Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutSubmittal-Police Chief Colina placing officers in every school feasibility studySubmitted into the pub record �� �i�tet (r on CITY OF MIAMI POLICE DEPARTMENT Placing Officers in Every School A Feasibility Study Prepared by the Office of the Chief of Police 03/06/2018 City Clerk vis-5\,\)ipm\-\-0\— LszCiv\e.,iC1\)4\11 Am l� l'Vtlht ScL\ �Q83\b\`}‘\'‘i y Submitted into the public record �r it m(s) MA, on s.)1 ra / City Clerk Introduction On February 22, 2018, the City of Miami Commission directed the Miami Police Department to study the feasibility of assigning a Miami Police Officer to patrol the perimeter of each school in the City. There are 94 schools in the City of Miami, including 12 private schools and 82 publicly funded schools. Utilizing the existing Miami Police Workforce to patrol each of these schools would significantly compromise the agency's ability to respond to calls for service; the creation of new positions would therefore be necessary to provide sufficient coverage in all of the City's schools. This study examines two options for achieving the goal of assigning an officer to each school: (1) creating new full-time police officer positions, and (2) creating positions using a new part-time School Safety Officer classification. Full -Time Officers The total cost first -year cost of a Miami Police Officer, including salary, fringe benefits, and equipment, is $157,877.85. The recurring cost the agency incurs in subsequent years is $103,482.10, which includes $52,591.00 in base pay and an additional $50,891.10 in benefits. The current Fraternal Order of Police contract requires that Police Officers work four days each week for ten hours each day; schools, however, are open five days a week and operate for a maximum of seven hours a day. To have an officer available for each school day each week, there must be five officers for every four schools. To ensure that sufficient personnel are available to cover school assignments if an officer falls ill or takes a leave of absence, at least 20 percent more officer positions should be created than the minimum number of officers necessary to cover all school assignments. Where x is the number of officers to hire and n is the number of schools to cover, this relationship can be expressed by the following formula: 3n x= 2 To maintain adequate supervision over the new officers, sergeants and lieutenants would also have to be hired. The current ratio of officers to sergeants is approximately 5.11 to 1. The current ratio of sergeants to lieutenants is approximately 3.35 to 1. The median salary for sergeants is $79,116.96, while the median salary for lieutenants is $91,380.12. The following table uses this information to detail the number of full-time officer and supervisory positions that would have to be created, the first -year cost of hiring the officers, and the recurring cost for subsequent years for two different school coverage scenarios: Submitted into the pubic, record fir it m(s) on 11 City Clerk Number of Schools Officers Needed Sergeants Needed Lieutenants Needed First -Year Cost Subsequent Years Cost 82 (Only publicly - funded schools) 123 24 7 $21,957,443.43 $15,266,766.18 94 (Both publicly and privately - funded schools 141 28 8 $25,207,092.69 $17,537,291.94 The recurring cost of the new positions would increase the Miami Police Department's budget by 6.5% to cover only publicly funded schools and approximately 7.4% to cover all schools. Part -Time School Safety Officers By creating a part-time School Safety Officer classification, the agency could establish a 5-day workweek and a 7-hour workday for officers assigned to schools. This would require fewer officers, as the same officer would be able to cover the entire week at the same school. The officers would not be needed over the summer, saving 350 work hours out of the year, leaving 1,737 working hours in the year. Part-time employees are not entitled to the same benefits, so the recurring salary cost would be approximately $50,000.00 for a Safety Officer with the same hourly rate as a full-time officer. There would be additional savings in equipment, as issuing take-home cars to the School Safety Officers would be unnecessary. The first -year equipment cost would be decreased to approximately $16,000.00, yielding a first -year cost of approximately $66,000.00 for the new employees. To ensure coverage in the event of illness or a leave of absence, there would still need to be 20 percent more positions created than the number of schools to cover. The supervisory positions would have to be created according to the same methodology described for creating full-time officer positions. Number of Schools Officers Needed Sergeants Needed Lieutenants Needed First -Year Cost Subsequent Years Cost 82 (Only publicly - funded schools) 99 24 7 $8,494,122.84 $6,910,122.84 94 (Both publicly and privately - funded schools 113 22 6 $9,746,853.84 $7,938,853.84 Submitted into the public on ,/.d fi) te�n(5) JJ�� , ?) on / / �l i7a City Clerk The recurring cost of the new positions would increase the Miami Police Department's budget by 2.9% to cover only publicly funded schools and approximately 3.4% to cover all schools. Recommendations Implementing a School Safety Officer program poses several challenges. First, each option presented would require cost the Miami Police Department millions of dollars each year. Without a new revenue source, identifying sufficient funds to pay for the new positions may require increasing taxes or decreasing existing services. To avoid jurisdictional disputes, a new memorandum of understanding would have to be agreed to by both our agency and the Miami -Dade County School Board Police outlining individual areas of responsibility. Adequate working space is also a concern, as our existing facilities are already taxed beyond their capacity and would be unable to accommodate the substantial increase in personnel. Of the two options presented, creating the part-time School Safety Officer positions would appear to be the most fiscally responsible choice; however, the Miami Police Department has attempted to create similar positions in the past and had to abandon them due to significant union opposition. It would be disingenuous to argue that part-time officers would have no collateral responsibility to address crime outside of their school patrol areas. There would, therefore, be a high likelihood that the agency would ultimately be forced to either convert the positions to full-time positions or abandon the program altogether. Full-time officers would cost more than twice as much as their part-time equivalents, work three more hours than necessary each day and have very little to do for approximately ten weeks out of the year. While neither option is particularly practical, the part-time officer position is the more affordable, efficient, and easily managed solution. The recommendation of the Miami Police Department, should the Administration direct it to assign an officer to each school in the City, is to create enough part-time School Safety Officer positions to cover the necessary assignments as well as enough supervisors to ensure that the span of control is maintained.