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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC 1981-09-02 Minutesa i -1 TY t " h*h �x 5 67�4i 77 � t'I �f. �.• p 1.:. �' Yx.' l � 3 q i f wood4 9, ,xtl° 0 t jiTt`}r S t ®� E ij Otl t 1 ' 4 tF1f - 4 =i Z 7� z< FE c r f,Mi. Mrs 'P r i -r .' 4 � yi dS 4 r SEPTEMBER 2 & 3. 1981 gar- OF MEETING HELD ON - �. (HEARINGS: POLICE DEPARTMENT" CONFERENCE ROOM) '& PREPARED BY THE OFFICZ OF THE CITY CLERK CITY HALL �„ } f R�AI�PH rot.C�I� GIF io ; } CITY CLERK A � 4, e • * IK f 'i. ikY� LNY aftetvt from September 1)ait*evtal Budget Hear ntt. _r PAyor Perre: 44% of the total is Street Lighting, but What to the itionm g Mr. Cather: The increase is from 3,892,000 to 5,157,000. Mayor Petra: An 392 increase? Mr. Cather: No,... It vas 392 of our total budget last year but now it's 44% of our total budget. Mayor Perre: Oh, I see. How much of increase is that? It's about a a 302 increase? Mr. Cather: Yes, it is. Mayor Ferre: Is that strictly due to FP & L increases? Mr. Cather: Yes. Mayor Ferre: Mr. Manager, I am hereby asking you, I'm putting it on the record, to have you get together with the Law Department and prepare a resolution for the City of Miami Commission at the September loth Meeting, asking that the City be represented and the rate case of Florida Power and Light for the specific purposes of asking that ..+. insisting that the FPSC not permit any advertising of the utility be paid for PFSC members of the public including the City of Miami. I see absolutely no reason why the people of Miami and the City should be paying for the advertising of Florida Power and Light. I want also to include expenses of membership to clubs, entertainment and other activities. In these stringent days, I think Florida Power and Light should restrict themselves to running a real tight ship and I think we have to intervene on behalf of the public. This is not a witch hunt. we're not out trying to crucify Florida Power_ and Light, I think that they're entitled to a fair return but I think that on behalf of the City since we, obviously, are going up in our expense by 30% we, of course, have got to go out and make up for this, for that 30% increase. It's the public who is getting stuck for something like that. I see no reason why the Florida Public Service Commission should permit the accumulation of funds for the construction of future plants, I don't think the people of Miami or the City should be stuck for an increase for their future construction costs, let the users in the future pay for that. I don't see why the people should pay for that today including the City of Miami. And, furthermore, I think that the mistakes that have been made by the Corporation should be borne by teh stockholders not by the ... As you know there is the question of a dam that was seriously damaged due to technical design reasons that were internal to Florida Power and Light and I simply do not see why the people of Miami including the City itself should pay for that type of an error. It doesn't happen that way in a corporation. If I'm selling a product and that -products is deficient and I happen to be Ford Motor Company and I have to recall back 1,000 cars, the customer doesn't pay for that recall, it's the stockholders that pay for that mistake. Why should a utility that has a monopoly be any different? And on those conditionslI would ask that this be formalized in a resolution to be put on the.agenda for discussion and for a vote on September loth. Mr. Cather: This is a 32.5% increase over last year and we are their single largest customer. _ _ 6—cial TrAnscript it rY N K; tt W6rkshb 3� Chief Harms: Mr. Mayor, the presentation that I'm going to make to you *III take about 35 to 30 minutes. That's the time that we get back to address any question or issues that we're apt to deal with. Mayor Ferre: Let me, before you start, let me explain that not everybody is here. I apologize that this is a one man show. It's unfortunate and I don't think it's anybody's fault. It's circumstantial But as I said yesterday for those of you who were not here, in the 12 years that I've served the City, I don't ever recall having gone through the budget without an awful lot of direct discussion with department heads. I hope this is not the first time and I am confident that other members of the Commission will take time to go through this discussion with you and the other departments. If that is not the case, however, I think that it is important for there to be a record, and this is why I've asked that the Clerk tape this, so that members of the Commission will have the opportunity if they don't have the chance to see you directly. Then they'll have the opportunity to listen to the tapes and go through the record. Chief Harms: Well, sir, and what I'll provide for their edification, for their information about my budget, is a summary of the budget presentation I'm going to present to you, in written form, and then make myself available, accomodate their time schedules between now and the 10th if that becomes necessary. Are we ready to go ahead and get started? Between.1975 and 1980, fiscal constraints and political realities resulted in the loss of approximately 11% of our sworn complement and approximately 20% of our civilian personnel. This occurred during a period of time in which our responsibility to the citizens increased rather dramatically. To briefly highlight some of the major problems faced by the department during the past fiscal year, manpower reached its lowest point at any time over the past 10 years. This was compounded by the fact that requests for police services were at an all-time high. Due in large part to actions taken by members of this Commission, this problem is being addressed by your approval to hire additional officers. I view this as a beginning rather than end. Reasonable increases in resources are essential if we are to fulfill our commitment to services to the citizens of Miami. The impact of the 1980 civil disorders is still being felt throughout the department and throughout the community. Training continues to take place and some additional equipment has been purchased, and other equipment and supplies will be requested. Serious crime in 1980 rose by 40%. This can be attributed in part to the arrival of the refugees which has placed a strain not only on the criminal justice system, but on all of our community services as well. Recent data shows a leveling trend in this upward surge as we slowly begin to adjust to this influx. This department has also experienced a diminished level of job satisfaction among its members. This has been brought about in part by increased work loads, weaknesses in other components of the criminal justice system and a perceived lack of support from the community that we serve. This has resulted in unprecedented attrition, and a significant experience drain. To more clearly illustrate our current situation, I've prepared and will present a brief slide presentation. These slides depict long term trends and demanut; and resources of the City of Miami Police Department, and the effects these trends have had on our service delivery to the citizens. There are two primary sources...Tommy, if I can get you to increase the light just a little bit. (INAUDIBLE BACKGROUND COMMENT PLACED OUTSIDE OF THE PUBLIC RECORD. Chief Harms: This was not really set up this way, but this is going to speak to some of our equipment needs as well. I may ad-lib a good portion of this presentation. And I think quite matter of factly, once more I suggest that I'll get back on to formal part of my presentation. SEf 31961 }\ I Chief Harms (continued): There are two primary sources of demand for police service. Non -crime citizen requests for assistance, and actual criminal activity. Mayor Ferre: Chief, do you want to stand here.... Chief Harms: No. This is fine, thank you. I do want to make some points on the board for you. One of the major demands on police resources is responding to citizens calls for service. The monthly analysis of calls dispatched during 1980, and so far this year, clearly indicate the increase in calls for service starting last July at this point. Due to extremely low staffing at that time, the number of calls which were delayed beyond our dispatch standards, as indicated in red, rose rather dramatically. Substantial amounts of overtime in patrol, and some of the other special impact programs, including the Contingency Overtime Program, starting decreasing this delay in delayed calls for services, down to our present level at this point. A lot of that has, in fact, been accomplished as a result of again those special impact programs that the Commission is aware of. And of course, we're still concerned that the delayed calls for service are still higher than they should be. Of even more concern, is the unacceptable delays in response to the highest priority calls, those involving serious injury, either actual or imminent. Over 30% of these types of calls cannot be dispatched within the one minute department standard due to the unavailablility of patrol units. What this reflects essentially is that in 1977 approximately 25% of those calls were delayed, to a high point at this point, of 47% and thats now been brought down through those special impact programs to 32%, a little over 32%. We would hope to bring that down even further to somewhere between 15% and 20%, realistically. Turning now to the year to year pecentage change in violent crime, murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, it is clear how the 68% increase from 79 and 80 stands out. It should also be noted, however, that violent crime has been increasing in Miami every year since 1976. Is there... Mayor Ferre: Is that Part I? Chief Harms: Yes, sir. Well, even within Part I, these are the violent crimes as opposed to the property crimes that are also contained in Part I. So the 68% increase really reflects an increase of almost 85% from 75-76. And if you establish a trend line, it would looke something like this up through the 68% mark. Utilizing crime in 1970 as an index base of 100 at this point, and we start off at 100%,.the long term trends in individual types of crime are clearly shown. Rape, the green dotted line has soared by 260% of the 1970 level, as reflected again, by these series of dots all the way... Mayor Ferre: Since 1970? Chief Harms: Yes, sir. This is a base line year. Since 1970 its gone up 260% to this point. Mayor Ferre: I read 261 up there. Chief Harms: Of course, that's using zero as a base line, but it reflects an actual increase from 1970 of 260%. As these would reflect an increase of 140% each, and 40%. Mayor Ferre: You got me. Oh, I see because it's a base of 100. Chief Harms: Yes, sir. We started the base of 100 at this point. And of course, these increases have been fairly consistent since 1973. Mayor Ferre: Red is murder? Chief Harms: Yes, sir. Mayor Ferre: Blue is robbery. Chief Harms: Blue is robbery. Rape is the green dotted line, and this black line, it reflects a 40% increase during this period of time, to +aggravated assault. SEP 3 1981 r Mayor Ferre:, Let me get these now. 261%. Chief Harms: Yes, air. Approximately 140 apiece. c Mayor Ferrer Murder 141. This is all since 1970? Chief Harms: Yes, air. Now, in your package you will be provided with a copy of all of this information. Mayor Ferre: Since 1970. Chief Harms; Correct. This month... Mayor Ferre: The greatest increase seems to be from 76-77. Chief Harms: Yes, sir. Right at this point with rape, and really starting rather dramatically in about 1978 for those other type of offenses. Mayor Ferre: That was pre-Mariel. So we started the increase before the Mariel refugees. Chief Harms: Yes, sir. The trend was starting to be established at that time. And what Mariel did for us was aggravate a situation that was already bad. Mayor Ferre: Is that also a State and a national trend? Chief Harms: Generally it is, but it's not quite as dramatic when you use the national average as it is with our figures. It's at a lesser rate, and it's increasing slower. And we'll get to some of thise figures in a few minutes. This month by month analysis in Total Part I or serious crime shows both a significant and steady annual increase as typified by the January and April data, and the unusual surQelast summer coincidinct with the large refugee influx. This represents, the green line, 1978, 79 for red, 80 in the blue, and 81 in the black. Of course, the black extends at this point just through June. That's the end of our data for the current year, but it shows a rather dramatic increase if you follow the blue line from this point all the way through September. Now, it starts leveling off, or dropping down during that period of time, again, because of the special impact programs that we developed. Operation Rescue where we moved some individuals from administrative function and clerical funtion within the department, the Special Overtime Contingency money which really represents, when we talk about the $500,000 program, for that period of time, it represents approximately 50 additional officers. So those sort of special impact programs, and the addition of new personnel, as they were going through the academy coming out into the filed, in fact, permitted us to decrease. And it will follow in 1981, we'll see that we' re starting to bring that down even a little bit further. Or, it's occuring that it's coming down. Mayor Ferre: Are these FBI statistics, or City of Miami statistics? Chief Harms: Well, these are both. We supply the same data to the FBI. Mayor Ferre: As I understand, they're not always the same. Chief Harms: The only variance that should exist depends on when crimes are reported, and when they're cleared. And if the crime occurs within a particular month and it's cleared two or three months later, then the clearance is carried at that particular time. Mayor Ferre: Let me ask it this way. Chief Harms: Yes, sir. Mayor Ferre: You have it posted up through the mouth of June. That black line is there for the month of June. Chief Harms: That's correct. 5EP 31981 *Yor Petrel Is that an F$I officially posted number? Chief Harms.