillance
capabilities to include the views currently available to the Communications Center and Watch
Commander.
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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.
Dictation Services
Records Unit personnel are transcribing dictated reports for a small number of officers. The time
spent on dictation is time taken away from processing the backlog of reports and citations. There
were recent discussions to outsource this process, but with so few members of the Department
utilizing this method of submitting reports, a better suggestion would be that those individuals
receive any additional training needed to deter them from using this process rather than consider
the expense and time involved with transcribing dictated reports. Continuing this practice only
serves to enable those officers who have not advanced to the current technology and it forces
additional training and a unique skill set to be maintained by Records Clerks.
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.
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Public Access to Reports and Online Reporting
Online reporting was unsuccessfully attempted and abandoned in 2005, causing members of the
public to come to the police station to obtain a copy of a report or requiring an officer to respond
to their location to create a report. Over the years, online reporting systems have undergone
major changes both in capability and integration with CAD and RMS. Online reporting should
be reconsidered both for the convenience of the public and reduction in workload for the field
officers and ultimately the Records Unit staff. The timing is right with the majority of the public
at ease with technology, so long as it is designed and implemented correctly.
Additionally, the City’s fee schedule that establishes the cost for an individual or businessperson
to obtain copies of certain reports and documents is convoluted and difficult to explain to the
public. It is unnecessarily complicated and there is very little flexibility for collecting fees if the
requestor is not able to drive to the Police Department to make payment.
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.
Distribution of Workload
Records Clerks share the responsibility with each other for assisting the public at the front desk.
Greeting and helping the public at the front desk are important components of the Records Unit
function for connecting with members of the community and representing the Police Department
in a pleasant and professional manner. Unfortunately, without one individual responsible for this
task, each new individual arriving at the front desk requires the Records Clerks to interrupt their
report and citation entry work to assist the individual.
Offloading these tasks to a specific Records Clerk should increase productivity of the remaining
Records Clerks. The front desk assignment could also be rotated among the Records Clerks on a
daily basis to more evenly distribute workload.
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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.
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.
CAD and RMS Enhancements
It is not uncommon for CAD and RMS users to express frustration with limitations to
functionality, perceived and real, within these systems. Over the years, most vendors have
moved away from customizing systems to avoid complications that have arisen when installing
product updates among diverse users. Even when regression testing has been used, clients with
custom products have suffered from unanticipated glitches.
Records Clerks are under the impression that their suggestions for updates to enhance the
functionality of the Spillman RMS are not considered by the vendor. Like many CAD/RMS,
Spillman Technologies is a “commercial off-the-shelf” solution (COTS), with very limited
customization available. However, Spillman Technologies offers an annual Users’ Conference,
as well as an online portal for clients to submit ideas and suggestions. Spillman has a history of
welcoming user suggestions, and all clients are included in the voting process to determine
which submissions will be considered for implementation.
The Records Unit is encouraged to maintain a list of needed or requested enhancements and
submit them to Spillman Technologies for consideration. Specifically, the Unit should develop
and submit to Spillman Technologies a document that identifies the need for the enhancement(s)
and describe the desired outcome(s). Suggestions can also be submitted in multiple years, if they
are not originally implemented. It should be noted that Motorola Solutions recently acquired
Spillman Technologies, which could result in changes to this process, but that has not been
determined to date. At least one representative from the Records Unit should attend the annual
Spillman Users’ Conference and network throughout the year with Spillman users from other
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agencies to gain support for the requested enhancement(s) and/or identify work-arounds that
have been discovered by other users.
Impending Retirements: Planning for the Future
The Communications and Records Manager has announced her intent to retire in September of
2017 after 34 years of service, which presents a unique and challenging opportunity for the
Department. It would seem difficult, if not impossible, for anyone to successfully step into this
position and perform at even a fraction of the competency of the current Manager. This is not to
say there are not eminently qualified candidates to take on a Manager role; however, due to the
expansion of responsibilities and increased complexity that have occurred over 34 years, the
current Manager is performing the duties of at least two positions.
While traditionally these units were considered mostly clerical in nature, they now require a high
level of expertise, as well as familiarity with the various technologies in use. They also require
knowledge of local, state, and national laws, regulations, and standards. Without this level of
expertise, the Department, and ultimately the City, is exposed to a high degree of exposure and
liability.
The Communications Center and the Records Unit each demand a unique set of qualifications,
skills, and knowledge that have increased and become much more complex over time.
Additionally, the incumbent manager has acquired duties over the years that are outside the
typical scope of work for a Communications Manager and/or Records Manager. For instance,
many data requests that would normally be handled by a crime analyst are currently forwarded to
the Communications and Records Manager.
Separate managers for each of the two units would afford the individual manager the ability to
develop a greater level of expertise and focus on a specific discipline, as well as create an
effective span of control. For instance, the Communications Manager needs the knowledge, skill,
and time to focus on operational aspects that include quality assurance, performance
measurements, personnel matters, national standards, existing equipment, and emerging
technologies, among other things. This manager must also be knowledgeable about state funding
and be prepared to work with vendors to replace some equipment every five to eight years. This
requires working within the City’s procurement system and the state’s procurement system.
Likewise, the Records Manager needs the knowledge, skill, and time to focus on many of the
same operational aspects as the Communications Manager, but in a different context. While
equipment may not be replaced as frequently, it does undergo routine upgrades that require the
manager’s expertise and focus. Additionally, this manager must be knowledgeable of, and able to
work within, local and state laws and regulations regarding the release of information and
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abiding with the California Public Records Act, among other things, which can have adverse
consequences if the Department is not in compliance.
Also, in an era when intelligence-led policing is at the forefront of contemporary practices, it is
more important than ever to have a trained crime analyst who is skilled at gathering, analyzing,
and disseminating information. This will ensure the information is shared in a timely manner and
with the requisite background and context. The Department and the community will also benefit
from having the crime analyst interact with a network of other crime analysts across the local
region, the state, and the nation. Consideration might be given to having this position absorb
some of the duties currently performed by the Administrative Sergeant.
Additionally, consideration should be given to having these two newly created manager positions
and the crime analyst report to a civilian command staff level position. Civilians are governed by
different rules and employment law. Creating a command staff position would provide th e
greatest opportunity of success, as this individual should develop a level of expertise regarding
civilian supervision and management. It would also assist in providing a thorough career path,
thereby encouraging retention and promotional opportunities for the support staff of the
Department. Creating a civilian command staff position also allows the Department to consider
the possibility of transferring command and oversight of other civilians to this position, such as
the property and evidence staff, thereby allowing sworn leadership to focus on sworn members
and their role in the agency. Again, this position might be able to assume some of the
responsibilities currently performed by the Administrative Sergeant.
There was discussion about possibly replacing the Communications and Records Manager with a
lieutenant or other sworn allocation. This would not be the best course of action and is not
advisable. Both of these units require a subject matter expert as a manager, and most sworn
personnel do not have the expertise or the commitment that is required. Additionally, the
inevitable rotation every two or three years creates instability and often results in lack of
oversight, unfinished projects, and neglect of funding or lack of awareness on how to use
funding from the state.
