05-14-25 - Council Special Work Session Agenda

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16 As staffing levels decreased, staff began monitoring the amount of time that calls for service remained in a pending status due to officers being involved with a different call, along with the number of shifts when there were only two officers working (a shift minimum). The analysis of these two data points conflrmed that when fewer officers were working, the result was an increased amount of time that calls waited for an officer to respond. SHIFTS AT MINUMUM Year Jan Feb Mar April May June Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Totals Avg 2023 17 36 46 33 37 39 43 50 35 30 32 36 434 39.63% 2024 23 29 40 28 29 21 38 25 34 38 40 40 385 35.06% STACKED CALL TIMES Yr. Jan Feb Mar April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Totals 23 4:26:41 5:33:33 3:55:16 6:41:22 5:21:42 11:03:39 3:26:25 7:52:26 6:11:33 7:30:27 3:49:38 7:50:11 73:42:53 24 1:42:16 1:39:55 7:21:27 3:43:07 3:29:25 4:51:01 2:57:41 7:45:18 10:25:28 7:03:53 6:56:04 5:05:50 63:01:25 IMPACTS ON OFFICER WELLNESS The impacts of chronic understaffing are not measured as easily as response times, hours spent on training, or the cost of the training; however, they are real and important to address. Chronic understaffing has the potential for cumulative negative impacts on officers as they take on a greater workload. These include fatigue, burnout, stress, mistakes, and reduced job satisfaction. Moreover, understaffing can cause fears for staff that there are not enough well-trained and experienced officers to do the job. Combined, these factors could lead to further attrition. SUMMARY • The police division has experienced high levels of attrition. • The City has invested signiflcant amounts of time and resources to train the officers who have joined the team and further loss must be avoided. • The labor market for eligible officers is limited and the loss of additional officers would result in further destabilization of the organization. • Police agencies are competing for a limited number of officers. • Recovery from additional attrition would be lengthy due to the long hiring and training time. • Inadequate staffing levels have impacted the community and staff. Based on the above flndings, the goal of the City’s recruitment and retention efforts should be to: • Retain existing officers.