- No sir. The FBI publishes considerably after the fact. So certainly the recent data is ours that we have shared with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Mayor Ferre: See, that's where I was leading. The blue line is FBI statistics. Chief Harms: The blue line should reflect the same information that they have now, yes, sir. Mayor Ferre: At what point does the...when is the last FBI report. I guess that's the way I should ask the question. Chief Harms: Quarterly reports, and they coincide with Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Quarterly. Mayor Ferre: So we should be getting into the second quarter of the year any day now. (INAUDIBLE BACKGROUND COMMENT PLACED OUTSIDE OF THE PUBLIC RECORD) Chief Harms: Uniform Crime Report data... Mayor Ferre: For the State... Chief Harms: For the State and for the FBI. We submit by State requirement, through the State and it's subsequently submitted to the FBI. Mayor Ferre: These are actual numbers of Part I crimes. Chief Harms: Yes, sir. Mayor Ferre: You don't have that posted on a ppr 100,000. Chief Harms: No, sir. We'll stet to that in another slide. Yes. sir. we often used method of comparison of crime rates over time and between various cities is a number of Part I, or serious crimes, per 100,000 resident population. The red line indicates the persistently, rapid increase in Miami's crime rate extending over almost a decade. The blue dash line is a national average for cities over 250,000 population. Mayor Ferre: I have a question now. Chief Harms: Yes, sir. Mayor Ferre: On these statistics now, I notice that you have it up, if I read that, it looks like 1980 you had 13,037. Chief Harms: Yes, sir, that's correct. Mayor Ferre: As I remember the statistic that you gave me, you were up to over 14,000. Chief Harms: Yes, sir. During... Mayor Ferre: During 1981. Chief Harms: 1981. So what we're going to see is an increase here. We'll also ace an increase here but because this represents national data, the trend line is flatter than it's represented within our own agency. Mayor Ferre: Chief, let me go through a series of questions and then you can Answer them all together because they tie together. As I recall, YOU .ode- some statistical assumptions which are very very germane to these figures. Do you base your figures on 403,000 population. Wof Harman Yes, sir, that's correct. SEP 3 198I Mayor Terre: And you got the 403,000 by taking the United States Census Which Boas 346,000 and to that you added a 40,000 factor of Mariel refugees and a 13,000 ro 20,000 tourist factor. I don't mean tourist, I mean transiet, I think was the word that you used. (INAUDIBLE BACKGROUND COMMENT PLACED OUTSIDE OF THE PUBLIC RECORD) Mayor Terre: No, no. There was 40,000 addition for refugees. Now, that included all refugees. Chief Harms: The U.S. Census figure that we're currently using makes up the difference between that population that you mentioned and the 403,000. Now we did, in fact, compute what we referred to as a service population that was in excess of 600,000 per day. Mayor Terre: You added 15,000 as a factor, that's how you got up to your 403,000. In other words, it was 346,000. 40,000 for the refugees and 15,000 for service type persons. Chief Harms: Well, the.... Mayor Terre: Whatever, it was 403,000. Chief Harms: That's considered permanent resident population. Now if we deal with daily service population... Mayor Terre: You can't do that, Chief because that's not... Chief Harms: That's not included in the 403,000. Mayor Ferre: ....and then you can't compare it to New Orleans because they don't do that either. See? Chief Harms: All we're dealing with is the 403,000 resident population. Service population in excess of 600,000. Mayor Ferre: The question is when. Because if you use the 403,000 for 1978 statistics, then you get a certain answer here. But if what you're using in 1976 to 1977 is the previous estimate as made by the City of Miami Planning Department based on estimates, then I might remind you that those estimates were that we have 360,000.•.So you're dividinc the number of Part I Offenses by 360, it makes a big difference if all of a sudden in 1980 you divide by 403,000. In other words, it's not apples to apples. (INAUDIBLE BACKGROUND COMMENT PLACED OUTSIDE OF THE PUBLIC RECORD) Mayor Ferre: Precisely. That's the point. Unidentified: 400,000 is a number which was developed which supposedly the adjusted Census figure... Mayor Ferre: When did you use that figure is the question. Did you use it for 19807 Did you use it for 1979? Chief Harms: No. Unidentified: We did not have refugees in 1979. Mayor Ferre: You have got to put that in that, otherwise that, excuse me for giving you my statistics and opinion, but that makes that chart invalid unless you so designate. Chief Harms: No, that chart, Mr. Mayor, is accurate. The adjustment was not made in 79. It was made based on the influx of refugees in 1980. Mayor Ferre: But what figures did you use in 19807 That's the question. Unidentified: 43,000 which was and estimate that we had at that time. The ,-- SEP 3 1981 V unidentified (continued): official number that has come out is 400,061 which includes 53,130 refugees. 1990 - not in 1979. Mayor Ferre: Now, what did you use in 19791 Unidentified: The City estimates. Chief Harms: 360. Mayor Ferre: So, you are taking the crimes that were being committed in the City of Miami, dividing by 360 in 79, you're taking the part I crimes committed divided by 400 in 1980. Chief Harms: That's correct. Mayor Ferre: What figure are you using in 19817 Unidentified Speaker: We don't have 81 there but we will be using 400. Mayor Ferre: Now, based on that, my next question is that I remember that the statistics you gave me back in April ( inaudible) (inaudible) to come to Miami (inaudible) (INAUDIBLE BACKGROUND COMMENT PLACED OUTSIDE OF THE PUBLIC RECORD) Mayor Ferre: I'm not questioning that. I'm just trying to get it clear in my mind in that we accepted one or the other. My question is, as I recall, you were showing me a report from the FBI report for the first quarter of the year was 14,500. The next one as I recall, was Orlando in which was close to 14,000. Fort Lauderdale had 13,800 and we were down to 13,500. Now, is that still accurate? Has anybody looked at the figures for the last 4 months? (INAUDIBLE BACKGROUND COMMENT PLACED OUTSIDE OF THE PUBLIC RECORD) Mayor Ferre: Let me tell you why I think it's important. And you, Chief, you mentioned 4 things, okay? And I want you to address them later on specifically. Manpower increased, which resulted in increased work load, okay? The problem with the criminal justice system and community support. Now, yesterday we had a fairly dramatic view of positive community support. The community was very supportive. The press, in my opinion, has been, and I think you and I share this because I've read some of your articles, I've read all of your articles, the press has been one of the main culprits in creating the lack of community support which is one of those three elements you say is essential for you to do your job well. The City of Miami is not the crime capital of the United States, and if it is not the crime capital of Florida, then I think that everytime a newspaper calls Miami the crime capital of America you've got to send them a telegram. And you've got to send them a letter and you've got to say these are the statistics. Okay, they won't publish it. I realize that. But at least we're on record that we're correcting them. Let me give you another idea of the type of thing that I think is very damaging. You saw today in the Miami Herald an article *hat says area police, and the implication is that a whole bunch of Miami policemen have been killed in the line of duty. That fact 18 as I read that article, the last one was Butler. And Butler died in 1971. Now it isn't true that a whole bunch of Miami policemen have been killed recently in the line of duty. Now, they may have been killed in Coral Gables, and they may have been killed in Opa Locka, and they may have been killed in Marathon, but they were not really killed in the City of Miami Police Department. Chief Harms: They use the term generically to include all those agencies. Mayor Ferre: Yeah, but you see, that's the kind of stuff that creates bad imagery. It's the kind of stuff ... now# we're out trying to hire SEP 31901 6i Fates (continued): police officers so that we can get up to ; 1j000, and that article won't do us any good. You know, hey, i know, ve loot an officer yesterday, and that's very bad. But the newspapers errs not really playing fair by writing that kind of a story. Chief Harms: I couldn't agree with you more. And there's a lot of inaccuracies that the local and national media contribute to. Mayor Ferre: I don't know that we can do too much about U.S. News and World Report, and Time, and 20-20 and 60 Minutes. But sure as heck, we can do something about the Miami Herald and the Miami News. And if we don't try, then I think that you know, then we've got ourselves to blame. But I think that if we started every time the local news give us wrong information and we send them telegrams and letters, if I do it, it's political. But I think...and perhaps if you to a point where you cant' do it, then the Manager should be doing it. Either you or the Manager should be correcting erronous information. I'm just tired of reading in the newspapers that Miami is the crime capital of America when that is factually not so. Chief Harms: We certainly do deal with that. Unfortunately, the media rarely sees fit to publish any of our rebuttals to their articles, and Mr. Surana, perhaps if you increase our budget by about $100,000 we can take care of those telegrams. Mayor Ferre: A telegram would't cost $100,000. Chief Harms: As many as we'd have to send in the next year, it might approximate that. Mayor Ferre: I'll tell you, if you send them out Chief, it will become a point where the editor of that newspaper is going to be embarrassed after we sent 7 or 8 telegrams correcting factual information. And I think it might have an impact. Chief Harms: I agree with you it will, and it has. I've seen a modification from the position of both the News and the Herald. And it may be sort of analagous to trying to make a determination precisely as to when a ship in the ocean makes a turn. It's very very small. It's incremental. It's by degrees. And I've seen that kind of shift with both the Herald and the News, and I've seen them portray a much more responsible position in the last 5 or 6 months than they had prior to that time. Mayor Ferre: I think we have to move a lot more...in a much swifter way. Let me tell you what I'm going to propose for that purpose, so that you have it clearly understood. I'm going to propose it formally. Whenever a local media comes up with factual misinformation, that we immediately and without hesitation send a telegram with correct information. That after 3 or 4 times on that same issue if that newspaper has not corrected the misinformation that they are rendering to the' community, that the City of Miami is going to have to take a full page ad, of a half page ad in that same newspaper and correct that newspaper. Now, I bate to put money in their pockets, but I'm going to tell you that that's one good way of correcting a misinformation. By publishing the right information and you'll embarrass the hell out of them. You do that once or twice, and I guarantee you they're going to be a lot more careful to tangle with us with misinformation. Chief Harms: As a result of that request, it has been a function of the Public Information Office for some time to make those corrections. We'll send you copies of all of the corrections that we've asked them to make. The point... Mayor Ferre: If you'll put that as a note to the Manager, I'm going to Fropose a $50,000 allotment in this coming budget to correct those irresponsible press reports. And I want it entitled that way in the budget. SEP 3198, ease= naL rir. r=yvey one pvsnz znaz a nau uuyau w maae w,auu buas . particular graph is that if We deal on the basis of offenses per 100*0009 that there is a national average of about 8,4009 almost 8,500 to an Approximate level of 13,037 within this area. And this speaks to the �. 4ork load that I then talk about in terms of the resources that we have 4 to address that work load. Mayor Ferre: Chief, would you clarify that? 8,456 as you hhve dawn there? It says U.S. Average. The bottom line. Chief Harms: That's correct. That's U.S. average. Mayor Ferre: Is that U.S. average for all U.S cities? Is it for cities 200,000 and above? Chief Harms: 250,000 and above. Mayor Ferre: To what? Does this include New Ydrk? Chief Harms: It includes everything above 250,000. Mayor Ferre: How many units of government are there in the United States that are included in that sverage. Chief Harms: In 450,000, somewhere in the vicinity of 50... (INAUDIBLE BACKGROUND COMMENT PLACED OUTSIDE OF THE PUBLIC RECORD) Mayor Ferre: You don't know? Chief Harms: Make a notation. We'll provide that information. Mayor Ferre: So in other words, it's apples to apples. It's comparable type communities. Chief Harms: Yes, sir. And that's what we're dealing with all the way through the presentation is comparisons. Mayor Ferre: Do you have that figure also for southern cities. In other words, in the southeast part of the.... Chief Harms: In some of the charts we do. For this particular one, we don't have it immediately available, but we can get it. And I think what we'll find is in southeastern cities of 250,000 and above, it will be higher than the national average. It certainly is when we start comparing the number of police officers.... Mayor Ferre: You mean the crime is higher? Chief Harms: Yes, sir. Mayor Ferre: As I remember, Chief, and this is strictly out of memory, both New Orleans and Atlanta were higher than the City of Miami In Part I Crimes. They were substantially lower in murders. We're one of the highest in murders. Lt. Paine: That was based on, I believe per population, Mr. Mayor. Mayor Ferre: Of course. Per 100,000. Is that accurate. s Lt. Paine: I believe that's correct, sir. Chief Harms: In sharp contrast to these escalating demands, police resources have actually declined since 1975. This chart shows budgeted that's depicted by the green line, and actual which is depicted by red, sworn personnel clearly indicates this trend. The 1981 budget data reflects an increase of up to 1,000 officers which would place us at this point, compared to the actual officers we've had, depicted by tbls.sed cerrated line from 19700 through the 1980 figure. 