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.
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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.
Implementing this change will allow each manager to focus on his/her specific area of expertise
and mitigate oversights caused by a divergent workload that requires tremendous attention to
detail. This change also significantly increases the opportunity to focus on the people who are
performing the line level jobs and become aware of nuanced changes before they become
significant issues. In addition, strong consideration should be given to the development of a
civilian command staff position to oversee the civilian units of the agency.
NOTE: Prior to the completion of this study, Police and Human Resources personnel acted in
part on this recommendation. The revised job description of the new Communications Manager
is finalized and duties of analysis and records have been removed. Recruitment should be
underway in 2017.
Records Project Management
Two Records Unit projects, the Marijuana Purge Project and the Laser Fiche Report Merge
Project, were depicted as lingering for years with little progress. These, and any other incomplete
work, should be reviewed for value and liability issues to the agency.
It was stated that records are being modified as far back as the 1950s. This would suggest that
these projects may encompass more than is required or more than should be done and that some
records may be retained beyond the recommended retention date.
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.
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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.
Crossover Duties: Crime Analysis and Records
The Department has not traditionally functioned as a data-driven agency. With modern police
departments moving toward intelligence-led policing and the addition of a new Chief, demands
for timely statistical information have increased significantly. In an effort to meet these requests,
the Records Supervisor, Communications and Records Manager, and Senior Management
Analyst have drafted or at the very least provided data for these reports. Although their efforts
are to be commended, interpretation of data of this nature and drawing analytical conclusions are
not their forte, nor have they received training to be qualified in this area of expertise. These are
the functions of a crime analyst.
The Department demands for timely data and analysis will only grow and consideration should
be given to adding a crime analyst allocation and hiring an individual who is specifically trained
in this area. Crime analysis, prediction and prevention, and intelligence-led policing have made
huge strides over the past few decades, and employing an expert in this field can only enhance
the capabilities of the entire Department, as well as improving the quantity and quality of data
available to all levels of the Department.
The recent purchase of the Spillman Technologies ComStat Management Dashboard should
greatly enhance the Department’s capabilities. This customizable CAD management tool
provides members of the Department the ability to easily view calls for service by locations and
hour of the day and allows for comparisons by week, month, quarter, or year. The dashboard
supports reports on response times, a statistic not traditionally available at the Department, and
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allows comparison to national standards set by professional organizations. This allows
management to make appropriate changes in staffing or schedules to increase effectiveness.
Implementation of this Spillman module should not be delayed.
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.
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.
Special Event Staffing
There are several occasions each year when additional officers are deployed to the Patrol
Division on an overtime basis for increased visibility and enforcement. This typically coincides
with a special event or holiday, such as Cinco de Mayo celebrations, and results in an increase in
reports, citations, and arrests. However, the Department has not deployed additional Records
Clerks to handle the increased workload generated by these events. This contributes to the
existing backlog of report and citation entries.
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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.
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SECTION 8—ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
CONSIDERATIONS
8.1 GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
Given the post-recession recovery, the City is now processing multiple applications for
residential and commercial growth. Some of these are in existing neighborhoods, and others are
in the southern City and County areas adjacent to the City being studied for annexation. The
City-provided figure on the following page shows the locations of the 64 projects that were
under various stages of development application as of February 1, 2017:
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Figure 19—Proposed Development Projects in the City
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For the City, there are three major
influences on the population growth
as it relates to police impacts and
calls for service: impending growth
through annexation and infill
development, increases in student
populations from Cal Poly and
Cuesta College during college
sessions, and the tourism
population, which ebbs and flows
with seasonal attraction to the area.
Depending on final approvals, these
projects represent the addition of several
hundred thousand square feet of
commercial uses and several hundred
dwelling units. More than fifteen of these
projects are in the southern City and
possible annexation areas. Avila Ranch
alone could add 700 dwelling units. There
is no question that the City’s police
services will have more population,
buildings, and job locations to protect in
the southern City areas.
Growth projections and the resultant
impacts on police staffing can be projected
based on articulable data and historical
calls for service. Staffing impacts vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction depending on the service
delivery model, building and occupancy types, zoning, transportation planning, calls for service,
and fluctuations of populations. For the City, there are three major influences on the population
growth as it relates to police impacts and calls for service: impending growth through annexation
and infill development, increases in student populations from Cal Poly and Cuesta College
during college sessions, and the tourism population, which ebbs and flows with seasonal
attraction to the area.
The draw of the community—its climate, amenities and quality of life—drives population
growth. The Planning Department’s growth projections indicate an additional 2,500 homes over
the next ten years. Most of this growth is planned to be single-family residences. Additionally,
the student enrollment at Cal Poly is projected to reach 22,500 full-time equivalent (FTE)
students (25,000 head count) by 2035.11 While Cal Poly is planning to increase on-campus
housing, student impacts on eating and entertainment venues in the City will increase based on
this growth. The on-campus housing will have little impact in the reduction of calls for service
for the Police Department.
There is a need to expand data collection on police calls for service demographics to understand
and predict, to any degree, call type changes by differing populations as well as the types of
buildings to include dwellings, businesses, and permitted uses. This information can be easily
11 Draft Cal Poly Master Plan 2035. Web. September 28, 2016.
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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
added to dispatch incident history files to create retrievable data fields that track the impacts of
new residents and building types.
With as little as one year of data, demand for service projections can start to provide a foundation
for use permit conditions as they relate to occupancy, entertainment, California Department of
Alcoholic Beverage Control licensing type, and hours of operation.
The following list shows data categories that need documentation to aid in analyzing the impacts
on police services. All of these coincide with the life safety issues that are similar to the
inspectional processes the Fire Department conducts. They represent the additional data
categories needed to augment current calls for service basic data:
Residential calls for service
Single-family residence (if shared student or multi-family use or multi-
family complex)
Rental vs. owner occupied
College associated
Alcohol related
Restaurants / dinner house / entertainment venue / tasting rooms / grocery stores
Alcohol license type
College associated
Type of entertainment.
There are several cities in California that have adopted ordinances and regulation s to address this
type of data and help identify those types of uses that have greater potential for impacting law
enforcement service delivery. Five of those cities are Orange, Fullerton, Placentia, Irvine and
Indio.12
12 The tracking of information is foundational to identifying appropriate ordinances to help guide uses and minimize
calls for service impacts. The development to these data sets are beyond the scope of this study. There are firms and
published practices that can aid cities and counties in development plan review of law enforcement impacts, crime
prevention through environmental design (CPTED), and reviewing and developing these guidelines.
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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
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.
8.1.1 Near Term Police Staffing Projections Based on Existing Service Gaps and
Population Growth Rates
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
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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
the City. Thus, the City should not use an assumption that calls for service increase as resident
population increases.
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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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Table 20—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.
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Section 9—Next Steps | 145
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
SECTION 9—NEXT STEPS
In conclusion, Citygate has identified steps that can be taken by staff to move the Police
Department forward, both in the short- and long-term. 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.
