Loading...
PoliceThe Kalispell Kalispell Police Department Planning Document February 14, 2000 I) Planning Categories: A) Manpower B) Capital Improvements C) Services D) Special Programs E) Space Needs F) Training Needs A) Manpower Department The Department's manpower needs for the foreseeable future can best be gauged by reviewing the state averages for full-time sworn police officers in the state. The state average for police officers in jurisdictions with populations between 10,000 and 24,999 was 1.8 officers per 1,000 residents*. If we anticipate a new census level of 16,000 in Kalispell our officer total should be 29 sworn officers. The Federal Bureau of Investigations Office of Law Enforcement Planning recommends 2 officers per thousand. That does not take into account our status as the county seat and as a local business and education center. The Kalispell Police Department currently has 29 sworn officers, including all of our new grant positions. In comparison to state averages we are sufficiently staffed for a population of 16,000. As the city grows or areas are annexed we will need additional staff to maintain services. *Source: 1998 Law Enforcement Manpower in Montana booklet from the Montana Board of Crime Control. Frank Garner, Chief of Police • Jim Brown, Asst. Chief of Police • KPD phone (406) 758-7780, FAX (406) 758-7799 300 1 st Ave. East, Kalispell, MT 59901 t 2 1) Manpower is divided into three primary divisions: a) Administration 1. Chief 2. Assistant Chief 3. Lieutenant of Detectives 4. Lieutenant of Patrol b) Investigations and Special Programs (Lieutenant of Detectives) 1. 2 Detectives 2. School Resource Officer 3. Drug Interdiction Officer 4. Crime prevention/D.A.R.E. c) Patrol Division (Lieutenant of Patrol) 1. 6 Sergeants 2. 13 Patrolmen 3. 1 Traffic Officer As manpower needs increase we believe a reserve program is an economically efficient means of providing additional manpower. There are capital costs involved in purchasing equipment and training time, however there are typically no salary expenses for reserves. It is also an excellent tool to use for recruitment. We also anticipate initiating a senior volunteer program. These volunteers will take reports at the station, answer phones and conduct other services that will allow the Officers more time to be on the streets. B) Capital Improvements The Department's capital improvement needs change slightly from year to year. There is a consistent need to replace office furniture, computer hardware, vehicles and the like but those needs remain fairly constant. We typically replace no more than a total of two vehicles (including staff cars and patrol vehicles) in any given year. We have a regular depreciation and replacement schedule for light bars and radios etc. Our annual capital outlay averages about $60,000 (sixty thousand dollars). In the next five years we anticipate the need to update our reception and dispatch area and the department is suffering from a drastic space needs problem. These needs will require some additional capital outlay. They are as follows: 1) Space Needs (see section E) 2) Vehicle Video Systems The department recognizes the need to upgrade all of our line cars to include in -car video. This is proving to be a valuable and efficient tool in enforcement efforts. If often reduces court time by corroborating Officer testimony. The installation and purchase of the systems will cost an estimated $30,000.00 (thirty thousand dollars). The funds may be available through a Board of Crime Control Grant in the upcoming fiscal year. C) Services We anticipate that we will have substantial turnover in the Police Department over the next five years. Over 25% of our officers are eligible for retirement and we already have 10 officers (33% of sworn officers) on the Department that have fewer than 2 years of tenure with us. This will require a significant investment by the Department in training. It will be necessary to train and develop officers for management and investigative roles that have become increasingly complex and specialized. Special assignments such as narcotics, school resource officer and special response team will require significant updates and training. The shear number of new officers will require continual training to develop their skills. Our ability to insure they are compassionate, ethical and competent will be directed by the level and nature of future training. D) Special Programs Special programs include crime prevention, our customer service and community policing models, D.A.R.E. and crime prevention, bike patrol, K-9 services, School Resource Officer and Drug Investigation. All of these programs are currently under review and a significant restructuring is underway. We expect several changes related to distribution of manpower and resources into these programs. In the Department's current goal setting sessions we have identified the need to alter our traditional staffing and structure in some of these programs. We will advise the council as the process continues. E) Space Needs One of the most critical areas identified in our priority study is the need for additional space. Significant changes in our manpower levels and additional legal requirements have created a near critical shortage of space. Some of the areas of extreme concern involve the booking of adult and juvenile prisoners and the lack of additional interview space. Another concern centers on our small squad room that is used as a break room, a training room and a work space. This space is shared by 18 officers and is only 330 square feet. The reception area is sealed off from the public and needs to be remodeled. Two secretaries and a records/data processing clerk currently share the space. The lack of an engineered evidence space has been a long-standing concern. The department was built without any evidence space. The old jail cells are currently used for this purpose but they were not designed to act in this capacity. Priority space needs are as follows: 1) Adult/Juvenile Booking The legislature no longer permits the detention of adult and juvenile prisoners in the same facility. The Department only has one secure booking room. Adults and juveniles cannot be detained in the booking room at the same time. We often are processing adults and juveniles at the same time and we have to hold one or the other in a non -secured area of the department. This is neither safe nor practical particularly when we are dealing with combative suspects. 2) Interview Space The Department has only one interview room. One of the principals of interviewing multiple witnesses requires they be separated so that they do not influence each other's testimony. The inability to interview more than one witness/suspect at a time is extremely inefficient and impractical. This, coupled with the fact that the Supreme Court is continuing to rely more and more on videotaped interviews to decide cases requires us to expand our interview space. 3) Evidence Room The current Police Department was built without any consideration given to space for the preservation of evidence. As the complexity of cases has grown so has the need for additional space for evidence. The old jail cells currently house our evidence. We have built storage units in the cells to hold an ever-increasing amount of evidence. The space suffices but it is clearly inefficient and it will not continue to provide sufficient square footage into this decade. DNA techniques have greatly increased our need for space. We now have fluid and tissue samples held in a refrigerator and a freezer in one of our old cells. Our evidence space is busting at the seams and we will require more space or more preferably a more efficient space in the future. The squad room is the main work area for 18 patrol officers. The squad room contains lockers for all of the officers and three computer workstations for access to the case management system (writing reports, etc.). The room also has a conference table that acts as a work area and break area. There is a televisionNCR for viewing evidence videos and training tapes and a sink and refrigerator for employee use. The room is only a total of 330 square feet. There are constant conflicts between officers conducting work in the case management system, those training or reviewing evidence material or those looking to use the break facilities. Additional space is drastically needed. 5) Reception Area Our reception area is reminiscent of the Soviet Union during the cold war - as tough to get into as it is to get out of. Three clerks share the approximately 540 square feet. There is no room in the space for greeting the public and it is secured behind a locked door. The reception area must be secured behind a locked door because the rest of the department is not secured from the reception area. There are significant legal and safety concerns that require the remainder of the department be secured from the public reception area. Our goal is to be more accessible to the public but we must first address the security issues before we can tackle our access problem. F) Training Needs The Department's training needs that were discussed under special programs are a paramount issue in our planning. The very tenor of our service will be dictated and reinforced by the methods and the content of our training. A major training audit is underway in our department to determine the Department's needs and the Officer's needs with regard to training. The most significant field of liability exposure for municipal police departments is in failure to train. We will be identifying training needs with the council that may require additional resource allocation. This document is intended to serve as a pliable outline for future planning. We recognize that law enforcement has a dynamic landscape that requires constant evaluation and adjustment. The needs of the department in 5 years may change significantly from our needs today. It is, however, our evaluation that the needs addressed in this document are necessary to efficiently accomplish our mission in the community.