8EP 31981 Mayor Verres The highest point we've had up until now is 730 is that it? Chief Harms: I'm sorry. The question? Mayor yerres The highest number of officers we've had in this decade was 75 or 76? i Chief Harms: 75. Right at this point. Mayor Ferre: And that figure is about what? 750? Chief Harms: 807. Now, 807 is a budgeted figure, but the actual figure was below that. The green again, indicates budgeted and the red, actual during those same years. Mayor Ferre: How many officers do we have that are sworn officers, out of the academy today, Chief? Chief Harms: As of October 1, we'll have about 810. And of that group, we currently have somewhere in the vicinity of 20 to 25 that are still in the academy that graduate this month. Mayor Ferre: Wait, see, that's what always confuses me. The 810 includes 25... Chief Harms: ...That are currently in the academy that will graduate before October 1. Mayor Ferre: After October 1, we have 810 assuming that none of them drop out or Hialeah doesn't... Chief Harms: Yes,sir, that's correct. But I think after I sent Hialeah a bill for $12,000 they're going to be a little reluctant to recruit while our folks are still in the academy. Mayor Ferre: I'll tell you, I pursued that but not very vigorously after I saw that they were short $5,000,000. Chief Harms: And used that as the same excuse to me. But I appreciate your help in that regard. What I think we did was suggest to them that if they continued that act of piracy, that we'd do something about it. One standard measure of the level of police staffing is a ratio of total sworn officers for 1,000 resident population. The red bars in this graph depicts actual Miami staffing as of December 31st of each year, while the green bars are budgeted strength. The blue line represents U.S. average, actual staffing for cities 250,000 or more. Now, if we go with southeast cities of 250,000 or more, we move from 2.8 to 3.2 Mayor Ferre: Southeast cities. Chief Harms: Southeast cities is 3.2, national average is 2.8, and we're at 2.0. Mayor Ferre: We're at 2.0 with 810? Chief Harms: We will be at...yes, sir. That's correct. That 814 in October. We'll be at 2.0 Mayor Ferre: What is Metropolitan Dade County at today? Chief Harms: One of my staff may be able to pull that out, but it's approximately, I believe, 1/2 officer per 1,000 more than what we will have at 7.0. Mayor Ferre: 2.5? Chief Harms: Yes,sir. SEP 31981 r Mayor Ferre: `What's the highest in Florida of any major communityl is that it? Chief Harms: I have to get that information to you but there are agencies, maybe not comparable, and that's the problem we run into, there are not too many cities in Florida with 250*000 or more. But when you go to some of the other agencies across the southeast portion of the United States, you come up with that 3.2 average. Now, that's actual as opposed to budgeted. Waht we're dealing with in these years was the actual Miami, represented in red, and the budgeted, that's represented in the Rreen So of course, that reflects that we were budgeted considerably higher in some years than we actually had and that deficit was created, of course, by the inability to hire than to the loss occurred, and the delay time in the hiring procedure. The City Commission helped offset that by authorizing us to go above our budgeted strength to hire on the basis of anticipated attrition. Comparing the red bars Miami with the blue line, U.S. average, emphasizes how much the Miami staffing falls below average, even though our crime rate substantially exceeds the average. A position by position analysis of all sworn personnel as of June loth of this year indicated that 83.3% were involved in operations, 11.8% in direct support to operations, and only 4.4% were indirectly supporting operations or assuming and providing in administrative responsibilities. So again, this is operations 83.8, support, direct support 11.8, and the balance in an administrative function. In terms of total Police Department personnel, sworn and civilian, 70% were directly involved in operations, 19.5% in direct support to operations, and 10.5% in indirect operations support as of that same date. What were some of the main effects of these major increases in demands for police service while the department was faced with severely limited personnel resources? For total Part I Crimes in Miami, the clearance rate, for the most part being the percentage of crime that are solved, as steadily declined. Mayor Ferre: Chief, excuse me. Could you go back two slides? Go back another. No, you're going the wrong way. The next one. Okay. With regards to the staffing... Chief Harms: Yes, sir. Mayor Ferre: Is this computation made from a computer run? Chief Harms: It's made from an actual assessment of individuals who are in specific slots within the department. Mayor Ferre: Is that based on dollars, or is that based on people? Chief Harms: It's based on people. Mayor Ferre: In other words, if an officer, for example, of the total personnel expenditure in dollars, also receives overtime, for example because he's out in the field, then that operational figure might even be higher. Chief Harms: Yes, sir, it would in percentage of dollars spent for the functions. Now, this strictly relates to personnel and where they work within the department. Mayor Ferre: But I guess, on the other hand, the administrative personnel are paid more, so the overtime would probably be offset by that so the chart wouldn't be too far different. Chief Cosgrove: All the officers you have working, for example, in the overtime situation in patrol would be (inaudible) a percentage assigned to operations be greater. The salary ranges for civilian personnel would not be significantly greater at all as compared to operating factors. Chief Harms: Particularly when you get into the issue of retirement befits and so on. Wayor Ferre: So in other words, that figure in a dollar sense would be heavier in operations. 8EF 31981 k F.. Chief Harms Yes, sir, that's correct. It would be. (INAUDIBLE BACKGROUND COMMENT PLACED OUTSIDE OF THE PUBLIC RECORD) Chief Harms: Go ahead and flip one more time back, Tom. Mayor Ferre: That's important because the operating, if you look at the dollars, we may really have you in a greater deployment of dollars in operations. Chief Harms: There would be. And of course, what this depicts is the sworn staffing, or those officers with law enforcement authority, and 83.8% of them are directly involved in operations, 11.8% in direct support of the operations. Mayor Ferre: Thank you. Chief Harms: The total Part I Crimes in Miami, the clearance rate, and that's really for the most part the percentage of crime solved, has steadily declined. During most of this time period, Miami clearance rates have remained below the national average, that's reflected by the blue dash line reflecting our staffing level which is also well below the national average. Mayor Ferre: But I might also show you there that by 1979 the national average was also going, and it met ours, and we've only gotten worse in this last year. Chief Harms: We've intersected at this point. That's correct. But you've seen a rather and substantial and dramatic decline from that point to the current time in 1981. Mayor Ferre: Couldn't that be because people are reporting crimes more? Chief Harms: There's a number of variables and it's hard to measure. The better the police service, theoretically, the greater percentage of the crimes that are reported, yes, air. Mayor Ferre: So in other words, that can really be a fictitious figure if, in fact, what's happening is that people are reporting more crimes, and obviously since they're not getting solved, -but at least they're reporting them. Chief Harms: The victimization surveys that are conducted on a national scale would reflect that this is a fairly accurate figure, but in order to come up with a precise measurement, if you have any confidence in those kind of surveys, victimization surveys where questionaires are administered to different households on a statistically valid basis, then there has to be over time a reassessment of those same households, or a comparable group of households to determine the validity of that information. But the point you made is well taken. This represents reported incidents, not those that are not reported. And if there is a high confidence level within the community, then ...in their department, then of course that level can drop. But conversely, if there is a low confidence level because of previous performance, then they may under report the crime rather than equate or equal to some national average. By concentrating the limited -� investigative resources that we do have on the most serious crimes, those involving violence against persons, we were however able to consistently x solve a greater percentage of these serious crimes than other cities. That was the case, at least, until last year, when k years of increased crime and decreased staffing finally overwhelmed our violent crimes, r investigative staff as well. So again, we see the intersecting year. This looks like almost the same chart with the lines reversed. But with this, 1970 as a base line year, we were consistenly higher in our clearance for violent crimes until, again, we got to the staffing problem, we s got to the other problem of increases, and an overwhelmed investigative Stott to the point where we dropped rather dramatically in the clearance rate. rli 3EP 31961 Fe � Mayor Ferre: Is that trend continuing in 81? Chief Harms: Yes, sir, it is. And the reason being that... Mayor Ferre: Is it down, or is leveled off, or... Chief Harms: Well, it's starting to level somewhat, but it's still going down. Mayor Ferre: Still under that 36% line. Chief Harms: Yes, sir. Mayor Ferre: And of course, the reason for that is we have tried to place most of our emphasis within the area of uniform preventing patrol and to provide to response to calls for service. What kind of a.work load are we carrying in the Police Department? This slide shows the department's serious understaffing in relation to the amount of crime that is taking place. The red line indicates the number of Part I crimes for actual sworn officer for Miami, and the blue dash line is the national average. Miami officers that consistently have been asked to do more than is reasonable, and the situation is continuing to get worse with each passing year. What this reflects, again, is that the national average is a little over 30 crimes, serious crimes, per officer, actual sworn officer. We had a high at this point of 76, and based on the additional personnel that we received as a result of Commission action in last years budget, we're at this point this year. There is an assumption that it would continue to decrease given additional personnel and our ability to respond to some of the crimes that are actually occurring through interdiction and clearance rates and so on. The assumption there is that if we become more effective within that arena, then crime will decrease, or at least it will be displaced out of this community to another community. 1981 assumes that actual staffing will be at the current budget at year end. As can be seen, this is a move, of course, in the right direction, but much more needs to be done. The situation in the Criminal Investigations Unit alluded to earlier is even worse than in Patrol. If every crime had to be investigated, there would be less than 4 hours per crime available at current staffing levels. And in spite of what we see on t.v., it takes longer than that hour to investigate and solve the serious crimes. This reflects that in 1970, that each investigator was assigned approximately 200 cases and in 1980, each investigator is assigned approximately 674 cases. That's resulted from two factors primarily. The first factor is that there is an increased number of crimes to investigate, and a decreased number of investigators within the investigative function to investigate those crimes. Mayor Ferre: So where we really git into trouble was 1979. Chief Harms: Yes, sir, that's correct. Mayor Ferre: Well, when we get up to 814, or 810, will that go down under 450 again? Chief Harms: Assuming that the crime rate remains static, yes, sir, that figure will go down. Mayor Ferre: You're figures show that the crime is not remaining static, it's going down. Chief Harms: If it continues to go down, then of course, that will impact on the case load as well. Through a program of case prioritization, where only the most serious and most easily solveable crimes are investigated, the Miami Police Department has barely been able to keep its head above water in our investigative function. In spite of the overwhelming loads, thr spiraling crime problem, and severely limited resources, arrest for serious crimes per officer has continued to increase yearly to levels more than twice the national average. This reflects the national average of arrests for serious crimes per year per officer, "Ad to the Miami figure. And we're double the aetional average is SEP 31981 rz� RYN Chief Hattme (continued)s arrests per officer. Mayor Ferret I didn't understand the figure. For example, we'd he at 14 arrests for officer. Is that for the month or for a year? Chief Harms: NO, sir. That's a yearly figure. That's based on all officers in the department, and that's based on felonys. It has nothing to do with misdemeanors. And then of course, we use that figure, then a majority of our arrests are in fact for misdemeanors as compared to felonys. Mayor Ferre: These are actual arrests per, divided by sworn officer. Chief Harms: Yes, sir, that's correct. And the national average, you see where that is, below 6 compared to ours which is in the range of 13. In summary then, how do the trends compare in terms of demands on the Police Department, resources to meet these demands, and the commitment of the department to perform under these difficult circumstances. Using 1970, again, as a base line year for these trend comparisons, the green dash line represents the more than doubling of crime over the last decade. The blue bar is budgeted sworn officers, and red bar is actual officers, portrayed a steady erosion of police staffing from 76 through 79. In spite of these pressures, the Miami Police Department has been able to increase arrests, depicted by the black line, at approximately the same rate as the crime went up. Mayor Ferre: Which is the... Chief Harms: This is the solid black line. And that's the arrest rate, and this is Part I crime from 1970 to the current time, and these are staffing levels. Tom, hit that light switch for me, if you would. Now that I've outlined where we've been and where we are now, I'd like to briefly touch on some of the program initiatives that have been established as short term actions to help us cope with these problems. Some of these you'll be familiar with, as your support was instrumental in their accomplishment. First and foremost of these short term actions was your authorization to increase our budgeted strength from 714 to 814 in the last budget year, the current one that we're in now. The full impact of this initiative is yet to be felt as the hiring and training process is still in progress. But I can assure you that this is helping and will continue to help in the months and years to come. The 1980, 81 budgeted increase in civilian support personnel was instrumental in providing necessary administrative services to police operations. Operation Rescue was implemented during this past fiscal year. As you may remember, this was the program through which we reassigned investigative personnel to the patrol section to provide for increased visibility and calls for service cababilities. This program was purely as stop -gap measure that has now ended. A third short term initiative, program initiative, and one for which we are grateful to the Commission, has been the overtime funds to increase patrol staffing, form a Robbery Task Force, and staff special patrol beats. This has increased uniform visibility, and helped to reduce the late calls for service. A Helicopter observer Program has also been established during this fiscal year. This program has increased visibility, been utilized for aerial surveillance, but otherwise contributed to Patrol's crime fighting activities. This has been accomplished at little direct cost to the City. We are currently utilizing approximately 20 hours per month of our contractual flying time. We would like to expand this to approximately 100 hours per month as the current time is just not sufficient. We are reviewing other alternatives that will provide us with additional helicopter availability. Another short term program initiative implemented during FY 80-81 was the Florida Highway Patrol Assistance Program. As you will recall, this was a program at which the Governor assigned an additional 100 troopers to the Dade County area to assist local departments with the handling of their traffic responsibilities. Due to the cuzz;.ss of this program and personal praise to the Governor, it was extended well beyond its original expiration date, but it was concluded as Of June of this year. Last year, the City Commission established a U,O0,= Public Safety Contingency Fund which as enhanced the resources sv iLble for special public safety needs to this community. Funded programs included the Florida Highway Patrol task force which I just 3EP 31981 r T Chief Harms (continued): mentioned, police officer recruitment, hiring of Public Service Aides, and police overtime. The $500,000 overtime euthoritation has given us the equivalent, as I indicated a short time back, of 50 additional police officers, has provided increased police visibility in crime fighting in targeted areas throughout the City. The contingency funded programs have