9.1 SHORT-TERM
There are many recommendations in this study that could be completed with current resources
and staffing. They should be evaluated and discussed amongst the stakeholders. Those that
appear to bring value to the Department and the community should be instituted. Short-term
goals include:
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
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Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
Reassign supervisory duties for report review and approval at sergeant level
Fill vacant sworn positions
Implement Internal Affairs tracking protocol.
9.2 LONG-TERM
The long-term goals identified in this process would require new staffing, funding, equipment or
labor negotiations. The acquisition or implementation of these items would require significant
assistance from the City Manager and City Council. An example would be the creation of a
Community Services Officer position within the City, the funding for the position, and the hiring
of the personnel.
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.
Appendix A—Workload Time Allocation – Limited Time Frame | 147
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
APPENDIX A—WORKLOAD TIME
ALLOCATION – LIMITED TIME FRAME
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Appendix A—Workload Time Allocation – Limited Time Frame | 149
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
San Luis Obispo Police Department
Availability Time Analysis by Tencode
*** SUSPECT ELAPSED TIME DETECTED ***
Unit/Officer Status Total Accumulated Time Starting Time and Date
98 Available 07/06/16
AVAILABILITY CHART
Unit/Officer TOTALS
DAY SHIFT CALLS 0/0 OF AVAILABLE/ 0/0 OF ADMIN/ % OF TOTAL
FOR TIME PROACTIVE TIME REPORT TIME HOURS
SERVICE WRITING WORKED
HOURS
Monday DAY 821.69 35.98 537.42/181.11 31.46 743.53 32.56 2283.74
NIGHT 509.48 30.36 511.56/249.13 45.32 408.22 24.32 1678.39
Tuesday DAY 836.43 31.45 705.32/197.06 33.93 921.08 34.63 2659.88
NIGHT 563.12 34.47 481.29/193.34 41.29 395.99 24.24 1633.75
Wednesday DAY 820.37 27.59 783.08/273.83 35.55 1096.06 36.86 2973.34
NIGHT 568.70 19.82 1520.48/231.09 61.04 549.20 19.14 2869.47
Thursday DAY 906.79 30.19 741.09/238.99 32.63 1116.85 37.18 3003.72
NIGHT 600.42 26.58 715.43/346.90 47.04 595.81 26.38 2258.56
Friday DAY 878.61 34.13 633.79/260.41 34.74 801.34 31.13 2574.14
NIGHT 717.93 29.50 749.01/381.34 46.44 585.65 24.06 2433.92
Saturday DAY 746.73 36.05 536.97/196.91 35.43 590.50 28.51 2071.11
NIGHT 714.89 28.92 721.16/436.46 46.83 599.50 24.25 2472.00
Sunday DAY 585.59 36.97 410.79/144.71 35.07 442.92 27.96 1584.01
NIGHT 602.47 30.75 587.09/378.63 49.28 391.37 19.97 1959.56
TOTAL 9873.22 30.42 9634.48/3709.89 41.12 9238.03 28.46 32455.59
Report Includes:
All dates between 06/01/16' and 12/31/16', All unit agencies matching SLP*' All officer/unit(s), All days in range
rpcaval.xl 01/25/17
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Appendix B—Growth Projection References | 151
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
APPENDIX B—GROWTH PROJECTION
REFERENCES
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Appendix B—Growth Projection References | 153
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
SUMMARY OF 2014 RESIDENTIAL LAND USE ELEMENT RESIDENTIAL GROWTH
City of San Luis Obispo, Council Memorandum
April 14, 2016
TO: Mayor and Council
FROM: Michael Codron, Community Development Director
VIA: Katie Lichtig, City Manager
SUBJECT: Residential Growth Management
ENC: Summary of 2014 R esidential Land Use Element Residential Growth
This memo is being provided to the City Council to provide context with respect to the status of
residential growth in the City following adoption of the 2014 Land Use Element. The memo and
attached spreadsheet should provide Council, staff, and the community with an unde rstanding of
the current amount of residential development in various phases of City review. In addition, the
memo clarifies some key assumptions that are made in the Land Use Element based on analysis
of demographic tr ends.
Overview of Anticipated Residential Development
The attached table of residential development represents proposed projects in various phases of
City review following the adoption of the Land Use Element (LUE) in 2014. It is important to
know that the 2014 LUE ‘reset’ residential development capacity and growth expectations. The
numbers provided in LUE Table 3 are accurate and serve as the basis for implementation of the
City’s Growth Management Regulations.
The various phases of City review shown on the enclosed spreadsheet establishes the ‘certainty
of development’ spectrum for projects moving through the entitlement process. The City’s
Growth Management Regulations use building permit allocations to ensure compliance with the
City’s 1% growth policy, so those projects with building permits issued are considered “in the
pipeline.” Projects that have submitted applications for building permits, public improvement
plans for new subdivisions (PIPs), or that already have some form of entitlement such as a use
permit or Architectural Review, are more likely to move forward than those to the right of the
bold line on the attached spreadsheet.
Although staff cannot predict specific timelines for project completion because of a variety of
complicating factors, it is important to know that the City’s long range planning is based on the
assumption that all of the development envisioned in the General Plan would be constructed by
the build-out year, or 2035. In other words, the City is planning for full build-out by ensuring
that development proceeds in a manner that can be supported by available resources, and all
appropriate measures to ensure that Cit y goals and objectives for transportation, air quality,
water resources, public safety, parks and recreation, and open space conservation (to name just a
few areas of consideration) are met through the implementation of the General Plan.
154 | Appendix B—Growth Projection References
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
RESIDENTIAL UNIT GROWTH (AS OF APRIL 2016)
Appendix B—Growth Projection References | 155
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
RESIDENTIAL UNIT 20-YEAR GROWTH PROJECTION (AS OF APRIL 2016)
156 | Appendix B—Growth Projection References
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
ADDITIONAL GROWTH PROJECTION INFORMATION
Additional growth projection documents are listed below, along with the website address.
