LAKEPORT, Calif. – Acknowledging that its city police force is understaffed, the Lakeport City Council on Tuesday approved a request from the police chief to restructure the agency's property and evidence positions.
Police Chief Brad Rasmussen asked the council to approve the elimination of two 960-hour positions – a sworn part-time special investigator and a sworn reserve officer – in order to hire a full-time sworn officer position for detective work and a nonsworn part-time position for property and evidence duties.
The restructured positions aren't in the current city budget, with Rasmussen estimating the fiscal impact at $63,911.
Rasmussen's report to the council said that $63,911 figure “represents a cost analysis for expenses to the city per full fiscal year” in order to replace the two part-time 960-hour positions with the full- and part-time positions. The amount also covers salaries and benefits.
In his report to the council, Rasmussen said that in January 2009 the Lakeport Police Department was budgeted for a total of 14 full-time sworn police officer positions.
Since then, however, the number of sworn officers budgeted for the agency has dropped to 10 due to the city's financial hardships, he said.
In that time, the agency has used part-time retired detectives for several years, with those individuals bringing knowledge and experience to the agency, as well as assisting in solving cases, Rasmussen said.
Recently, one of the part-time detectives retired, leaving the police department another position short. Rasmussen said the staff shortage has required continually reassigning responsibilities, and putting further burden on patrol supervisors.
While the staff numbers have dropped, Lakeport Police's workload hasn't, said Rasmussen.
So far, 2014 is turning out to have the agency's highest arrest numbers in a decade, he said.
Lakeport's 10 officers – serving a population of about 5,000 people – handled 24,000 calls for service or officer-initiated activity for the period of January 2010 through January 2013, which Rasmussen said in his written report resulted in 1,312 arrests.
From January 2013 through November 24, 2014, Lakeport Police had a total of 981 arrests, of which 564 were made between Jan. 1 and Nov. 24, according to Rasmussen.
At the same time, Rasmussen's report explains that his department “is tasked with finding ways to stay on top of the follow-up investigations, caseloads in RIMS, as well as the evidence caseload. Currently the officers are unable to conduct follow-up investigations on certain cases where the suspect(s) live outside the Lakeport jurisdiction or the case is too complex to handle at the street level.”
The department also has new body cameras worn by its officers during calls for service and mobile audio video units, or MAVs, mounted in its patrol units, which led to the department being “up to speed with the most recent, most advanced technology in the industry,” according to Rasmussen.
However, along with that technology comes higher demand from the District Attorney’s Office for those recordings, he said. “This creates an additional burden on the records staff, sergeants, and patrol staff, as they have been responsible for downloading these devices electronically for the District Attorney’s Office in order to file a case.”
He said most of the MAV and unit recordings take a substantial amount of time to process, “and it is not uncommon for records personnel and sergeants to spend upwards of four to six hours downloading the data from each of these discovery requests.”
Besides those recordings, Rasmussen said his staff members have to fulfill requests from the District Attorney's Office relating to other evidence needed for filing or prosecuting cases.
He said that downloading MAV and bodycam video has been a collateral duty for the two patrol supervisors, which has reduced their available patrol and supervisory time.
In making his restructuring request, Rasmussen said the new positions will allow officers and sergeants to be out on the street rather than having to manage evidence and property, which is a crucial function that needs a dedicated position.
In the case of the 960-hour positions, which are filled by retirees who cannot work past that time limit, Rasmussen said it causes a number of issues. During an ongoing investigation, he said he can't simply send people home, yet passing the hour limit puts the city in jeopardy.
Councilman Tom Engstrom, who retired as the Lakeport Police chief in 2005, noted that one way for a police department or chief to get in trouble is to not have their evidence in proper order.
Engstrom said evidence-related duties can't simply be assigned to an officer to do in their spare time, as it's not something they're interested in doing. “You have to dedicate somebody who does that.”
There are many evidence training programs for agencies, with state reimbursement available, Engstrom added.
“I totally support what they're asking for and what they desperately need,” Engstrom said.
Mayor Kenny Parlet, noting that arrests are up 33 percent this over last, said he could only imagine the problems and embarrassment for the police department if evidence and property weren't in order.
Suzanne Russell, a city planning commissioner who was in the audience for the discussion, recounted working with the Lakeport Police Department last year regarding a property crime at her rental. She said the part-time evidence person wasn't very available and had little time, although she noted getting a lot of help from Officer Mike Sobieraj.
Russell urged the council to approve the request and give the department some help.
Noting it was his last official duty on the council – as his term ends this month – Engstrom moved to approve Rasmussen's request, which the council approved unanimously.
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