contributed significantly to the security and well-being of the citizens of Miami. Such funding availability during this neat fiscal year would not only provide contingency funding for unanticipated public safety needs, but would provide continued support to a police department still recovering from insufficient staffing. These short term program initiatives have been successful in helping us overcome what we can refer to as a crisis period in our recent history. However, in order to effectively and productively manage these situations and avoid the crisis reactions of the past, long range planning and programs are an absolute necessity. Accordingly, I would like to review for you some of the long term programs which are in varing stages of development or implementation. Urban Crisis Preparedness Program consists of on -going civil distrubance training, monitoring community disorder potential, and the establishment of mutual aid agreements with other agencies, and the establishment of an Urban Crisis Officer position within the department, all of which will permit us to more effectively manage an open crisis whether it's natrual or man-made. We've established a Burglar Alarm Unit which is charged with administering the burglar alarm ordinance which you passed in 1980. Not only has this ordinance resulted in a savings of thousands of man-hours this year, but has also generated revenues from permits, fees, and fines. This ordinance is considered to be the state-of- the-art, and a model around the country and will continue to serve us well in the future. A special taxing district proposal has been developed as an alternative funding source for providing additional police. While concerns have emerged regarding this proposal,that remains a possible alternative. Should general revenues diminish further, renewed interest and further development may make it a viable alternative worthy of further consideration. This fiscal year has also seen the department acquire the Rockwell Corporation Automated Fingerprint System. This ip- the most sophisticated system yet on the market for computer fingerprint identification, and we are one of only four police departments in the country to have acquired one. It has a capability of identifying criminal suspects with fingerprints lifted from crime scenes in a matter of minutes rather than the hours, or days, or months, or years that it might take to conduct a similar search of the same data. The system has already resulted in the identification of 157 suspects that would have otherwise gone undetected. Mayor Ferre: How much did that Rockwell Fingerprinting System cost? Chief Harms: A little over $400,000 and it will have a maintenance expense of somewhere around $100,000 per year plus personnel costs. The Rockwell capability was dramatically demonstrated by the rapid identification of the suspect in the tragic slaying of Miami Police Officer Nathanial Broom. Unfortunately, utilization of this computerized system is significantly less than its potential because of lack of adequately budgeted technicans to operate it. Mayor Ferre: How many? Chief Harms: We need one full-time technician and one -part time technician to keep it running. We're currently operating it at about 15% efficiency level. Mayor Ferre: You've got a $10,000,000 increase in your proposed budget. Are you including that one person? Chief Harms: No, sir. Mayor Ferre: ...in the budget. After yesterday, isn't, shouldn't we adjust things so that we can include that one person? Chief Harms: Absolutely. As a matter of fact, the budget that you see before you does not accomodate the addition of any civilian employees at all. The ideal budget that we put together in fact dealt with approximately 92 civilian positions, including the individuals that are L' SEP 31981 u AIR i. Chief Harms Oontitlued): netessaty to run that systeft. Mayor Verre: How many do you need to run that system toore than i5X at a time That's the question. Chief Harms: A total of 9 people, but we're seeking ... what have we got now k in that area or do you recall? i ? Chief Breslow: Well, basically, we have two I.D. Techs who do nothing but compare fingerprints and use the system. We would like to add an additional person there. In addition, we need some clerical employees to do some mundane situations, and then we need people out on the scene to do the processing. And if you don't process the scene, more scenes, you don't hace comparison samples to place in the system. i� Mayor Ferre: See, you have a $10,000,000 increase which is a 26% increase over the amended budget. Now, of that, $2,200,000 is supposedly for union negotiations. Chief harms: Yes, sir. Mayor Ferre: And $5,500,000 of that is the new 186 officers to get us up to 1,000. So, what I saying, I guess, if you've got another $2,000,000 in there, I would hope that we could find, we could juggle it around a little bit to add some of the additional personnel. Chief Harms: And I certainly agree with you in that regard. Our best estimate, our best budget was some $2,300,000 higher than the figures that we were provided to bring our budget in within this year. So of course, what we had to do is scale down the request to accomodate the upper limits on the budget itself. Now, as we were scaling down, of course, those civilian positions that we had identified, in order to accomodate the 186, which fell in line with the intention of the Commission, just precludes us from hiring any additional civilians at this time. Mayor Ferre: I'll tell you what I would like to do, and I'd like to do very, very quickly. The City Commission has now approved the Special Taxing District. The administration is now, and I know you've got a lot of other things to do, but the administration basically is now, well I won't say sitting on it, but it's in your court. It's in the administration's court. Now, I would like to move that to a front burner and that means taking it to Metropolitan Dade County for approval. I think you and your staff have got to get ready for that. Let me tell you where I think ... I think my speech that day is going to go like this: Show them the charts and say, look, the City of Miami is going up from a $36,000,000 budget to a $46,000,000 budget. That's almost a 30% increase. And that, to put it in proportion, that's over 1/3rd of our total budget. Now, we just can't do any more with the resources we have at this stage of the game. And we need, and I notice that we have some downtown merchants that are represented here. We just simply do not have the resources to do the job that's needed. And if we, if you want to get the kind of first class, sophisticated protection police work that is needed, we need additional funds. Okay? Now, we need additional funds because with these funds we can really give you the service that without it you're not going to get. Now, the argument that the Chamber of Commerce and some of the members of the Merchants Association are taking is fine. Spend more money, but get somebody else to pay for it. Now, that's the same argument that we keep hearing about, they say we want more prisons but I don't want it built in my neighborhood. You go build it somwhere else. I want that highway, but don't you come near me. You put it over on_the other side of the railroad tracks. And the problem is, yeah, if we, if what attitude persists, what will happen is nothing. Because the Legislature isn't going to give us more money. And that's where the responsibility really falls, is in the restructuring of our taxes in the state. Now, those, as the editorial said this morning, in one of these newspapers, that's where the real culprit is. But the fact is I don't see that we're going to gat any relief that way. And I don't see that we're going to get any relief from David Weaver who is the Chairman of the Task Force that did All this said, fine. Then I think we should assess the users not the property owners. SEP 31961 i PAyor Perte(continued): Row are we going to do that? How are we going to.&.are we going to put a toll bridge in downtown Miami and tax people AS the come into downtown Miami? How ... we don't have the authority to -Put A Sales tax. So, you know, my answer to Mr. Weaver and the Chief of Commerce, and to the Merchants Association, fine. You're saying that you want more police officers, and you want more service, and you want and that you want somebody else to pay for it. Give us an alternative. Tell us where we should get the money. Tell us what other taxing sources we have. Now, absent that, I'm ready to stick my neck out and I'm ready to go, and I put ... the other day I called up Hick MtEwen, the president of Burdines, the chairman of the board of Burdines. I said, Dick, as I see these figures, 1/2 mill cost Burdines, it was under $100,000. Do you mean to tell me, and I think E1 Encanto, Tony .... I mean La Epoca, I told Tony it was going to cost him, as I remember, was under $30,000. His answer to me, well my God, we spend more than that in security right now. And I think the point is that the people that are going to be paying for that kind of a taxing district, the large buildings... look, this is like the garbage fee ' argument. Excuse me for taking so much time, but we've got a live merchant here. We're going to pick on him while he's here. But, I think the argument goes like this: in garbage pickup, in garbage pickup, Mel Reese always used to tell me, and finally he got through my thick skull, I realize how he was right. Don't out a fee on it because if you put a fee on it, the people who can least afford it have go to pay it's not tax deductible. If you do it as part of your tax system, since 40% of Miami is commercial, the commercial properties are paying for the garbage pickup that cannot afford it. So therefore, it really is tax break to a homeowner. Now, using that type of logic to the merchants, my argument is let the Pan American Bank, and all the other buildings pay their proportion of a taxing district, your proportion, you the merchants are really paying a heck of a lot less. I understand Weaver's reluctance to carry that tax it's a heck of a lot better than I understand La Epoca's because he's getting a hell of a break. It seems to me. So, you and the Administration are under instruction by this Commission to prepare and go to battle. And I'm telling you right now, I'm ready. I'm ready to go before the C:funty Commission and present a case. And I think the case, Chief, that you need to present besides those charts is what you've just told me about that Rockwell Fingerprinting... Chief Harms: Classification System. Mayor Ferre: I think that's a very dramatic case, and I would hope that we could use that as a tool for saying, look, if we get a little relief, we'll help, here's how use at least par of that money specifically to help the downtown area. Chief Harms: Other viable computerized systems such as dispatch and reporting are operating dangerously close to their limits. A comprehensive and long range review of the departments computer facilities has been underway for several months. It is anticipated that a proposal for improvement in this essential area will be completed within the next 6 go 9 months. The possible failure of Officer Broom's partners older model radio while initially attempting to summon assistance is currently being investigated. This emphasizes not only the continuing need to supply our officers with the best possible equipment, but the critical dependence of the Police Department on other City departments for efficient and quality maintenance of vital support items in areas such as communications, computers and vehicles. The department is also on the verge of operationalizing a crime analysis unit. Mayor Ferre: What's that? Chief Harms: It's a unit htat will take the crime data that we develop and attempt to predict criminal activity in various areas based on Potential, based on passed experience. This is really one of the functions SEP 31981 Chief Harms (continued): that's suffered within the department over the list several years. It becomes of particular importance for directing pAttol, activity, for us to take crime data, such as where burglaries 6ecur, where the incidents of robbery is the greatest, so that we can deploy out resources accordingly. This year it is formally established, and assuming adequate computer support is available, that personnel will review crime reports and computer data and will provide Patrol and other operational units the current crime trends, patterns, suspects, and other tactical information which will improve their effectiveness. In conjunction with crime analysis, the department is in the process of implementing an integrated criminal apprehension program. This program which we refer to as ICAP is a compremensive approach to the delivery of police service to the community which involves operational data collection, analysis, planning, and service delivery. It provides a structured approach to assure that the criminal information received by the department is analyzed and disseminated to all levels of the department. It further provides for the effective utilization of this information through tactical planning, and personnel deployment, participatory leadership, and efficient time management. And it also deals with career criminal prosecution which certainly should help us eliminate some of the recidivus from the community that continue to contribute at this proportionate level to our crime problems. In the near future I'll be presenting to the Manager, and subsequently I believe, to the Commission a feasibility study on a Marine Patrol Unit. This will include cost breakdowns, proposed strucutre, staffing, equipment needs and all other relevant information. We're concerned about the varied marine interest within the community and their police service needs. There is also an unprecedented amount of narcotics activity on our waterfronts and waterways, and Miami appears to be the port of perference for illegal alien entrance. The Marine Patrol would be invaluable in dealing with these situations. We're receiving applications for our Auxiliary officer Program which will supplement our sworn personnel on a limited basis at minimal expense to the City. We will also provide an opportunity for participation within the community for those with a sense of civic pride and responsibility. In addition to the cost benefits of this program to the City, it will help bridges of understanding with the diverse group of individuals with the common interest in our community. Programs of this nature have been very successful in other departments around the nation, and we're very optomistic about its potential here in Miami. We're also in the process of implementing a more effective Calls for Service Management System. This involves diverting certain low priority calls for service so the police officers do not have to physically respond to every request for service that's received by the department. The goals of this program include more effective call screening, call referral, telephone reporting, call stacking, and in general, an anticipatory approach to dealing with an ever increasing work load. This will allow the communication center to more effectively deal in the tremendous volume of calls currently being received, and will provide more time to put officers to engage in directed patrol activities. In conjunction with this, an extensive reorganization of our Complaint Center is underway. This will provide for more consisten supervision, enhance the efficiency of