General Plan Annual Report (growth projections):
www.slocity.org/home/showdocument?id=10775
Margarita Area Specific Plan (new residential neighborhood and business park,
Prado Road connection): www.slocity.org/home/showdocument?id=4070
Avila Ranch Specific Plan (new neighborhood in the planning phase on the
periphery of the City): www.slocity.org/government/department-
directory/community-development/planning-zoning/specific-area-plans/avila-
ranch
San Luis Ranch (infill neighborhood near commercial center on Madonna Road,
adjacent to existing residential): www.slocity.org/government/department-
directory/community-development/planning-zoning/specific-area-plans/san-luis-
ranch
Orcutt Area Specific Plan (new neighborhood under construction, at the south east
edge of the City, east of the railroad tracks):
www.slocity.org/government/department-directory/community-
development/planning-zoning/specific-area-plans/orcutt-area
Appendix C—Effects of Proposition 47 on Crime Rates | 157
Comprehensive Services Delivery and Staffing Review City of San Luis Obispo, CA
APPENDIX C—CALIFORNIA POLICE CHIEFS
ASSOCIATION REPORT – EFFECTS OF
PROPOSITION 47 ON CRIME RATES IN
CALIFORNIA
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California Police Chiefs Association P.O. Box 255745 Sacramento, California 95865‐5745
(Office) 916‐481‐8000 (Fax) 916‐481‐8008 e‐mail lmcgill@californiapolicechiefs.org
website www.californiapolicechiefs.org
California Police Chiefs Association
Membership Issues Report
Date: October 5, 2016
To: President Ken Corney
CPCA Board of Directors
From: Robert M. Lehner, M.B.A., Chief of Police
City of Elk Grove Police Department
Subject: Effects of the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act (Proposition 47) on Crime Rates in
California
OVERVIEW
The California Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act was offered to the voters of California as
Proposition 47 in November 2014. It proposed to reduce most drug crimes associated with personal use
from felonies to misdemeanors, including possession of heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine. Most
theft‐related crimes involving property valued less than $950 were reduced to misdemeanors including
shoplifting, commercial burglary, and check fraud. The Act was also viewed by proponents as the “end
of the War on Drugs.”
The basic argument in favor of Proposition 47 was that California’s tough‐on‐crime laws had resulted in
the mass incarceration of non‐violent criminals, a disproportionate rate of incarceration of persons of
color and, while it was acknowledged that overall crime rates were lower than ever before, these
reductions had come at too high a social and economic cost. It was argued that drug users and other
non‐dangerous, non‐violent criminals would better benefit from treatment programs than jails and
prisons.
The Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated the state would save $150‐250 million annually due to
reduced prison costs and that counties would save over $100 million each year. State savings were
proposed to go to a Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Fund to be distributed 25 percent to the
Department of Education, 10 percent to the Victim Compensation Fund, and 65 percent to the Board of
State and Community Corrections (BSCC). Proponents argued that there was no reason to suspect crime
would increase should Proposition 47 pass, indeed it would probably go down, because treatment
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outside of prison is more effective than treatment in prison. Proponents made no reported attempt to
estimate the economic cost to victims should there be an increase rather than a decrease in crime.
The California Police Chiefs Association (CPCA) and others who opposed Proposition 47 argued that jail
space needed to house these new misdemeanants whether pre‐trial, sentenced, or revoked from
probation, as well as supervision, monitoring, and treatment services, would be limited due to the
recent shift of state prisoners realigned under AB‐109. With these critical crime prevention tools
focused almost exclusively on perceived more serious offenders, those committing “minor” offenses –
which make up the bulk of crime and that of most significance to CPCA member cities – would not be
held, supervised, or monitored, resulting in an increase in victimization in our cities, particularly
associated with property crime.
The California Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act (Proposition 47) passed in November 2014 by
almost 60 percent of the vote. Persons arrested for reclassified crimes were charged as misdemeanors.
Persons serving sentences for previous offenses committed as felonies could petition for resentencing
as misdemeanor and release from prison, and did so in large numbers.
Almost immediately, police chiefs around the state were reporting increased crime in their communities
but reports were anecdotal and, other than efforts in individual cities, not quantified. Those agencies
that regularly report crime updates to their communities were reporting mostly increases but with no
context available. Most agencies issue an early report, usually in January, for the previous calendar year
comparing that year with the year prior. Increases are fodder for criticism from elected officials and the
public.
Official crime data for 2015 (the first year of Proposition 47’s implementation), was not available until
the California Department of Justice (Cal DOJ) released official crime counts in July 2016. Comparison
data for cities outside of California, in other states, was not available until the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) released its Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) for 2015 about October 1, 2016.
Increases get attention and police chiefs knew that they would be summoned to neighborhood groups
and their city councils almost immediately once their crime counts for 2015 were released. To aid in
their presentations and knowing we could not wait for official crime counts to be released and analyzed,
CPCA took on a special, one‐time, data‐gathering effort early in 2016 to aid the membership in providing
some context to their own, individual, crime reports to their constituencies.
CPCA’s initial reports were for that purpose only. Data was incomplete and not official but, based on
these early data, CPCA did report we expected to see a large increase in Property Crime across the State
of California in 2015 over 2014, a reversal in a long trend of declines. We also reported we expected to
see the long trend of declines to continue in the rest of the United States, based on early information
that became available.
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Reacting to reports of crime increases across the state during 2015, Proposition 47 proponents
repeatedly argued that it was “too early” to draw any conclusions from data prior to official releases.
They noted sharp decreases in the number of persons in jails and prisons as well as a significant
reduction in the number of felony arrests. Less publicized was a simultaneous increase in misdemeanor
arrests.
Upon release of the FBI’s UCR for 2015 on September 26, 2016, CPCA reanalyzed 2015 over 2014 data
for California and, for comparison purposes, the entire United States. This report and its conclusions
derive from the official data, not earlier estimates.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Incarceration
The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) concluded that “[r]ealignment substantially reduced the
prison population, but led to an increase in the county jail population of about 10,000 inmates, pushing
the statewide jail population above its rated capacity. Proposition 47 brought the statewide jail
population down to pre‐alignment levels.”1
Arrests and Probation
As a result of the combination of Prisoner Realignment (AB109) and the Safe Neighborhoods and
Schools Act (Proposition 47), there was a large shift of arrests for drug offenses from felonies to
misdemeanors. In 2015, the total number of felony arrests declined from 439,958 to 314,748, a
decrease of 28 percent. The number of misdemeanor arrests, however, increased from 762,006 to
835,370 (+10 percent). The total number of arrests (misdemeanor and felony combined) decreased 4.5
percent but the expected shift from felony to misdemeanor occurred.
The total number of adults placed on probation for a felony in 2015 decreased over 20 percent from
2014 to 2015. The number of adults placed on probation for a misdemeanor in 2015 increased 44
percent. On paper, the shift of numbers from felons to misdemeanants both in terms of arrests and
those placed on probation suggests that the mere fact of this shift does not explain an increase in crime.
Something about the conditions of release and/or the level of supervision (or not) provided to these
probationers is responsible for the corresponding increase in crime. Much more research needs to be
done, but it is CPCA’s opinion that a shift of low level offenders, including drug offenders, from
supervised to unsupervised probation is likely responsible.
Crime
Crime, particularly property crimes, increased sharply after the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act
(Proposition 47) was implemented in California.
There had been a general trend of decreasing crime in the past ten years in the United States, including
California from 2000 to 2014, a trend that reversed sharply in 2015, markedly so in the case of property
crime where California’s increase stands in stark comparison with the continuing decrease in the rest of
the country and, for the first time in 20 years, California’s rate of property crime exceeds that of the rest
of the country.
California had a larger increase in violent crime than did the rest of the U.S., however, the primary cause
of the increase cannot be attributed to Proposition 47 because the rest of the U.S. also increased more
1 Lofstrom, Magus, Bird, and Martin, September 2016. California’s Historic Corrections Reforms. Public Policy
Institute of California.
