Tacoma police might get extra money to reduce violent crime, boost staffing
Tacoma police might be getting an extra $5.6 million from the City Council to bolster the department’s plan to reduce violent crime and ramp up its workforce.
That money would be in addition to the $172 million — or 34 percent of the General Fund — already allocated to the Police Department in the 2021-2022 budget.
Overall, the funds are meant for a transformation effort to improve transparency and accountability.
“We can’t stop policing, transform it and start it back up. We still have to serve and protect our community,” Mayor Victoria Woodards said. “In getting to what the community is calling for, it takes more money, not less money.”
The council is set to vote on increasing the police budget at its Nov. 9 meeting.
When the biennium budget was approved last year, it cut the Police Department’s spending by about $3 million compared to the previous budget cycle. That was a first since the police budget has increased each time since 2011.
City officials said the extra $5.6 million is necessary to implement Interim Chief Mike Ake’s plan to tamp down violent crime, upgrade technology and deal with a growing staffing shortage.
The biggest expenditure in the proposal is more than $3 million in overtime.
As of September, the department had spent $3.8 million in overtime, $1.5 million more than planned, according to city records. That’s because of an unexpected number of positions not being filled, forcing officers to work overtime to maintain minimum mandatory staffing on patrol.
The 2021-22 budget projected 15 vacancies. As of Thursday (Oct. 21), there were 42 vacancies.
“The overtime is a short-term relief for a long-term problem,” Councilman Robert Thoms said, adding that the Police Department has been short-handed for more than a decade and needs more officers to handle the amount of crime in the city. “It’s not about more money. We’re putting more resources because there’s a problem. Nothing would make me happier than having less crime and less police. But unfortunately, we have more crime, and we need more police. It’s time to give some relief to our community.”
The proposal would provide $267,214 for a “transformation” captain, more than $72,000 for technology related to the transformation effort and $31,000 to train the Criminal Investigation Division.
All of that is part of Ake’s plan to tamp down violent crime, which has spiked in the last year. There have been 27 homicides so far this year, arson fires increased 193 percent this summer and police say aggravated assaults and drive-by shootings have surged as well.
The department’s multi-pronged plan also includes emphasis patrols in crime-ridden “hot spots” to increase police visibility, a specialized squad to work drive-by shootings and aggravated assaults, installing dashboard cameras in patrol cars and implementing 128 recommendations that deal with use of force and other policies.
Some of the additional funds would go toward recruiting more diverse candidates ($72,000) and incentives to lure in new and lateral officers ($262,500).
Police officials have said they would like to bring in more women of color because that is the most underrepresented part of the force.
Not everybody supports the city’s proposal to give police more money.
Public surveys collected for the 2021-22 budget showed a large number of residents support cutting police funding.
Jamika Scott, of the Tacoma Action Collective, said it’s telling that the City Council is considering investing in an agency that makes many in the city feel unsafe.
“It’s especially sad because citizens have been asking for more social services that could help mitigate the need for police in certain situations,” Scott said. “We understand that ongoing violence doesn’t make our community feel safe, but we’ve also never felt protected by the police.”