that unit, and better development of communications personnel. A Public Service Aide Program, a model progra- of its kind in this country has been a tremendous assest to our department over the years. The program has expanded from its original limited concept to encompass contributions in almost facet of police work. We're committed to this paraprofessional model not only because of its cost effectiveness, but because it serves as a point of entry into the department for youngsters who desire careers as police officers. A Community Crime Prevention Program continues to serve as a bridge between the Police Department and the community, and facilitates problem identification and resolution as a joint venture. This is done through an area -wide council and 9 sub -councils. And it's been very successful in involving community members with their police department. We're also at the bidding stage of a Federal Grant entitled Police Performance Project. This grant was designed by the department to develop for performance and productivity measurement system. .ao Amplementation of this grant should facilitate an efficient utilization of the resources available to the department in providing the service. The grant has been geared to the prevention, crime fighting and investigative function. In addition, the department is in the process of identifying SEP 31981 I"% Chief Harms (continued): positions which can be civilianized, and Mould like to move ahead with civilian conversion. However, we have not received the funding support needed, and the procedure is difficult without the necessary budget allocation. For two years, we have been identifying and proposing sworn positions for civilianization. However, without adequate funding this is a very difficult process to implement. As you can see, many of these long term projects and plans deal directly with improved efficiency and productivity. The management of the Miami Police Department is committed to increasing efficiency and productivity and Will continue to make the most of what we have. Considering the Miami community's unprecedented services needs, this Police Department should have at the very minimum the personnel equivalent to national average police department staffing levels. This Commission has initiated the direction towards this goal by bringing the Police Deparment strength from its lowest staffing level in a decade last year to its highest point today. I ask that you again today commit yourself to this direction so that the community may receive the police services it so desperately needs and deserves. The Police Department budget request for the coming fiscal year will increase our strength, our sworn strength, by 186 officers bringing us to a sworn complement of 1,000. We will continue identifying positions and functions within the department which can be civilianized in order to insure that our sworn officers are dedicated to areas requiring their authority and expertise. The large increase increase in personnel has resulted in higher operating cost as reflected in the object codes. Additional police cars, radios, uniforms, training, related equipment and supplies are required to support our officers in meeting the tremendous challenges posed by the crime level in our City. In addition, inflation and previous budgetary dependence upon salary savings for unoccupied positions has caused operation costs increases. It is anticipated that the following benefits will be derived for these funds for which I'm requesting approval. The significant reduction in delayed response to calls for service, a more efficient handling of case load assignments by investigators, an increase in the clearance rate of criminal investigations, a significant increase in police visibility, increased job satisfaction due primarily to a decrease of individual work load and attendant stress, the reduction in the general public's fear of crime. In closing, I urge you to narefully examine this proposed budget, then lend it your full support. By doing so, you'll help to create an environment which fosters a development of Miami's potential, is conducive to economic growth, and improves the quality of life for every member of our community. You will be investing in the future of Miami which I believe is destined to become a great international city with our commitment and with our support. Hopefully, I'll be able to respond to some of the questions that you've been jotting down and I'll certainly give it a try at this point if you want to go through them. Mayor Ferre: Let me just ask something. Mano, I'm going to ask you some specific information I'm going to need for the budget hearings. And I want to tell you basically what I would like. The tax base of the City of Miami is $7,300,000,000, as I recall. I'd like an analysis of the last 10 years. I wish you'd begin with 81 and just go back to see how that has increased. As I recall, we started at about.,.when I first became Mayor in 73, we were just over $2,000,000,000 maybe close to 3,000,000,000. I'd like to compare that with Metropolitan Dade County. And I specifically would like to have the figures compared to the Downtown Development Authority because we can get those. my thrust is, again to the merchants of the downtown area. If you look at Atlanta as an example of what another major city is doing, Atlanta has 3.9 police officers per 1,000 as compared to our 2. So they are almost twice as much. And they also have a crime rate which is substantially higher than Miami's. However, the big difference between Atlanta nad Miami is the proliferation of urban sprawl in this community. In other words, the downtown court area of Atlanta makes up, if I recall the figures, about 40X.of the total tax base of the City of Atlanta. The City of Atlanta has about 600,000 citizens. I'm not talking about Pulton County now. I'm talking about the City of Atlanta itself. 40A of the tax base is in the center. And more than half of the tax base is commercial property. Now what's happened in our community is SEP 31981 Ywyor Porre (continued)s through this wonderful thing called Metropolitan bade County, this metropolitan government, you have had a tendency toward urban sprawl. If you know the.money that has spent in the community by government, they had been spent inoutoying areas. We built schools. there hasn't bee a school built in the Citv of Miami in 20 years. They built parks, they build all of the facilities out there. Obviouslv. that's where people are going to move. There are roads. there are new schools. evervthine is out there. And as a consequence of that. the development of downtown in Miami has been impaired. Because we haven't had proper development of downtown, we don't have the tax base to pay for the police department to have enough policemen on the street. The only solution that the City of Miami has over the long term, we have a chicken -egg situation that now has finally arisen, and that is the only way that we're going to be able to get enough money especially when Revenue Sharing is over, and I understand from Washington that we may have two more years of that, Which is great. I'm happy to hear that because that's $12,000,000...$9,000,000, $8,500,000 that we very badly need and we'd be in trouble without. But I predict to you that by the year 1995 we will be getting $100,000,000 in real estate taxes because of this tremendous surge that's been going on in downtown Miami. We will have in one of those wells $3,000,000,000 worth of construction in the next 12 months that will be underway. Now last year we had $500,000,000 worth of construction as I recall in our building permits, which is the highest we've ever had. And what that means is that as these big buildings get finished we will then have the tax base. Now the argument goes, yeah but you'll have more expenses. But the answer to that is no because these commercial highrises will not require the level of service that the urban sprawl residential community requires. So we will have more money to do more things with, and therefore, I think we'll'be able to deploy our resources much better. Now, the problem is that it hasn't hurt us yet because the money keeps on flowing into this community. But if we don't do something about this crime problem that is though psychologically eventually it's going to affect the investor. And it could reverse this boom that Miami is enjoying So it's a chicken -egg situation that we really have to deal with. The merchants are already feeling it. Now, I think it is totally unfair, and totally wrong to put the blame of the merchants plight on the City or the Police Department because what... we have nothing to do with the drop of a peso in Argentina. We've got nothing to do with the fact that the economy in Venezula is such that there's less Venezuleans coming to Miami. You know, the fact is that we're partly involved in that but we don't control it completely. And I think the point in this as far as the Police Department is concerned is that we now really have got to be fully supportive, Chief, of the police so that nobody could say, and I have a little bit of a bone to pick with the Police Department and I'll tell you what it is. This is a police officer, and I won't mention his name because I don't think it's germain. Quote, "the Police Department has to some degree lost control of the streets." End of quote. Something has got to be done. We're living like we're in a prison. Coconut Grove is one of the nicest communities in the City but you have to holler at City Hall. It's almost election time and that's why you see so many of us patrolling now. It's up to you to see that the Commission is aware of your problems all the time. Now, I don't think that's really an accurate statement.and I think you've been getting support all throughout this year. Chief Harms: Absolutely. And I've said that publicly and I reinforce that now. Mayor Ferre: I think it's an unfortunate statement and it gets all the merchants in Coconut Grove all excited because an officer that wears a blue uniform tells him that it's election time and that's why we're here in now and we won't be here after. The implication being after the election he'll be withdrawn. That officer wasn't there election time. He's been there for several months. And I would hope that that L"` ;if a statement can be properly addressed. Chief Harms: As a matter of fact, we'll respond to that "Neighbors". I'm not aware of it. We may have responded at this point. If we haven't, then I certainly will. That is is appropriate for us to set the record straight. SEP 31981 MA"t Ferre: Let me ask you some questions. Chief Harms: Yes, air. Mayor Ferre: Burglar Alarm Ordinance. You say it's a state-of-the-art. The Latin Chamber of Commerce doesn't seen to think so. Chief Harms: They object to it. The Latin Chamber, of course, is a political entity. Mayor Ferre: You'd better not tell them that. Chief Harms: I have in the past, and it's been done certainly with tongue in cheek. And they try to represent the interst of the merchants. What has occurred in fact, is that while our systems have gone up substantially from 3,800 the year before last up to somewhere around 5,200 systems within the City. The false alarm numbers have dropped considerably saving us a projected 14,000 man-hours this year. Now, it hasn't been done without some concern. Mayor Ferre: Would you do me a favor? Would you document that rather than take up a lot of time now? Chief Harms: Yes, sir. Mayor Ferre: Would you have someone draft a memorandum and distribute it to the Commission, and would you make sure that Mr. Siddhu who is the president of the Chamber gets a copy of that. Chief Harms: Certainly will. Mayor Ferre: Tell exactly why this has been necessary and where we are, and you know, what the improvement means in dollars and cents to the community. Chief Harms: I certainly will. And part of my presentation to the Violence Task Force a couple months ago, in Miami, dealt with that specific issue. They were very much interested in it and they recognized it as one of the ways to return some time back to a police agency which could be devoted to other important functions. Our experience has been about a 98% false rate, about 5O% of those are based on human error. Somebody... Mayor Ferre: 98X7 Chief Harms: Yes, sir. 2% of all the calls we receive related to alarms deal with either a burglary or an act of vandalism on the property invovled. But upward of 50% of the false alarms are strictly related to human error. In addition to that, some of the systems that have been sold by the companies who expect us to respond to every single, the systems have been extremely deficient. This helps the homeowner, the merchant, and the alarm company. Mayor Ferre: Why don't you talk to the Stress Center. Do you have any figures in here for a Stress Center. I'm talking aboutthis thing that's slowly organizing out there. You know, I think you were at one of the meeting or...Herb, you were. I'd like to just for the record, you know, give my opinion on that. I would like to see some money put into this budget for support of that I'm totally convinced, if you look at the divorce rate, and the statistical reports on alcoholic incidents, not only in the Miami Police Department, but in Police Departments throughout the country, I think there's no question that being a police officer has got to be one of the toughest jobs anybody can have in America. I mean, I don't mean to belittle fire fighters. I know that they have rough time too and that they die younger and all that kind of stuff and that they Have more heart attacks than anybody else, but I'll tell you, I really think the toughest job has got to be somebody that's out there dealing with people and crime. And I think you see that.,,.Bot maybe more fire fighters die than police officers dale but I don't think you have SEP 31981 t �L Mayor Ferre (continued): stress incidence in any other profession that you have in police work. I don't think, Chief, you can solve the problem by having 3 psychologists and phsychiatrists in the Police building because there's pressure group in that, nobody wants to go to the shrink, and the guy that's going to the shrink is worried that it's going to go on his record and that he's going to be marked for life if he shows that he's weak and all that kind of stuff. And I think really, we really need to address that issue, and I don't think we've addressed it. We've tried to address it. I think...but I don't think it can be done within the Police Department. I am really totally convinced that the only way to do it is to have a place that is a social place where police families can take the kids and there's a pool table and a tennis court, and a swimming pool, and it's a social type of a thing, and where there are facilities availalbe, off the record, where a family that isn't just a police officer. I think we've got problems with police wives, and police children, you know, that are worried They read newspapers and they see an officer lost his life and that type of a thing. So I really think that we've got to address that, and I would like for you to after ... Herb, or whoever has been dealing with this, I don't know what the budget is, but they're talking about a $2,000,000 facility and they want some kind of support from both the County and the City. Herb, what's his name, Geller? Chief Breslow: Gallo. — Mayor Ferre: Herb Gallo came to see me, and I forget who else was with him. There were two other people. And I told him that I really wanted to