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than would be expected based on a trend forecast. Violent crime in the U.S. (not including California)
increased 2.18 percent in 2015 compared with 2014. The increase in California was 7.41 percent. It is
possible that Proposition 47 may have played a role in California’s higher rate but to what degree, if any,
is not determinate based on this analysis. California was “middle of the road” among states with respect
to violent crime, 36th out of 50, with a violent crime rate increase of 7.4 percent, roughly double that of
the rest of the states using this measure.
California had a much larger increase in property crime than could be expected based on a trend
forecast. California’s property crime rate increased 7.26 percent in 2015 compared with 2014. The rate
change for the rest of the U.S., however, was well within the predicted range, DECREASING 4.77
percent, compared with California’s 7.26 percent INCREASE. We are unaware of any other public policy
change that would cause such a divergence. Only nine of 50 states reported property crime rate
increases in 2015 compared with 2014. Only Hawaii had a greater increase (17.2 percent) compared to
California’s 7.2 percent increase. Overall in 2015, the average state experienced a DECREASE of 3.7
percent. The gross decrease (including California in this measure) was 3.4 percent.
With respect to cities, the gross violent crime rate in large non‐California cities decreased by 0.99
percent from 2014 to 2015. This decrease was due almost entirely to robberies which decreased 4.13
percent, the only violent crime category with a decrease. The murder rate increased 8.18 percent. In
California, the gross violent crime rate increased 8.35 percent and the murder rate 9.61 percent. Unlike
the rest of the U.S., robberies increased in California’s large cities in 2015 – there was no violent crime
category with a decrease.
The gross violent crime rate in small non‐California cities increased 1.08 percent from 2014 to 2015.
Reported robberies decreased in these cities as well, down 4.27 percent. The murder rate in smaller
cities increased 11.77 percent. In California’s smaller cities, the gross violent crime rate increased 4.3
percent, the murder rate increased 1.69 percent.
Gross property crime rates in the larger non‐California cities decreased 4.45 percent but increased 6.47
percent in comparable California jurisdictions. The experience in smaller cities was similar. In non‐
California cities between 10,000 and 100,000 population, the overall property crime rate decreased 5.07
percent. In California, comparably sized cities reported an increase of 8.35 percent, concentrated in
larcenies and motor vehicle thefts as had been the case in the larger cities.
Proposition 47 clearly had an effect that resulted in an increase in larcenies and auto thefts. It does not
appear to have affected burglaries which declined as they did in non‐California cities, albeit at a lesser
rate. By any measure, implementation of the Safe Schools and Neighborhoods Act of 2014 (Proposition
47) resulted in a large increase of property crime in the state of California.
County Comparisons
A preliminary analysis based on reporting cities was attempted. Results suggest that the increases in
crime, particularly property crime, were not universal across the state. In fact, there appears to be wide
disparity in counties between cities of comparable populations. The fact that crime increased broadly in
the State of California in 2015 but not universally (or generally) across cities located in different counties
suggests strongly that a county‐specific factor, such as jail incarceration , probation, and/or efficacy of
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Page 6
monitoring and treatment programs, played a role in allowing (or not) released minor offenders to
commit future crimes.
Costs of Victimization Associated with Proposition 47
Crimes associated with Proposition 47 cost victims in the State of California no less than $285 million
assuming crime had remained at the same level in 2015 compared with 2014, far more than the
Legislative Analyst ‘s Office and Proposition 47 proponents projected as savings. Had Proposition 47 not
been implemented, property crime would likely have continued decreasing as it did in the rest of the
country. The true victimization cost is therefore much higher, certainly over $300 million and that is
economic loss alone.
Early Estimates for Crime in California 2016
In July and August 2016, 44 percent (213 of 460) California cities responded to CPCA’s survey requesting
Part I crime count data for the first six months of 2016, serving 65 percent of the population in the 460
California cities reporting to the FBI in 2015. When the first six months of 2016 are compared with the
first six months of 2015, month‐for‐month, overall violent crime (not including rape) was up 4.95
percent and overall property crime was down 1.87 percent. These figures were different for the larger
versus smaller cities as follows:
CPCA expects full‐year 2016 data to show a violent crime increase of 5‐6 percent, not adjusted for
population change. CPCA expects full‐year 2016 data to show a property crime decrease of about one
percent, not adjusted for population change.
After thorough review of available data to‐date and an assumption that major policy adjustments were
not made during 2016 in sufficient time to affect offense rates on the part of particular offender
population groups, CPCA does not expect a sudden change in the numbers of people committing crime,
or available to commit crime who are not incarcerated or on supervised release in 2016. Until and if this
population is adequately supervised when on some form of release, they will continue to offend at
approximately the higher rate experienced in 2015 and will continue to do so until some form of
effective intervention is adopted. The approximately $300 million cost associated with increased
victimization in 2015 will be carried forward annually until effective intervention is identified and
implemented.
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INCARCERATION AND ARRESTS/PROBATION
In our various discussions about the crime effects of AB109 and Proposition 47, CPCA members were
less concerned about the reduction in the state’s prison population and more so about the effect of that
population shift on lower level offender populations in county jails and probation systems. We felt that
the Proposition 47 reductions of felony drug and theft crimes to misdemeanors would further stress the
jail, supervision, and treatment services of most counties that had been sharply increased when AB109
was implemented. It was this concern that led to our prediction of increased crime, particularly
property crime, in the state and a cost‐of‐victimization that would likely offset any savings.
Incarceration
The first element of this shift is that of incarceration. When people are in jail or prison, they are isolated
from the rest of the population and prevented from committing crimes in the general public, regardless
of any treatment services they may (or may not) receive. In a recent report, the Public Policy Institute
of California (PPIC) noted:
Realignment substantially reduced the prison population, but led to an increase in the
county jail population of about 10,000 inmates, pushing the statewide jail population
above its rated capacity. Proposition 47 brought the statewide jail population down
to pre‐alignment levels.2
The PPIC study affirms that Prison Realignment had its intended effect of shifting eligible prisoners from
state to county custody and that Proposition 47 shifted the displaced prisoners, largely misdemeanants,
out of custody.
The PPIC report does not evaluate the nature of any supervision provided to these lower level offenders
but we know anecdotally that a correspondingly large increase in the number of county probation
officers and supervised treatment programs did not occur and, those that did, were directed primarily to
the realigned prisoner population. The displaced lower level offenders were largely and, in some
counties, entirely, unsupervised.
Even PPIC noted an increase in crime, first with the implementation of AB109 (limited to Auto Theft),
then with Proposition 47, but caution was advised. Like CPCA, PPIC was forced to work with early
estimates of crime for 2015 but the changes were profound enough to draw obvious conclusions while
awaiting official nationwide data for the complete year 2015 from the FBI. PPIC’s early conclusions with
respect to crime were similar to CPCA’s. Presumably, researchers (including the PPIC) are now working
on full‐year comparisons based on complete, official data. We are confident that independent
researchers will similarly conclude that crime increased after the implementation of Property 47. The
precise mechanism responsible, however, remains to be determined.
