Police Chief Stephen Schluer has shared with the City Council at budget workshops that he believes no more than 60 percent of patrol officers’ time should be spent responding  to calls.

That would mean roughly 40 percent of their time should be involved in proactive and community policing.

Community members and business owners attending a meeting on Wednesday, July 23, from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the Manteca Transit Center, 220 Moffat Blvd., will be asked to weigh in what level of  police staffing they believe Manteca should have.

The input from the Community Focus Group will be used by city leaders to develop a policy regarding police staffing level to city leaders.

Manteca has 80 police officer positions with three more being filled during the current fiscal year that ends June 30.
But is that enough officers for a city of 95,000?

For years, much of the talk about police staffing has centered around one officer per 1,000 residents.

There is no study that backs that up as a reasonable bench mark. And there is no organization, whether its law enforcement associations or the FBI that recommends the 1 per 1,000 staffing.

Based on the 1 per 1,000 staffing assertion, Manteca should have 95 officers on the job in the next fiscal year and not 83.

Schluer in budget workshops has referenced the “Rule of 60”  that he would like to use to help determine staffing needs.

It involves three key points:

*About 60% of a department’s officers should be assigned to patrol duties.

*No more than 60% of patrol officers’ time should be spent responding to calls. The balance of their time would be involved in community and proactive policing and being available to respond to emergencies.

*Calls for service that are not priority one (life in danger, felony crime in progress) shouldn’t take more than 60 minutes, on average, to handle.

The “Rule of 60” was developed after extensive research by the ICMA Center for Public Safety Management

The study was prompted by a question many city leaders wrestle with: How many police officers does a department actually need? 

It’s a fair question, especially when budgets are tight or when police chiefs push for more staffing without much data to back it up.

The ICMA Center for Public Safety Management studied 62 police departments across the U.S. to better understand staffing needs.

What they found is that many common ways to decide how many officers are needed, like looking at crime rates, population size, or budget limits, wasn’t cutting it.

These approaches are often outdated, overly simple, or don’t reflect the real workload officers face.

Instead, CPSM recommends a smarter method: use actual call data to see when and where officers are really needed.

The “correct” staffing answer for Manteca would allow it to better allocate overall municipal funding resources when it comes to public safety.

A typical officer between salary, workmen’s compensation, health benefits, retirement, and such costs an average of $250,000.

The focus group discussion is being led Anthony Boger and Jackie Gomez-Whiteley of the Meliora consulting firm.

Light refreshments will be served.

Those planning on attending are being sked to email Lt. Joshua Gutierrez at jgutierrez@manteca.gov

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com