support this. So I'd like to see that in this years budget and a provision for that. Chief Hams: Okay. What you said is certainly on point. I agree with everything you said. We have attempted organizationally to deal with one dimension of that stress. But it can in no way replace what they're suggesting. I'm totally in favor of the concept. The only word of caution that I would offer at this point is to make sure that they're qualified by State law and to perhaps assign an individual from the City government as part of an Oversight Committee that would deal with them. Mayor Ferre: Well, you come up with the that this has to be done professionally, just let them loose. It has to have, it Chief Harms: Absolutely. conditions, and I completely agree it has to be monitored, we can't has to be responsive to somebody. Mayor Ferre: We've got to be part of that. I don't think it ought to be the Police Chief, or the Police Department... Chief Harms: No. I don't either. Mayor Ferre: ...but I think it ought to be somebody in the administration. Chief Harms: Again, I support very much the concept, and it's not my intention to impose anyone's integrity. I think that all of the people that I've seen with this project up to this point in time are very well intentioned, honorable individuals. But it's a matter of doing business in a professional way that dictates that we share that responsibility for oversight. Mayor Ferre: Now tell me about the review process. How tht's working, this new system which you have. Has it been used and tested sufficient? Chief Harms: No, sir. We're still in the process of staffing that function. Now the director of that function is in fact on board. And within the next couple of weeks, his staff... Mayor Ferre: You hired a director? Chief Harms: Yes, sir. Mayor Ferre: Is he a local guy? Chief Harms: Yes, sir, he is. SEP 31981 Mayor Terre: Police experience? Chief Harms: No, sir. He's been involled with a number of social programs throughout this community and in Washington, but he does have a Miami background. We're very enthusiastic about him as an individual, and his credentials. I think he has a good bit of credibility in the community. Mayor Ferre: Does he have any experience? Chief Harms: No, air. Mayor Ferre: How can you get somebody without any police experience? Chief Harms: These investigators will have some range of police experience. I think you're looking substantially at two different problems. If you hired an individual. with police experience, then he's going to have a very difficult time obtaining some of the outside credibility that he needs to make the program a success. If you get someone without a feeling for the community and the organization, then that too might be a disservice if it's not in balance. So we felt that based on his credentials that he had all of the necessary skills to be very successful at the job. Mayor Ferre: Crime Commission and it's relationship to the community and especially this Crime Stop and Crime Watch. Chief Harms: I would say in spite of Mr. Rasmussen's presence here today that the Crime Commission has never been in better shape. Their goals and objectives for the future will certainly be of benefit to this community and the various entities which comprise Dade County. Crime Stopper specifically is a program that will be becoming operational approximatly September the 21st, Howard? And its been a success. It was started initially in Albuquerque ;tew Mexico some years ago, and it spread to many other major cities. And we have a lot of hope for the future for that program. That provides essentially that rewards can be paid anonimously to those who provide information leading to the arrest and conviction of people involved in crimes. Now, our contribution to that is a police officer and a public service aide, and it's on a County -wide basis. Mayor Ferre: A police officer and a... Chief Harms: Public Serice Aide. The County contribution is office space, office support, and two full-time employees. Dade Chief's is sharing the responsibility through some of their members for a part-time involvement of their individual officers as well. So we're very enthusiastic about it. We are getting some good media support at this Point, and Howard, it may be unfair of me to pick on you right nocr, but if you're not satisfied with the progress of that program, now is the time to say it. I'm delighted with it up to this point. Mr. Rasmussen: The corporation that we received from you and your staff has been outstanding. Chief Harms: Be careful. Don't make it heavy now. Thank you. Mr. Rasmussen: The Mayor knows I tell it like it is. Mayor Ferre: How about the community and Crime Watch. Now, there are some neighborhoods where it's functioning. How many neighborhoods do we have organized in Crime Watch? (INAUDIBLE BACKGROUND COMMENT PLACED OUTSIDE OF THE PUBLIC RECORD) Chief Barms: But if you were going to talk about Crime Watch Programs, how a&uy specific programs would you any are in operation now? (INAUDIBLE BACKGROUND COMMENTS PLACED OUTSIDE OF THE PUBLIC RECORD) Lt. Paine: The figures are that we have established approximately 400 specific crime watch areas in the C..ty of Miami during the term of the Crime Prevention Project. Mayor Ferre: Does 400 incoude everything in the City. I mean, from Liberty City down to Coconut Grove? 400 is everything? How many of those... Lt. Paine: That represents 4,200 households. Mayor Ferre: Out of 140,000. Okay. So in other words, 400 is not everything. Chief Harms: No, it isn't. It's everything we have. Keep in mind, that the police responsibility in that arena is to try to energize a new council with the expectation that the individual members of a particular program will continue its existence. Mayor Ferre: I guess my question is this. 100% of the City, how much of that has a crime watch operation today? 8%? 10%? 5%? What is it? Lt. Paine: We could compare the number of households as a percent of the total number of household in the City which I do not have. Mayor Ferre: Well, there's 140,000 4,200. Okay? So, it's a very small vigorous pursual? in the City 4,200. Okay? percentage. Does that warrant more Chief Harms: Yes, it does. But again, we get right back to the same point. Once we energize it, provide the basic information and structure for it, it's impossible to keep full-time employees with each one of those small groups. As the individuals within a community recognize that they have to band together in order to protect common interest, as they become more willing to be concerned about neighbors, they'll do it. Mayor Ferre: Yeah, okay. That's all very nice, but let's get right down to the nitty-gritty. What I'm saying is if you have 4,200 households out of 140,000, we have not done very much. Okay? Now, I just think that's not much. I think we need to do a lot more because, frankly, I may be wrong about this and I'm certainly not a police expert, but just common sense tells me that if you, the best kind of police work that can be done is if you have every citizen in this community as being. working as eyes and ears for the Police Department. If that would have happened,we would have perfection. Obviously, nobody can get that. Chief Harms: It would mean considerably more staff than we currently have to go beyond the limit that we're servicing right now. Mayor Ferre: I know that everybody wants the staff to patrol downtown, to patrol Coconut Grove, patrol Allapattah and everybody wants everthing But we really, it, my opinion, need to deploy our forces in suc::, in an .pvgrec'Mme, way so we can get better use of our funds and people. That Rockewell fingerprint classifier is a damn good investment if you look at the fact that we've had 157 arrests that we wouldn't have had otherwise because of that equipment, and we've been able to track down some people that would otherwise probably gotten away. Chief Harms: And that's since January of this year alone. So we're certainly increasing its effectiveness and will in the future with those civilian staff. Mayor Ferre: So, what I'm saying is. I know that the merchants want policemen with a nightstick walking up and down the street. That's going to give people a lot of security, and I realize that that's important, and I'm not against that. But I also think that we need to do things that we know are also going to be effective in the community of reducing crime. Now, the fact is that we need 5,000 police officers. But we're not going to get 5,000. I mean, we're lucky to get 1,000 right now with the way things are, okay? So we need to figure out ways to SEP 31981 k' Mayor Ferre(continued): utilize our money and people in such a way so that itts a multiplier factor. to my opinion, that Crime Watch, if we can get these people in these ieighborhoods enthused, if they themselves can help reduce crime, it seems to me that it's a very worthwhile investment. Chief Cosgrove: The balance there is very important. Nothing can be worse than providing expectations to the citizenry involved in the Crime Watch Program if you can't produce them because it would be so involved. I think the balance that you have with the resources that we presently have is consistent with the amount of Crime Watch programs that currently exists, can service those fairly well. If you get those programs out of balance, if you can't provide the response capability to deal more effectively within those areas it will provide a false expectation because the program would be doomed to failure to begin with. I think we really have to be careful there with the balance. Mayor Ferre: Mike, that's all fine. I've got a very simple question for the Chief. Out of $46,616,000, how much of that money is being spent for Crime Watch? What percentage of your total resources are being used? Chief Harms: I don't know. Mayor Ferre: Is it 1/10 of l%? And I think that, I'd like to get that information because, you know, that's like Cesear, When we bought 100 white trucks and we had the allison transmissions, and 8O% of them were breaking dwon in the second year, and we figured out that the majority of your problems had to do with the allison transmission. So we really don't have to go through all kinds of expenditures to figure out what the rpoblem is. And I guess what I'm!Baying is that if we can pinpoint where some of these major problems are which is what your computer analysis is going to do, then I think if we put some of our resources into that, isn't that better off than the standard deployment of equipment and personnel in the standard way. Chief Harms: Yes, it is. But if I take people from the downtown business community to provide support to Crime Watch, I want to assure you that I will be an immediate recipient of a number of hostile calls from that special interest group. So again, it's the kind of balance we create. So each program I attempt to diminish to accomodate another one, causes a backlash within that area. Effective utilization of resources is certainly one of our primary concerns today. Mayor Ferre: All right, that brings me up now to the question on the police precincts out in the community. Mainly in the Latin community, there are several candidates in each political race that have now taken up the cause, and very strongly so. They want the following to happen: they want a merger of the Police and Fire Department. So that they would be now one department that would be called the Public Safety Department. In the second place, the recommendation is that fire fighters be deployed in the crime fighting process. To what extent it has not been Clarified. The third thing is the utilization of fire stations, there's 12 of them, as police precincts. So that along with a contingency of fire fighters, there will also be a group of police officers that will , be working out of that precinct. Now, I'm nu, telling you that I'm for A or against this. You know my inclination is against that in general because '• it hasn't worked anywhere that it's been tried, but I want to ask you this. In conjunction with the police watch, or Crime Watch, is we have to come up with imaginative ways of utilizing other governmental employees. And I ask you, what if nay work has been done in utilizing people such (` as the Sanitation Department works, fire fighters to function as eyes and ears of the Police Department. I know obviously if a sanitation worker goes up to a home and picks up the garbage and sees somebody with a gun shooting at somebody he's going to report it. But, is that done in a consistent organized way? There are many other government as an eyes and ears operation to the Police Department similar to Crime Watch. SEP 31981 i j, k 77, i Chief Harms: The answer to that question is generally no. Not on an organised basis. from time to time, we do take advantage of the willingness of individual city employees to be the eyes and ears of their community to help us with particular situations. With regard to some of the other comments you've made, if it's appropriate at this time, I will make reference to them. A Public Safety Officer concept has been tried successfully in 3 communities that I can think of off -hand. One of them is Winston-Salem, another is Durham, both in North Carolina, and Sunny Vale, California. Mayor Ferre: What is this? Public Safety officer? Chief Harms: Which combines a fire and police concept. Those are all relatively small communities, considerably less than half of our size. In the major jurisdictions around the country, and there's only been a few in which its been tried, its been a dismal failure. With regard, and I can offer some suggestions as to why that's the case... Mayor Ferre: The Fire Chief said the same thing yesterday, but we need more than just that as an answer. Chief Harms: I can provide some of the reasons and it certainly has to do with the sophistication of the function itself and the overload in the larger communities that both of those organizations are facing. What you end up with is an individual who is cross -trained that he doesn't have time to perform both functions. With regard to the possible use of fire stations as sub -stations for police personnel, that would be extremely costly in terms of trying to staff it with full-time police personnel on a 7 day a week, 24-hour a day basis. If you required fire officers to perform any level of responsibility for police functions, then you get into a different arena unless he's properly cross -trained. It would in fact result in a fire officer doing police work, police officers in doing fire work under the direction of supervisors and commanders who have no previous training in that regard. But quite honestly, I think there are some areas where shared responsibilities can become a reality. Let me give you a couple of examples. Of course, this is consistent, or it would be consistent with the willingness of employee organizations to permit personnel to be cross -trained in certain areas, then I would suggest that if fire personnel do become involved in any of the kind of functions that we have responsibility now, that it not involve the typical enforcement responsibility that a police officer has. If we deal with certain selected kinds of reporting, I think that they can be helpful in that area. Mayor Ferre: Why don't you plan, and I'd like for you to report back to the Commission before the end of the budget hearing process which should be on September 24, 1981 but anyway, at this point it's September 24th. Here's the kind of information that I would like. The fire fighters also came up with this