2 Lofstrom, Magus, Bird, and Martin, September 2016. California’s Historic Corrections Reforms. Public Policy
Institute of California.
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Arrests and Probation
Assuming the overall number of offenses remains unchanged, if by definition, most drug and theft
crimes are reduced from felonies (in 2014) to misdemeanors (in 2015) one would expect a reduction in
felony arrests and an increase in misdemeanor arrests. In fact, this occurred. In 2015, the total number
of felony arrests declined from 439,958 to 314,748, a decrease of 28 percent. The number of
misdemeanor arrests, however, increased from 762,006 to 835,370 (+10 percent). The total number of
arrests (misdemeanor and felony combined) decreased 4.5 percent but the expected shift from felony
to misdemeanor occurred.3
With this shift, one would expect the proportion of felony arrests associated with violent crimes to go up
and the proportion of drug offenses to go down. In fact, this shift also occurred with the proportion of
felony arrests for violent offenses increasing from 24.5 percent to 34.9 percent of all felony arrests and
drug offenses decreasing from 31.2 to 14.2 percent of felony arrests.4
Misdemeanor drug offenses were correspondingly higher in 2015, making up 19.5 percent of all
misdemeanor arrests in 2015 compared with 12.1 percent in 2014. In numbers, the number of felony
drug arrests declined by 92,425 (‐67.4%) from 2014 to 2015. The number of misdemeanor drug arrests
increased by 70,604 (76.4%).
The real question is how many of these offenders were supervised and monitored to ensure they met
the conditions of their release, including any mandatory substance abuse treatment services? California
Department of Justice does not report supervised probation separately from active probation cases but
the latter numbers provide some insight.
The total number of adults placed on probation for a felony in 2015 decreased over 20 percent from
2014 to 2015. The number of adults placed on probation for a misdemeanor in 2015 increased 44
percent.
On paper, the shift of numbers from felons to misdemeanants both in terms of arrests and those placed
on probation suggests that the mere fact of this shift does not explain an increase in crime. Something
about the conditions of release and/or the level of supervision (or not) provided to these probationers is
responsible for the corresponding increase in crime. Much more research needs to be done, but it is
CPCA’s opinion that a shift of low level, including drug offenders, from supervised to unsupervised
probation is likely responsible.
Large variability in crime rate changes from county‐to‐county from 2014 to 2015 (covered later in this
report) suggests support for this conclusion.
3 Harris, Kamala, Attorney General, July 2016, Crime in California. California Department of Justice.
4 Ibid.
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CRIME
Trend Analysis
The increasing violent crime rate of the late 1970s and 1980s was the impetus for “get tough on crime”
policies in the United States in the 1990s. As incarceration rates increased, violent crime decreased.
Although the effect was most pronounced in the violent crime categories, incarceration rates also
affected property crime rates.
Figure 1. Violent Crime CA vs US, 1960‐20155
5 Except where specifically noted, Rape statistics are excluded from the reported violent crime rate throughout this
report due to definitional differences in the crime during the period of time considered by this analysis.
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Figure 2. Property Crime CA vs US, 1960‐2015
Zeroing in on the more recent past, there was a general trend of decreasing crime in the past ten years
in the United States, including California from 2000 to 2014, a trend that reversed sharply in 2015,
markedly so in the case of property crime where California’s increase stands in stark comparison with
the continuing decrease in the rest of the country and, for the first time in 20 years, California’s rate of
property crime exceeds that of the rest of the country.6
We agree with the FBI’s cautionary comments regarding year‐to‐year changes, especially with regard to
small numbers of jurisdictions but when these data are aggregated, the resulting “macro” data is
valuable because numbers this big do not usually change much over short periods of time and, rarely, do
they depart from expected trend limits. A change outside of expected limits means something
significant occurred in the course of the year. If a significant change affects California similar to the
whole country (as was the case with violent crime), the primary cause is likely not California specific. If,
however, the significant change is only in California (as was the case for property crime in 2015
compared with 2014), then the cause is most likely California specific. The only known broad public
policy change in California that could have caused such an increase was Proposition 47, implemented in
November 2014.
6 These charts and associated analysis are based on “gross” rates. From the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) for 2015, we used the total crime counts in the United States, from every reporting
law enforcement agency and divided by the total population, then subtracted those in California to obtain the
crime counts and rates for California to compare with the rest of the United States. It is the most “macro”
comparison crime data available.
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Violent Crime
A simple trend‐based forecast (95% confidence) was applied to the decreasing crime rates of the past
ten years. For the United States (not including California), a 2015 violent crime rate between 3.07 and
3.39 violent crimes per 1,000 population could be expected. The actual 2015 rate was just outside these
limits at 3.45 violent crimes per thousand.
Applying the same trend forecast to California, a 2015 violent crime rate between 3.31 and 3.78 violent
crimes per thousand population could be expected. The actual rate was outside of these limits at 3.94
violent crimes per thousand.
Figure 3. Violent Crime CA vs US, 2006‐2015
California had a larger increase in violent crime than did the rest of the U.S., however, the primary cause
of the increase cannot be attributed to Proposition 47 because the rest of the U.S. also increased more
than would be expected based on a trend forecast. Violent crime in the U.S. (not including California)
increased 2.18 percent in 2015 compared with 2014. The increase in California was 7.41 percent. It is
possible that Proposition 47 may have played a role in California’s higher rate but to what degree, if any,
is not determinate based on this analysis.
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Property Crime
Applying the same trend forecast model to property crime yields an expected U.S. (not including
California) property crime rate between 24.45 and 26.09 property crimes per thousand population. The
actual result was 24.87 property crimes per thousand, well within the expected range.
California’s expected result was between 22.06 and 25.95 property crimes per thousand population.
The actual result was 26.18, well outside the expected range.
Figure 4. Property Crime CA vs US, 2006‐2015
California had a much larger increase in property crime than could be expected based on a trend
forecast with 95 percent confidence. California’s property crime rate increased 7.26 percent in 2015
compared with 2014. The rate change for the rest of the U.S., however, was well within the predicted
range and DECREASED 4.77 percent, compared with California’s 7.26 percent INCREASE. We are
unaware of any other public policy change that would cause such a divergence. Implementation of the
Safe Schools and Neighborhoods Act of 2014 (Proposition 47) resulted in a large increase of property
crime in the state of California.
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State‐to‐State Comparisons
The previous trend analysis used gross rates. The 49 other states were combined in crime counts and
population to derive California and non‐California crime rate changes over time and 2015 over 2014
specifically. We next evaluated California as compared with other states individually.
Violent Crime
Thirty‐eight (38) of the 50 U.S. states reported a violent crime rate increase in 2015 compared with
2014. The average rate of increase was 6.8 percent. The overall average state’s violent crime rate (all
50 states) increased 4.5 percent. The gross violent crime rate (all counts divided by total population,
including California) increased 3.2 percent.
California was “middle of the road” with respect to violent crime, 36th out of 50, with a violent crime
rate increase of 7.4 percent, roughly double that of the rest of the states using this measure.
