The Statesboro Police Department, whose authorized workforce of 77 people includes 32 regular, or “line level,” patrol officers, could use 28 more, according to an internal study by the department.
But Chief of Police Mike Broadhead realizes that funding and hiring 28 officers in one year would be “impossible,” he told the mayor and City Council. He is instead asking to add eight patrol officer positions in the fiscal year 2022 budget. These include two he requested one year ago but which were never funded after City Manager Charles Penny instituted a conditional hiring freeze over COVID-19 pandemic uncertainties.
The other six positions could be the first step of a phased approach toward a level of staffing suggested by an International Association of Chiefs of Police, or IACP, formula, as applied by SPD Deputy Chief Rob Bryan and Capt. Kaleb Moore in the internal study. They factored in only calls for service from citizens, excluding officer-initiated actions such as traffic stops from the workload calculation.
“We feel like the numbers that we used were conservative by pulling out the proactive policing stuff, because we just want to know where we are with our staffing and where do we need to be,” Broadhead said. “We also recognize that requesting 28 officers is an impossible task. We couldn’t find them, frankly.”
That was during a 4 p.m. work session that preceded the regular City Council meeting Tuesday.
“We recommend an incremental approach to improving police staffing,” Broadhead said. “That’s why in this year’s budget we’ve put in for eight officers. Six of those come right out of this study.”
Police Department staffing was the first of several topics for the work session and was not addressed during the voting meeting. However, the mayor and council have another work session slated for 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 27, to review the city’s proposed budget for all departments. The fiscal year begins July 1.
Staffing study methods
The SPD’s study looked at staffing needs three different ways: by the number of officers per 1,000 residents, by a functional analysis that suggests numbers of officers needed to patrol different areas of a city, and by the IACP modified workload analysis.
The study report shows Statesboro with 2.39 city police officers per 1,000 people, the median ratio among 11 Georgia cities listed, some nearby and others elsewhere in the state but roughly similar to Statesboro in population.
“It’s not a really great measure to use because, you know, some towns need more policing than others,” Broadhead said. “Some tourist towns have very small populations and obviously have large daytime populations. Statesboro is a little bit of a unique city that way because of the student population.”
The functional analysis pointed to a need for 51 patrol officers for “minimal staffing” or 63 patrol officers for “optimal staffing.” That would mean hiring from 19 to 31 patrol officers, based on the current authorized force of 32 line-level patrol officers.
That current total does not include corporals or sergeants in supervisory roles or higher ranking command officers. Specialized officers, such as three assigned to work with canines, two who transport prisoners and handle other miscellaneous tasks and the school resource officers, were also excluded from the total. But Broadhead noted that they sometimes do handle other calls.
The IACP workload analysis, which Broadhead said is considered the most reliable method, was based on the SPD’s 33,885 citizen-initiated calls for service in 2019. That was multiplied by 1.44 because of a calculation, from data in the department’s computer-aided dispatching system, that a second officer is needed for backup on 44% of calls.
Then the total was multiplied by three on an assumption that officers should spend about one-third of their time on actual calls, another third on tasks such as writing reports, attending court and maintaining equipment, and the final third on preventative patrol.
This, divided by the number of hours an officer can be available, yielded an estimate of 59.9 line officers needed for the SPD Patrol Division’s workload. Again, the currently authorized force is 32 line officers.
Current staffing
The SPD currently has 70 employees actually on payroll, including detectives, shift supervisors, and the officers with specialized duties, as well as those in regular patrol positions.
That is seven fewer than authorized, while four of the newer officers are still assigned to field training and not fully deployed yet, and another three officers are assigned to light duties because of injuries. So the SDP is “functionally 14 short” even of currently funded staffing, Broadhead said.
He also described the results of a preliminary physical training test Monday for which 10 applicants for officer jobs were scheduled but only five showed up. Four passed, but one was disqualified for another reason, so this effort yielded three potential officers out of 10, Broadhead reported.
“One of the reasons we can’t attract great candidates is because of the pay,” he told the mayor and council members. “That’s sort of the elephant in the room we have to talk about.”
The department’s current entry-level annual pay for a new officer is $37,900, with some increase allowed for those with some law enforcement or military experience or a college education.
When District 2 City Councilwoman Paulette Chavers asked what an attractive starting salary would be, Broadhead said his approach would be “I don’t compete unless I expect to win” and that $45,000 “gets us a win.”
He noted that the Garden City Police Department is now advertising a $45,000 starting salary.
Cities across Georgia are still dealing with the repercussions of the state government’s move three years ago to increase the pay of Georgia State Patrol troopers by 20%, commented District 1 Councilman Phil Boyum. Mayor Jonathan McCollar also expressed interest in keeping Statesboro competitive for police staffing.
Cost to taxpayers
Broadhead and Penny both said they have been “in constant conversation” about these issues. But the city manager cautioned the mayor and council about the costs.
“In order to add police officers, if you add the six, I think just to start that you’re talking about $360,000 to $400,000 just for compensation,” Penny said. “Then you also have to purchase a car (for each officer), so you’re talking another $300,000, and that’s almost 1 mill on the tax rate.
“But at the same time, we also have this issue of compensation, and it’s a real issue, but it’s not just policing, it’s across the board,” he continued. “Even though we have a new pay plan, that new pay plan is already two years out of date, and so we’re going to have this conversation next week about compensation.”
Not just the Police Department, but the city’s overall workforce has to be considered, he said.
Chavers asked Broadhead what number of additional officers he would be satisfied with if the city cannot get to 28.
“Six a year over the next four years gets us close,” he said.
In a follow-up interview, Broadhead said he would like to see the city start in that direction but then adjust the plan based on a new staffing study every couple of years.