Agenda Packets - 2005/03/01 - Laserfiche WebLink

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St. Anthony Police Department 20 total sworn officers • 1-Chief, 1- Captain, 2 Lieutenants, 2- Sergeants Ramsey Police Department 18 total sworn officers • 1-Chief, 1-Captain, 3-Sergeants New Ulm Police Department 17 total sworn officers • 1-Chief, 4 Sergeants Fairmont Police Department 18 total sworn officers • 1-Chief, 1-Lieutenant, 4-Sergeants Orono Police Department 18 total sworn officers • 1-Chief, 4-Sergeants Virgina Police Department 20 total sworn officers • 1-Chief, 4- Lieutenants, 2-Sergeants Cloquet Police Department 18 total sworn officers • 1-Chief, 4-Sergeants As you can see by this data the Mounds View Police Department has fewer administrative/ supervisory personnel than similar sized police departments. This means that we are not able to provide supervision to officers at many times. This has been problematic for the Mounds View Police Department. There are many implications associated with unsupervised employees including liability issues to the City. While it will be more expensive to pay an employee at the rate of pay of a supervisor vs. a line officer, this additional cost could easily be offset by reducing the risk associated with failing to provide adequate supervision to employees working in the high- risk business of policing. The Police Department operates a 24 hour per day, 365 days per year schedule. In this scheduling arrangement five employees are required to have one employee on duty 24 hours a day every day of the year. With two sergeants we are able to provide first line supervision 40% of the time. This means 60% of the time our patrol officers are working without direct first line supervision. Currently, nearly ½ of our patrol officers have less than one year of police experience on the department. This is why similar sized departments usually have three or more sergeants available to supervise their patrol officers. In addition to providing supervision, our Police Sergeants also perform the duties of a patrol officer by responding to calls, patrolling, and carry out traffic enforcement. I recommend the council authorize increasing the supervision level of the department up to current policing standards. This would be accomplished without adding additional staff; by converting one patrol officer position into a sergeant position (subject to civil service rules). This change would effectively increase the first line supervision of police staff to an appropriate level. The administrative /supervisory structure would then be: 1-Chief, 1-Deputy Chief, and three Sergeants. For the remainder of the 2005 calendar year, making this change would cost approximately