Property Crime
Only nine of 50 states reported property crime rate increases in 2015 compared with 2014. Only Hawaii
had a greater increase (17.2 percent) compared to California’s 7.2 percent increase. Overall in 2015, the
average state experienced a DECREASE of 3.7 percent. The gross decrease (including California in this
measure) was 3.4 percent.
Unlike the previous section, these state‐by‐state comparisons did not directly compare California to the
rest of the U.S. over time. They cannot, therefore, be used to identify effects associated with
implementation timing of Proposition 47. They are useful, however, in further confirming the direction
and magnitude of the change in crime experienced by Californians in 2015 as compared with the rest of
the country.
City Comparisons
The California Police Chiefs Association (CPCA) represents municipal police chiefs in the State of
California. The earlier (preliminary) analysis of crime changes in the state was intended to aid our
members in reporting crime rate changes in their cities to their city councils and public. We suspected
many of us would be reporting large crime rate increases, especially in property crimes, and wanted to
put information in chiefs’ hands to help put their individual crime rate changes in context.
The 460 reporting cities in California in 2015 have a combined population of 32.3 million people, 83
percent of the state’s total population and 10 percent of the U.S. population. Seventy of our cities,
those with populations greater than 100,000 persons, make up over half of the state’s total population
and six percent of the population of the U.S. If these 70 cities were a state, they would be the fifth
largest state in terms of population of the U.S., just behind New York, and ahead of Illinois and 45
others. What happens in our cities matters and has an effect on the overall crime experience in the
country.
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For the purposes of this city analysis, cities were categorized by their FBI population group size (Groups
1 through 6) as well as two larger groups to at least partially address issues of data variability associated
with small cities. In addition to the FBI’s groups, the CPCA analysis included large cities (cities over
100,000 population) and small cities (cities between 1,000 and 100,000 population). The smallest cities
(under 1,000 population) were excluded from these two broad groupings due to their year‐to‐year and
city‐to‐city variability.
Tables with comparison data for each of the UCR Part I crime types and each of the city size groups
follow for violent crime and property crime categories. This analysis will focus on the crime effects for
the larger cities (G100) and smaller cities (Gs). Data for each of the city size groups (G1‐G6) are included
for the benefit and use of CPCA members – they are not further analyzed for this report.
Violent Crime
The gross violent crime rate in large non‐California cities decreased by 0.99 percent from 2014 to 2015.
This decrease was due almost entirely to robberies which decreased 4.13 percent, the only violent crime
category with a decrease. The murder rate increased 8.18 percent. In California, the gross violent crime
rate increased 8.35 percent and the murder rate 9.61 percent. Unlike the rest of the U.S., robberies
increased in California’s large cities in 2015 – there was no violent crime category with a decrease.
The gross violent crime rate in small non‐California cities increased 1.08 percent from 2014 to 2015.
Reported robberies decreased in these cities as well, down 4.27 percent. The murder rate in smaller
cities increased 11.77 percent. In California’s smaller cities, the gross violent crime rate increased 4.3
percent, the murder rate increased 1.69 percent.
There are a number of differences in city size grouping differences that may provide useful information
with more detailed analysis, however, for the purposes of this report, differences were insufficient
between California and non‐California agencies to conclude a Proposition 47 effect was responsible.
Table 1. Violent Crime Rate Changes in CA Cities
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Table 2. Violent Crime Rate Changes in non‐CA US Cities
Property Crime
Gross property crime rates in the larger non‐California cities decreased 4.45 percent but increased 6.47
percent in comparable California jurisdictions. Burglaries, however, decreased in both California and
non‐California large cities which was expected to some degree. CPCA members thought there might be
a shift of criminal activity from felony theft to misdemeanor theft associated with Proposition 47’s
reduction of most forms of theft under $950 from felonies to misdemeanors. If true, however, motor
vehicle theft should also have been down (or at least flat) in California. It was not. Our analysis
determined that the felony‐misdemeanor theft shift did not occur, at least not as we expected. Our
analysis did, however, confirm that California had a property crime effect coincident with the
implementation of Proposition 47 that the non‐California agencies did not experience. Increases were
confined to larceny and motor vehicle theft.
The experience in smaller cities was similar. In non‐California cities between 10,000 and 100,000
population, the overall property crime rate decreased 5.07 percent. In California, comparably sized
cities reported an increase of 8.35 percent, concentrated in larcenies and motor vehicle thefts as had
been the case in the larger cities.
There is an opportunity for research available in this information. Something about this offender group
– low level, largely substance abusing and non‐violent – results in sharp increases in crime when they
are not incarcerated. As will be seen with county comparisons (see following section), increases do not
appear to have been universal. An understanding of what works (and not) with regard to this offender
population is critical to the success of future programs addressing this population. The answer lies
somewhere in the differences between how counties in California handled the shift of this population
from incarceration to other forms of custody. Successful strategies can also be used to mitigate the
future crime effects associated with Proposition 47 and this offender group.
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Table 3. Property Crime Rate Changes in CA Cities
Table 4. Property Crime Rate Changes in non‐CA US Cities
Proposition 47 clearly had an effect that resulted in an increase in larcenies and auto thefts. It does not
appear to have affected burglaries which declined as they did in non‐California cities, albeit at a lesser
rate. Further research and analysis into these differences may aid in identifying the relationship
between this particular population of offenders and certain types of crime.
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County Comparisons
County‐specific data for individual counties is not available from the FBI UCR report. County‐specific
data for California (for 2015) was not yet available from California DOJ as of the date of this report,
however, a preliminary analysis based on reporting cities was attempted. This analysis suggests that the
increases in crime, particularly property crime, were not universal across the state. In fact, there
appears to be wide disparity in counties between cities of comparable populations.
Among the larger counties, cities in Orange County had the largest property crime increases, over 20
percent. Other large counties with large increases include Los Angeles (+9.95%), San Bernardino
(+8.86%), and San Diego (+8.86%). Some other large counties, however, had much smaller increases –
Riverside County (+3.98%), Sacramento (+3.64%), Santa Clara (+2.36%), and Alameda (2.69%).
In medium‐sized counties, differences were even more pronounced. San Luis Obispo County increased
20.88 percent, Sonoma +16.04 percent, and San Francisco +15.74 percent. Three medium‐sized
counties actually had decreases: Monterey (‐11.5%), Contra Costa (‐2.9%), and San Joaquin (‐0.16%).
The fact that crime increased broadly in the State of California in 2015 but not universally (or generally)
across cities located in different counties suggests strongly that a county‐specific factor, such as jail
incarceration, probation, and/or efficacy of monitoring and treatment programs, played a role in
allowing (or not) released minor offenders to commit future crimes.
It is recommended that county data be reanalyzed when available from California DOJ, later in October.
Our assumption is that some counties either had more probation and/or treatment resources available
than others, or the nature of services available was more effective in preventing criminal activity on the
part of lower level, drug and property crime offenders.
