Agenda - Council - 08/23/2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Police Chief Katers said that they were up to about 16,000 calls for service a year and the numbers continue to increase every year. He said that they are asking more and more of their police officers with the calls on mental health, calls on violent crimes, and they are asking them to handle a lot more. He said based on his calculations, each officer was handling an average of 500 calls per year. Some of the calls are minor but others require extensive follow-up. He said a calculation that used to be used was one officer per 1,000 residents. He said they are close to that with the City's population of roughly 27,000. Ramsey is at that number of licensed officers; however, there are some cities across the country that are at double that number. He said they do a good job of meeting the needs for the community but it is more complex than the old calculation of one officer per 1,000. He said it has to do with the types of calls they are handling and the volume of calls. He said that he thinks they need to stay steady with the growth of their City, which they have seen based on population numbers. He has seen by calls for service that the staffing maintains with the City's growth. Acting Mayor Riley said he had heard that the drunk driving officer position had become a full- time patrol officer. Police Chief Katers reviewed that two years ago, the Council agreed to enter into a contract having an officer dedicated to the Toward Zero Death traffic enforcement and all of their time was spent in the City of Ramsey working on traffic enforcement. It was funded by a State grant Toward Zero Death, which paid for the officer's salary. When the officer was not working on that, they had to clock out of that to be used within the City. Because of staffing, they had to pull the officer from the grant program to help cover calls for services within the City. He explained that they have not yet been pulled, but they will not be renewing their contract. If they are no longer able to provide the services at a level that the citizens would expect, that would be the first officer to be pulled from the extra service contract. The downside is that they would not be paid for the officer's salary from the State; however, they feel they need to meet the needs of the citizens first. With that being said, next year they will not be renewing the grant because they need the officers on the streets. The other side of this is that the program awards grants for two or three years and they are in year number two; then it is given to another jurisdiction within the region. The thought behind that is to be able to give another agency the chance that they were given. Acting Mayor Riley asked if this was also an increase that was already factored in. Police Chief Katers said that was correct, this was an officer that was added in the last budget cycle. Acting Mayor Riley asked if the Council was ready to move onto other new positions. Councihnember Woestehoff asked if could move forward to the capital requests from the police department so that they could continue the discussion around the police department. He said that his question is about the request for squads and if they are related to the new positions or if they are strictly lifecycle. Police Chief Katers said that all of these items are for lifecycle replacements, not for additional vehicles to the fleet. City Council Work Session / August 8, 2022 Page 11 of 19