emergency medical service idea. Anybody could have done it, but they came up with an idea and we were the first in the country to do that. In Miami. We invented this whole thi►.Z. And now we're up to 7 units, working very well. It seems to be an effective program. That really has nothing to do with fire fighting. And a person getting sick in the middle of Flagler'Street has nothing to do with a fire. Chief Harms: Perhaps you missed my point and maybe... Mayor Ferre: I got your point. So, I'm really to the point that the fire fighters have in the past done other than fight fires. Chief Harms: No question about that. Mayor Ferre: I agree with you and I get your point. And I agree that I do not think that fire fighters should carry guns and do any enforcement type, in the same way that do not, for example, permit lab technicians to do police work because they're not trained to do police work, and they shouldn't be doing police work. And it's the acme argument with the same problem if you let them do it. Now, there are however, a lot of functions. For example, and this is what I am specifically going to, I SEP 31981 r Mayor Ferre (continued): think that we should figure out a way to tie together governmental employees that are out on the street. I am talking now about fire fighters who are out inspecting 45,000 homes, properties, a year to make sure that theq meet the fire codes, I'm talking about personnel such as Sanitation Department personnel, I'm talking about zoning inspectors and people that are out, these are government employees of the City and we could perhaps find county and state and other people that are functioning in our areas, and I think those people should go through a minimum type of training, I think that we should get communications equipment, either telephones, they should be given keys to telephones, even though we got rid of those telephoned, whatever, we'll give them a quarter so that they'll use a pay phone, but that they will have a way that they will function with the Police Department, in addition to which, they're the ones that under the direction of trained police officers can work with the Crime Commission and perhaps establish Crime Watch operations and maybe we can say let's target 20 neighborhoods this year. You know? We'll take Alllapattah to Wynwood, and downtown, and the southern part of Coconut Grove, and what have you, and maybe we can organize Crime Watch neighborhood operations that will function some how so that we end up with a pyramid approach to the problem, at the top which you will have the Police Department, and underneath of which you'll have 1,000 government employees of different source, and 100,000 citizens that will be a part, all of them with minimum training. An hour or two a week, or whatever on a major crime watch operation. Chief Harms: That's a very practical solution to an important problem. I commend you for that foresight. The problem comes in, however, it's very practical to cross -train a fire fighter to do a building security assessing, and suggest placement of locks and things of that type, it then becomes a problem that we would have to deal with as far as the Fire Department is concerned, based on their work loads, and the fire fighters employee organization. But is it practical? Yes, it's feasible from the standpoint of cross -training. They could perform those functions as could just about anyone from the City family now. But I don't know it it can be accomplished in the short run because of the recurrent duties and responsibilities of those organizations. Mayor Ferre: If we could do it and I'd like to discuss it toward the end of the budget as to how we can start structuring something like that even at a minimal. If you say it would cost $300,000 or can you do it, is it going to cost you $5,000,000, you know, how can we begin to deploy men and equipment to start to set up some kind of a system where we can approach police work in that way. Chief Harms: We can tell you how it can be done, we can tell you the approximate cost, but we can't tell you whether Chief Brice and his people would be able to do it based on their work load and their willingness to become involved in that function. Mayor Ferre: It's a beginning. That's all. I'm just saying let's begin. I'm not saying that it makes sense, I'm not saying that next year we won't scrap it. Let's look...I'd like to look into it. Chief Harms: Yes, sir. -1 Mayor Ferre: I'd like to ask you one last question with regard to the planning officers. I remember reading in the National League of Cities literature and some of the crime prevention, Conference of Mayors stuff that I'v read when I was chairman of.one of those committees. At New York City and other police departments have a different times with varied success tried the deployment of personnel in the neighborhoods in such a way that officers respond to a particular neighborhood. Now, that has all variations. In some cases, those viliLors were specifically assigned to that specific neighborhood, and they have to walk that beat, and ride it, and get to know who the corner grocer is, who is the trouble maker, and who the bad kid is and the whole thing. And that goes from that all the way down to a much looser operation where officers are given the responsibility of a certain SEP 3 i.8i Mayor Ferre (continued): number of blocks so that it's a loose arrangement so that out of their total hours in a dpy are assigned 4 hours.out of the week to go and get to know that neighborhood so that when a problem arises in that particular neighborhood, you can get Officer Jones and say, hey Jones, do you happen to know this kid who we've got his fingerprints and we think he's in trouble somewhere. Why don't you go in there and find out, I don't mean to say that we're going to end up like Barretta, but I mean, you know, go in there with your parrot on your shoulder and find out who knows who this kid is, you know. But, is there any way that we can get into that type of deployment of personnel. Obviously, not for all 816. Could we take, the question is this, could we take and divide the City of Miami other than the high urban area like downtown, or the commercial parts, and even there, I don't know, and say we will assign these 10 blocks to Officer Jones.t•)e will allow him so many hours a month and request that he become familiar with that neighborhood. Chief Harms: The answer to that question is generally yes. There are a number of variances of what they refer to as Team Policing throughout the country. Its had almost no success in larger communities. And in the smaller communities where they have applied it, they have moved from a specialized function to a generalist function, and they've had to add considerably to their resources and particularly to their equipment. And it's based on a 24-hour responsibility of the individual within a certain geographic area. Can it be done? We attempt to do that by assigning... Mayor Ferre: Can you do that at all? Chief Harms: We can, and we do it in very limited circumstances now. In order to expand that, would dictate increasing our capital for the purchase of equipment and increasing our resources. Mayor Ferre: Do you mean automobiles? Chief Harms: Yeah. Let's take a typical example. If an officer or a squad of officers has a specific 24-hour responsibility to a given geographic location, then they're going to want to adjust their times to the greatest need based on certain crime trend data and things of that type. Now that means that they're going to have to have a portion of the fleet dedicated to them so that they can work at 1:00 o'clock in the morning or 1:00 o'clock in the afternoon without having to stand in line to share a car with someone else within the department. those sort of problems are created. Mayor Ferre: Is there a midway point, Chief? Chief Harms: None that I have seen across the country thats been successful. We've been looking at that. We've been tracking that, if you will, for the last 6 or 7 years across the country. Mayor Ferre: That's a long time. Chief Harms: It sure is. And what our experience has been at this point in time, is that with small communities, 100,000 population, they have had varying degrees of success with it. It's an expensive program to operate. Mayor Ferre: Well, what strikes me about all these stories about the officers back on the beat is not that they're really stopping crime, because I frankly don't think that because a man happens to be walking on the street that that's going to stop the criminal from burgarlizing. I think it works with the Marielitos. Because I think when the Marielitos see an officer walking, it acts as a deterrent. But they'll soon learn, and when they become like other Americans, that won't deter them very long. They'll wait until the guy walks by and than they'll go do their job. But...which is what we see in other circumstances. I think with the Marielitos there's no question that it has worked. But I think where it becomes effective is, it seems to me is in the personal knowledge that that officer has with the merchants and the SEP 3 1981 M ytt 1 t y6t perre (continued): people that are habitually on that street. And eopecially in communities like the black community, and like the Latin eamunity inhere is that kind of a rapport that is established because these are people that are street people, they live in the street. You know, there always there. You go down to 8th Street or Flagler Street and 12th, it's always the sane people that are there, whether it's a shoeshine boy, or the guy that sells coffee in the corner expresso bar or whatever. And that that officer begins to establish a personal relationship with that, sometimes information is a lot easier, flows a lot easier to the Police Department if they have a working confidence relationship with that officer. Now, I notice that in your statistics here that you had, for example, that is it called Sector 40? Chief Harms: Yes, sir. That's the downtown area, generally. Mayor Ferre: Sector 40 seems to be the highest crime area. Chief Harms: Yes, air. Mayor Ferre: Okay. Now, if we were to use Sector 40, and I see Sector 60 and 70 which are Little Havana, suppose we were to start something in Sector 40, or Sector 60, and say we're going to just hone in on those particular areas, we're going to take 100 officers out of the 814, and we're going to assign specific responsibility on so many hours a week. Not on a 24-hour basis, because I see where that would take up too much time. Is there any way that we could deploy men on a more personal basis? Chief Harms: We're doing that essentially now with our specialized patrol units, in the downtown area. Mayor Ferre: That's 8 people. Chief Harms: No, sir, it isn't. It's considerably more because Special Patrol Units consist of the Foot Beat Officers, the 3-Wheel Officers, the Mounted Officers, and it gives us an opportunity to provide that specialized kind of patrol, not only to the downtown area, but to the outlying special business interest as well. And it has been quite successful to the degree that we can provide assignment continuity. That's exactly what we're doing. We continue to.try to use the same people over and over again, on a daily basis, within those areas of assignment. Mayor Ferre: Would you, and this is something that obviously we can't do right now, but would you give me some further... Chief Harms: Sure will. Mayor Ferre: ...consideration on that? 1 Chief Harms: Sure. We'll tell you what we're doing, and what we might be able to accomplish in that direction. Mayor Ferre: if the Commission were to be so inclined to go in that direction of police work, would you give us an analysis as to how much that would cost, and for budget on a limited basis. Where we would ' begin to do that. You might chose a certain neighborhood to test it out. Chief Harms: Sure. And what we'll do is we'll use certain basic assumptions that we'll provide for you and we'll establish the criteria. We can then adjust that based on, you know, the conversation we have after we develop that model of the report. SEP 31981 Mayor Perre: The Criminal Justice System, I know that the department has a good relationship with the State Attorney and her office. Are we somehow, you said there are 3 things. One is manpower. We're talking about that. Then you said community support. And then we talked about the Criminal Justice System. I don't think the Criminal Justice System is working that well, and I don't think anybody in this room does. And I think everybody is upset, concerned, and frustrated and we don't know what the hell to do. For example, the Legislature, I get calls from Richard McKuen asking me to document what the Governor and the Legislature did not do for the Criminal Justice System. You know, we get all the blame in the Police Department, and in the City of Miami Commission, and the fact is that we're probably 10% of the whole Criminal Justice System because, what the hell's the use of apprehending a criminal if you can't put them in jail. And what's the use of putting them in jail if you can't hold them there. What's the use of the whole thing if the FBI statistics are right, then only 1% of the people who commit serious crimes end up in jail. And we're not responsibile for that totally. I think we're.doing a hell of a lot better job for our portion of it than we get credit for. And I think, therefor, those that are not doing their job, are not really being blamed sufficient, or are not being focused on. Now I know that there are not enough prosecutors, and there are not enough judges, and there are not enough...but somehow, what is the City of Miami Police Department, therefore, the City of Miami, because you're our front line. You're the ones that do it for us. What are you doing about changing the Criminal Justice System other than testifying before Congressional Committees and Governor's Committees and other things, which is terrific. But I mean, can we do more. Is there...I mean, for example, can we put together that information. We have a lobbyist in Tallahassee. Are we using him? Have you called in Rick Sisser, and you say, okay, these are the things that we want. And we want to go up before the Dade County ... we've got Senator Robert McKnight now. We want Senator Robert McKnight to come down here, who is the head of the Legislative group and we want...I'd like to see a letter of what it is the Chief of Police and the Police Department, and the City Commission want from the Legislature. And I'd like to get 36 signatures on it. I'd like to have every Senator, every Representative to say this is our program, we will support this in Tallahassee, and we won't come back with anything but. We haven't done that. You know, the problem is that everybody says well that's somebody else's responsibility. That's the Crime Commission, and let Metro do that, or let the Criminal Justice Task Force do that, or the Governor's Task Force, and nobody, in my opinion, has put it together. Now, we're not the only ones. But Hassachusets passed a gun law. You subscribe to a partial gun law but you haven't been effective in it. I subscribe to it but I havn't been effective in it. Chief Harms: Well, what we're doing... Mayor Ferre: We talk a lot but when are we going to get it done? Chief Harms: You're talking about quite a few things that are really very close to what I consider to be the crux of the problem. Effective gun management, and I refer to that rather than gun control, when you talk about gun control you bring out all