As suggested earlier, these findings represent a tremendous opportunity for further research to identify
what works (and what doesn’t) in preventing the offender population most affected by Proposition 47 –
largely substance‐abusing, non‐violent, lower level criminals, from committing future offenses. CPCA
offers some recommendations in the “Strategies for the Future” section at the end of this report.
In the meantime, however, CPCA feels it is important not to exacerbate the problem either in terms of
complexity of analysis or risk of new (additional) offenders free to commit future crimes without
impediment. The criminal justice system in California needs to better understand the mechanism
between different offender populations and the crimes they commit before we implement additional,
risky changes.
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COSTS OF PROPOSITION 47
Based on an analysis by the Legislative Analyst’s Office, supporters of the Safe Neighborhoods and
Schools Act claimed Proposition 47 would save $150‐250 million annually due to reduced prison costs
and that counties would save over $100 million each year. State savings were proposed to go to a Safe
Neighborhoods and Schools Fund to be distributed 25 percent to the Department of Education, 10
percent to the Victim Compensation Fund, and 65 percent to the Board of State and Community
Corrections (BSCC). Proponents argued that there was no reason to suspect crime would increase
should Proposition 47 pass, indeed it would probably go down, because treatment outside of prison is
more effective than treatment in prison. Proponents made no reported attempt to estimate the
economic cost to victims should there be an increase rather than a decrease in crime.
According to the California Department of Justice, the value of stolen property in 2015 was $2.467
billion, an increase of $287.8 million (+13.2 percent) over 20147, the largest year‐over‐year increase in at
least ten years. Realignment and Proposition 47 supporters now acknowledge that there were crime
increases associated with these programs but are quick to note that overall property crime is lower than
it was (as an incident rate per population) ten years ago. That may be true but victimization costs
associated with property crime alone returned to its highest level since 2008. More importantly, the
projected cost savings of the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act (Proposition 47) were more than
offset by the increased cost of victimization associated with property crimes.
7 Ibid.
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Figure 5. Value of Stolen Property in California, 2004‐2015
Crimes associated with Proposition 47 cost victims in the State of California no less than $285 million
assuming crime had remained at the same level in 2015 compared with 2014, far more than the
Legislative Analyst‘s Office and Proposition 47 proponents projected as savings. Had Proposition 47 not
been implemented, property crime would likely have continued decreasing as it did in the rest of the
country. The true victimization cost is therefore much higher, certainly over $300 million and that is
economic loss alone. No estimate was attempted at police response costs associated with the increased
number of service calls or victimization associated with violent crimes that may also have been affected
by Proposition 47 offenders.
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EARLY ESTIMATES FOR 2016
Although early 2015 estimates made by CPCA based on membership surveys suffered from limited
responses, the basic direction of crime trends in California and a general conclusion about magnitude of
change proved to be valuable information for police chiefs in the state. We felt that a similar, early,
view of 2016 over 2015 data might provide an early indication of whether or not the increases
experienced in 2015 over 2014 might be continuing into 2016.
In July and August 2016, 44 percent (213 of 460) California cities responded to CPCA’s survey requesting
Part I crime count data for the first six months of 2016, serving 65 percent of the population in the 460
California cities reporting to the FBI in 2015.
When the first six months of 2016 are compared with the first six months of 2015, month‐for‐month,
overall violent crime (not including rape) was up 4.95 percent and overall property crime was down 1.87
percent. These figures were different for the larger versus smaller cities as follows:
Table 5. Early Estimate of Violent Crime Change 2015‐2106
Table 6. Early Estimate of Violent Crime Change 2015‐2106
The figures were based on actual six‐month, year‐to‐year comparisons. We cross‐checked annual
estimates and found that in the smaller cities (those under 100,000 population) doubling the first six
months’ data from 2015 proved to be unreliable in predicting actual full‐year 2015 numbers. The larger
cities (over 100,000 population) and the grouping of all cities proved to be reliable (95% accuracy) in
estimating full year 2015 numbers from six‐month data. Smaller city data (Gs) is reported in the tables
above but are for reference only. G100 or GALL estimates should be used to estimate 2016 full year
expected numbers from 2016 January through June data.
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Applying this strategy, CPCA expects full‐year 2016 data to show a violent crime increase of 5‐6 percent,
not adjusted for population change. CPCA expects full‐year 2016 data to show a property crime
decrease of about one percent, not adjusted for population change.
Official data for all of California for 2016 will not be available until California DOJ issues its Crime in
California report in July 2017. Six‐month data allowing for some initial comparisons between the largest
California and non‐California cities in the United States will be available from the FBI in approximately
February 2017. Official national data from the FBI will not be available until late September 2017.
After thorough review of available data to‐date and an assumption that major policy adjustments were
not made during 2016 in sufficient time to affect offense rates on the part of particular population
groups, CPCA makes the following prediction regarding the 2016 effects of Proposition 47.
CPCA does not expect a sudden change in the numbers of people committing crime, or available to
commit crime who are not incarcerated or on supervised release in 2016. In other words, the
population of offenders available to offend increased suddenly with the implementation of Proposition
47, resulting in the higher crime rates. Other than the natural aging‐out of portions of this population,
replaced by younger newcomers, a sudden new influx of offenders is not expected unless another broad
public policy change is made with that result.
Until and if this offender population is adequately supervised when on some form of release, they will
continue to offend at approximately the higher rate experienced in 2015 and will continue to do so until
some form of effective intervention is adopted. California should again generally follow its previous
trends in both violent and property crime as well as generally track the increases and decreases in crime
nationally, albeit at the increased rate. The approximately $300 million cost associated with increased
victimization in 2015 will be carried forward annually until effective intervention is identified and
implemented.
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STRATEGIES FOR THE FUTURE
1. Broad public policy changes that significantly change incarceration, probation, and treatment of
offenders, particularly drug offenders, should be avoided until the mechanism between this
offending population and their ability and/or willingness to commit crime is better understood.
2. Research regarding differences between counties in California that had better (or worse) crime
experiences than the average California county should be undertaken to identify what
combination of incarceration, supervised release, and treatment programs are effective (and
not) in preventing crime.
3. CPCA strongly recommends that persons on release and under some form of supervision,
especially those not actively supervised, be monitored with GPS tracking to ensure they meet
the conditions of their release and provide a mechanism for law enforcement to identify those
who may be committing crimes while on release. Commission of a crime (other than a simple
drug crime) while on release or removal of the GPS tracking device should itself be a crime
resulting in revocation of probation and, upon second offense, should be considered a felony.
4. CPCA does not disagree with the perspective that jailing drug‐addicted persons is an
unacceptably expensive and ineffective form of rehabilitation. CPCA strongly disagrees with the
notion that the costs associated with increased victimization that results should be shifted to
and accepted by crime victims as the public’s contribution toward a kinder, more tolerant
society. Simply letting people out of prisons and jails for drug offenses without effect treatment
(which requires both incentives and accountability), does not serve either the public or the
offenders and police chiefs hear this every day from our neighborhood and city political leaders.