Tacoma police and fire officials have presented proposals to close stations, cut programs and reduce their ranks to shore up a projected $31 million shortfall in the city’s budget.
Here are some questions and answers concerning the Police Department’s proposal:
How many positions would the Police Department lose, and how would the cuts be handled?
The department would go down 82 positions, 56 of them through layoffs. Another 23 vacant positions would be eliminated. Funding for three other positions would be transferred to another department.
Employees with least seniority will be laid off, with their positions filled by more senior employees.
The result would be reducing or eliminating some specialty police units and functions to maintain patrol ranks.
Will the community liaison officers go away?
The department’s 16 community liaison officers handle neighborhood-level problems and nuisance issues and attend community meetings and work with other city departments to solve problems.
Each of the city’s four police sectors has four community liaison officers.
Under the proposal, 13 of the positions would be eliminated with the other three remaining with the city’s community-based services program and funded by the Public Works Department.
“This will eliminate community policing services in each sector,” the police proposal states. “The program elimination will result in a delay responding to specific community concerns.”
Will the five substations close?
Police officials are discussing the possibility because no officers would be available to staff them.
“They are looking at whether they could keep the substations open right now, but they could very likely close,” police spokesman Mark Fulghum said.
Currently, a lieutenant and community liaison officers work out of the substations. Patrol officers also stop by to fill out reports.
Under the proposal, most of the community liaison officers would be eliminated. In addition, three of the four lieutenants would become sergeants, and the fourth would be reassigned.
Would any officers still be assigned to the high schools?
No. The proposal eliminates the sergeant and five officers assigned as school resource officers during the school year. Now, one officer is assigned to each high school.
The program was created after a student was killed at Foss High School in 2007. The Tacoma School District has contributed $300,000 a year to the program.
Will there be traffic officers looking for speeders in the neighborhoods?
The proposal calls for cutting the traffic by half, eliminating a sergeant and nine traffic officers. That will mean fewer targeted enforcement efforts and reduced response times to traffic accidents, officials say.
Will the department still investigate crimes?
The number of detectives assigned to follow up on crimes remains the same under the proposal. The department currently has 54 detectives who make up five squads – homicide/violent crimes, special assaults, domestic violence, career crimes and financial crimes, which also includes juvenile and misdemeanor crimes.
The department already has scaled back its investigations of lower-level crimes in recent years.
What does the gang unit handle and who would absorb those duties?
Under the proposal, the department’s full-time gang unit, comprised of a sergeant and five patrol officers, would be eliminated and the officers moved to regular patrols. The unit, formed in 2006 in response to increasing gang activity, gathers information on gang members and helps detectives with gang-related crimes.
“There will be no special emphasis on gang problems, resulting in less proactive police activity directed toward gang members,” the proposal states.
Are all the proposed cuts in the rank-and-file officers?
No. The department would lose one assistant chief, one captain, three lieutenant and seven sergeant positions. The commanders in those positions with the least seniority would be demoted to their previous positions.
What will be the impact of eliminating one squad – four officers and one sergeant – from the Special Investigation Unit, which targets drug and vice-related crimes?
The John School Program, which deals with men caught soliciting prostitutes, would be eliminated, as would participation in regional and federal task forces.
The remaining squad would focus on visible street-level violations, not high-level drug dealers.
“The ability to address sector level issues, i.e. drug houses, will be significantly affected due to the reduction of manpower,” the proposal states.
What other positions would be affected?
One police dog officer would be eliminated, and the number of background investigators reduced to one from two. Two officers dedicated to the Business Improvement Area, which focuses on the city’s downtown core, would be eliminated.
Also cut would be the firing range officer position, the hiring sergeant position and the community relations officer position, which is a civilian job.
The crime analysis unit would be reduced by a program technician and a lieutenant. The Homeland Security lieutenant and captain positions would be eliminated.
Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268 stacey.mulick@thenewstribune.com
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