of the strange people from the woodworks and what have you. But if we look at an effective gun management, we're dealing with an entirely different concept. Mayor Ferre: The National Rifle Association would not like you very much today. Chief Harms: Mr. Mayor, I'm convinced that they already don't like me. I base gun ownership as being more of a privilege than a constitutional right. And with the privilege goes certain requirements that can be applied directly to the individual. Mayor Ferre: You don't have to give me a lecture. I believe it. I've read your articles. They're terriffic. But that's fine. They;ce articles at this point. How are we going to make that...why doesn't Florida have the Kassachuets gun licensing law or whatever. SEP 31981 3 Chief Harms: Because they haven't made a commitment to it. Mayor Ferre: Okay. And you made a commitment? Chief Harms: Absolutely. Mayor Ferre: Okay. And then what are we in the City doing to make sure that that commitment becomes a reality? Chief Harms: I'm dealing with a number of local and state and national organizations trying to make that into more than just a philosophy. At the state level, through the Governor's Committee, at the Federal level through the Police Executive Research Forum. And I quite frankly, anticipate that in the next year or two years that we will reach the time that gun management can become a reality in this country. It may be pie in the sky, but I see that. But you and I can't do it today. Mayor Ferre: Yes, we can. We've got 36 Legislators that are coming up for election next year. And I would really like to see you, because it has to be you. This is your business. You know what the heck you're talking about. You know, we pretend that we do. I don't mean that some members of the Commission who think they know more about police work than you do, but we think we do, but this is really your baileywick. Chief Harms: I have presented those ideas to the Dade Delegation, the Violence Task Force. Mayor Ferre: I think we need to get in a real tough stance, for example, the Commission list a series of priorities like gun management as maybe one of them. And amybe... listen, if we can go up and get money like we just recently got, and we put all our efforts to getting an addtional...we got $11,000,000 from the State for the People Mover. And don't tell me that this isn't as important as the People Mover. Okay? Now, why did we get $11,000,000 for the People Mover? Because we got the Governor on board, because we've got the Chamber of Commerce on board, because we got Senator Rober McKnight and Jack Gordon and we siad this is it, buddy. Now, don't come home without the bacon. Now you go up and you come back with the $11,000,000. And it gets done. Now, I think that if you look at the statistics, and you look at the gallop polls, 80% of Americans want some kind of gun legislation. We have people being killed here. The other day I saw the most unbelievable report of a man by the name of Fernandez who accidently shot a gun and wounded his 3 year old daughter on the other side of one of these cardboard walls that we have in Miami, these drywall things. It's unbelievable. People that are shooting children. People that ... the rate of crime and the people that are getting murdered by guns by mistake is just unbelievable. I think that this community is supportive of that type of reasonable gun legislation. I'm not talking about confiscation. I'm talking about licensing. And if you're going to have a gun... if you have a car, you've got to prove that you can park a car, and you can drive it safely and know how to take a left hand turn from a corner, why shouldn't you be able t: -rove that you can shoot a gun and know who to load it and unload it if you own it? Chief Harms: I couldn't agree with you more. Mayor Ferre: Okay. But the point is that we're not getting anything out of our Legislative Delegation. Would you tell me who introduced that legislation in the last session? Chief Harms: Nobody. Mayor Ferre: Okay. Then, in my opinion, Chief, with all due respects to you, sir, you failed in your job. In that...and I failed in my Job. Okay? Not you, we all failed. Because if you couldn't get anybody to sponsor that bill in last years Legislature, then what's the good of testifying before Congressional Committees and making speeches like I do, and going to Washington and serving on the Mayor's Conference our Criminal Justice and being the chair on one of these sub -committees if I can't even get one of our Legislators to do a minimum job of SEP 31981 Wat Peire (continued): introducing the kind of stuff that you and I ltoth know is desperately needed. So, I need to know, from you, now that this is the one time of the year that we all have a crack at you, I need to know from you specifically, other than complaining about the Criminal Justice System, and writing another article, what specifically are you and your associates in this department going to do in the Criminal Justice System to see that it changes its ways, mends its ways. And how much money do you need in the budget for that? I'm being supportive of that. Chief Harms: You don't have enough, Mr. Mayor. But I appreciate the offer. If we had 500 more police officers today we'd be at a realistic point. Mayor Ferre: I'm talking, sir, about the Criminal Justice System. Chief Harms: And the Police Department -is the initiating element within the Criminal Justice System, so I have to start with us. Mayor Ferre: I'm talking about gun management, I'm talking about impacting three or four basic things that the Miami Police Department has no direct responsibility for but are part of the problems affecting police officers. You know. Chief Harms: Sure. Mayor Ferre: The ease of that guy who is in jail now had in Setting a gun to kill that police officer, and the victims of a lot of these things are police officers themselves. You know that. You know that the police officers in America are the first ones that are in favor of gun management, throughout America. Chief Harms: Let me respond to your question, if I may. The laws that are passed at the local level have very little effect on the effective management of guns. A county initiative is not much more important. The smallest unit that you should attempt it with is at the State level. I can provide for you a model for proposed legislation within 30 to 45 days that speaks to the issue that I've been speaking to from some time in the past. Mayor Ferre: More than that, Chief. I think more than a model, I think we ought to put money in the budget for trips to Tallahassee, for support of the Crime Commission, that they're going to support us in this. I'd like to get a document, I'd like to hire a lobbyist. Okay? If it's going to take $15,000 or $20,000, and if it saves one police officers life...you spent $400,000 to get a machine that identifies fingerprints, and we can't money to spend a lobbyist to go to...listen, the taxi industry hired a lobbyist last year and wiped out all, as you know, because you're affected by this, it's in court right now, wiped out all the Miami licenses for taxicabs. Now, I don't know how much they paid the lobbyist. But I guarantee you that if you hire a lobbyist and pay him $15,000 or $20,000 or $.'^.ODO, I guarantee you that we'll get 40 or 50 legislators to support gun management next year. Now, isn't that a worthwhile expenditure? Chief Harms: Absolutely. Mayor Ferre: And shouldn't we take that and say that's part of the budget for the Police Department and that we should take that as a goal? Chief Harms: If that becomes part of our budget, I will certainly pursue trying to make that a reality within this State, and of course on an even borader base across the country. I think the time is approaching. But you don't do it overnight. You have to build a support system for it,'you have to develop a model that has credibility with both extremes on that same coatinuom. Mayor Ferre: Isn't the timing right for it, Chief? SEP 31981 Chief Harms: Yes, sir, it is. Mayor Ferre: I mean, if the City of Miami Police Department and the City _ were responsible because of real concentrated effort passing gun management legislation, wouldn't you be proud, wouldn't we be happier, and wouldn't this be a safer City? Chief Harms: I can think of no greater contribution I could make to this community or this state. Mayor Ferre: Well then, I think you ought to put it down in your budget, and I think it ought to be part of the process that the Police Department ought to lead the battle on. Chief Harms: We'll draw the guidelines if we can get Mr. Surahna to put a plus item for us. Mayor Ferre: He's not going to vote. I'm going to vote. Chief Harms:- He's got the money. If we can shake some of that loose from him, we'd be glad to add it. Mayor Ferre: He doesn't have the money. The City Commission has the money and I'm telling you that I think that talking about priorities, that's something that I think that we really should prioritize, and you ought to have has an area of contingency for this Commission to deliberate on. I'm sure you're not going to have unanimity, but_if_that's the will of the majority, I'm certainly willing to bite the bullet. Chief Harms: With the Commission's understanding, with the Commission's direction, I would be most proud and pleased to pursue that. Mayor Ferre: You've got to put it up before your Commissioners. Chief. because again, writing an article on it isn't going to get it done. Chief Harms: I agree with you. It's a starting point. Mayor Ferre: I had asked of Bob some questions which I would like answered in a routine basis. ONe has to do ... do you remember what they were? Mr. Warshaw: You've addressed two of them already. The alarm ordinance and FBI stats. The last one had to do with... Mayor Ferre: In the Personnel Section, we have a lot of retired police officers that are not that old and that may have part-time jobs doing other things, like being legislators and other things like that. Perhaps we could figure out a way to utilize those men better ... not better, because we don't utilize them at all. Perhaps during the period of time, you know, let me tell you one of the things that worries me about this Police.n-nartment. Do you see that kid that got killed yesterday? 23 years old. I asked myself a question. I really thought about this last night. Would a 10 year veteran have lost his life? I dont' knoe. It's the kind of thing that bothers me. Chief Harms: Quite possible. There are so many variables to that same equation. That young fellow had been a military policeman for several years. Went through the Savannah Police Department years ago. If a 10 year veteran under the same circumstances had got out and pursued on foot this individual, ran around that blind corner, then he would have been killed. A 10 year veteran may have exercised just a little bit more caution in the approach itself. Mayor Ferre: As I understand, that kid was already instructing. He was instructing other police officers. Chief Harms: That's correct . SEP 3 1981 1 Msyor Fevre; Here's a guy thats been in the department 8 months. I know be had previous military police experience. Anyway, here's a kid . 23 years old, 8 months in the system, 3 weeks out of the academy and he's Chief Harms: No, he was not 3 weeks out of the academy. 8 months on the street. His partner was a 6 week veteran. Mayor Ferre: The question that I have, the point is still valid no matter whether it's 8 weeks or 8 months. Here's a kid 8 months out of the academy, 23 years old, and he's now an instructor. My question is this: we're going up and we hired almost 300 new officers this year. Out of 814. I guarantee you without even asking you that I could tell you that the average age of your police officers with service is not 5 years. Chief harms: Certainly not in Patrol. As a matter of fact, as of October 10 60% of our Patrol force will be on probation. We've added them on such a rapid rate making up for the period of time between 75 and 79, we have no choice at all in terms of putting youngsters out on the street. Mayor Ferre: I know. But that worries me and when that young fellow was killed yesterday, that just brings up... Chief Harms: Let me suggest that you focus on.... Mayor Ferre: What I'm saying is can we somehow use some of these monies to bring some of these retired guys to come back and give us a little bit of their years. Chief Harms: I think it's an excellent suggestion and certainly one we'd pursue, but what I'd ask you, keep in mind about the relative newness of that particular officer is that the average across the country is probably one to two months in training with a senior partner and then out on their own. We try to provide a 3 month period with a senior officer, a Field Training Officer, at a minimum, and then if the individual is progressing well, we put him on the street. This was an exceptional young man, was doing a very good job. We, of course, feel very badly about it, but under the circumstances, we are going to have youngsters on the street with not too much time, with not a senior partner. And those are the realities of the times that we're facing. To get back to your point, I think it's a very good suggestion._. It's certainly something we will pursue. Mayor Ferre: Would you be ready to talk about it before the end of the budget process on the 24th? Chief Harms: I hope so. I'm going to direct my staff to start pursuing it immediately. Mayor Ferre: The last thing in regards to deployment of personnel that I have for you is this. I noticed in the figure for the City of New York that New York has 3,000 of these brown shirt traffic officers. Now. how many Public Service Aides and young people are you going to have in this budget? Chief Harms: The budget calls for 97, I believe. from all sources. and there's several different sources for Public Service Aides. Mayor Ferre: These are 18 to 21 year old? Chief Harms: Ostensiblv. ves. sir. To be used in a tremendous array of services including traffic. including report writing, including crime scene searches and those sort of things. The Paraprofessionals that we menetioned before. thev're excellent. it gives them a stepping stone into the department and they do a great lob for us. Now. several years axo we had quite a few funded under CETA under Title I and III. We lost funding and we didn't convert into the General Fund. We're starting to do that now and brine a number of vounasters in on that basis. But I think that's again to the Commission's credit that we're beine vermitted to do that. SEP 3 1981 - iwKY �A• S"'Yvivr" J F - L ; 1`•.. y. "`I e v- Chief Harms: Thank you for those questions. I appreciate the opportunity C ,ft to make the presentation to you. $v-- `` Mayor Ferre: I do have another question. There are some statistical revorts. Serious crime was uo 40%... Chief harms: In 1980. Mayor Ferre: ..in 1980. Yeah. What does serious crime mean? Does that mean violent. or does that mean Part I crimes? Chief Harms: Part I crimes. and then we have a separate breakout for violent crimes. But the Part I crimes are.the maior crimes of murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault. Mayor Ferre: And you said violent crime up 75% since 1975. That's different from serious crime. Chief Harms: That's included in serious crime, but it's a separate breakout so we can deal with the crimes that concern people most and that's violent crime. Mayor Ferre: Okay. Thank you. Chief Harms: Thank you. u - 4 {. • 2 he 4Nri f.* 4j y A L. y r . d 1 a 'e 3961 22, �l11!' F