By Dan Nephin
LNP, Lancaster, Pa.
LANCASTER, Pa. — For nearly 15 years, on paper at least, Lancaster city had budgeted for 145 police officers.
Now, following a half-year study by a consulting firm that looked at staffing levels, call volume and other operations, the department is reducing the number of officers it needs to 128.
To get to that number, it only has to hire about 20 officers.
That’s right. Hire.
The department hasn’t actually employed 145 officers in some time. A year ago, the department had 115 officers, and three years ago, it had 138.
The city has been dealing with multiple retirements over the past several years and has been beefing up recruiting efforts in anticipation of those retirements. Chief Richard Mendez said many of those retiring officers were hired in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and so have put in 20 to 25 years.
Mendez and Mayor Danene Sorace began discussing evaluating staffing needs last year and early this year, hired Philadelphia -based financial and operational consultant group Public Financial Management for $113,525 to conduct an operational assessment of the department.
PFM has done similar staffing studies for police departments around the country, and it completed a financial analysis for the city government.
At $29.3 million, police coverage is the largest expense in the city’s budget. Along with fire service at $13.2 million, public safety “consumes more resources than the entirety of our property tax revenues at this moment,” Sorace said in an interview earlier this year.
Revenue generated by property taxes accounts for $32.5 million — less than half of Lancaster’s $73 million annual budget.
Sorace said allocating for 128 officers instead of 145 would mean an annual savings of nearly $2.4 million, though the city hasn’t been budgeting for all positions for several years.
Sorace and Mendez said the data-driven staffing changes based on the study also will help reduce overtime costs, which were close to $900,000 last year.
Mendez, who has been with the department about 24 years, said the study was the first such assessment, though he said staffing levels likely were evaluated when the city stopped providing police coverage to Lancaster Township in 2009.
Since 2010, the city has budgeted for 145 uniformed officers, plus another 48 civilian employees for its nearly 58,000 residents.
Data-driven study
But why 145? Neither the chief nor mayor could say why, exactly.
It wasn’t always 145, though.
According to newspaper archives, in 2008 — the year before the city stopped providing police coverage to Lancaster Township — the city had about 170 uniformed officers, 22 of whom served Lancaster Township exclusively.
In 1998, the city had just under 140 officers, and in 1990, the city had 119 officers and was authorized to increase to 125 — again, at a time it was covering Lancaster Township.
Going further back, in 1954, the city had just 60 officers and a population of about 61,000, according to LNP — LancasterOnline archives.
Mendez said the consultants pored over data — something city staff do not have time to do.
“In fact, they had a team of people the past couple months, and that’s all they did was go through our data,” Mendez said. “The data shows what calls we’re handling, what proactive policing we’re doing, and the data doesn’t support the 145,” he said Tuesday.
Annual call volume has been running about 50,000 recently, down from about 80,000 six years ago.
“First and foremost, data show that calls for service — and associated levels of crime — are down. This is great, and demonstrates our collective commitment as a community to public safety,” Sorace said Thursday.
More officers during peak times
Besides revising the number of personnel, Mendez said the department is adjusting scheduling so that more patrol officers will be working when call volume is highest — between 4 and 5 p.m., when it receives an average of 5.3 community calls for service. And fewer officers will be on when call volume is lower.
The department’s patrol division has four platoons — two dayside, with 16 officers each, and two nightside, with 15 officers each.
Going forward, instead of all shifts running 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., one or two officers will work 9 a.m, to 9 p.m. and one or two officers will work 2 p.m. to 2 a.m.
“Service should get better, not worse, because during those (peak) times, we’re going to have more people. Rather than having eight officers in the middle of the night, early-morning working to handle two calls an hour, you’ll now have an extra two to four officers during our peak hours,” Mendez said.
“Can that change in a couple years? It might, and then we’d have to reevaluate,” Mendez said.
“All that being said, just if we’re being completely realistic: When are we getting to 128? And it’s going to be a while till we get to 128.”
Mendez said the department also wants to increase the number of community service aides, whose work includes such things as taking theft reports.
“Sixteen (aides) is what we always shoot for. I think our numbers are probably at like 10,” he said.
Other changes are internal. For example, Mendez plans to hire an office manager position to oversee administrative staff. Currently, he said, the department’s three captains are handling that work.
Recruiting
As for getting to 128 officers, the mayor and chief pointed to recruiting efforts.
“We currently have 277 applicants and 209 have registered for the upcoming test, which speaks to the hard work of our recruitment team, and that the Lancaster City Police Bureau continues to be a desirable place to work,” Sorace said.
Typically, about 13% of applicants make it through the city’s application process, which Mendez said mirrors the national average. Some applicants are winnowed out at each step. In March, the department instituted an agility test. That cuts some more. Some more are cut in aptitude testing, and the most are cut during background checks.
“The background is probably the toughest because we have not lowered our standards. And we don’t plan on lowering our standards,” Mendez said.
Seth Williams, deputy director of consultant PFM’s Center for Justice & Safety Finance, said in an interview earlier this year that many communities aren’t evaluating their police services, but they should be.
“The workload changes or the demands of residents change, or the policy priorities change. So, too, the number (of officers) may change,” Williams said. “And consistently coming back to that question and analyzing — that is a sign of a healthy community and a healthy organization that’s thinking about its mission and how to best resource its mission with its goals.”
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