Police Budget: Unusual No. of Retirements, Dispatch Changes on Horizon

Fairfax City Police Department's proposed FY2012 budget includes more money to study the feasibility of adding a vehicle garage, pay for more tech support, upgrade the 911 system and replace computers in police cruisers.

Yet one of the smallest increases may be the most important. The department is facing an unusually high number of retirements in the next few years, prompting the search for new hires and the small uptick in applicant test costs.

Chief Rick Rappoport presented his department's $11 million budget to the City Council in March. The council will vote on the overall city budget Thursday night.

Increases over last year's police budget include:

• $5,000 more to conduct a vehicle garage study, one that will analyze the department's need in sheltering expensive specialized vehicles from the long-term wear and tear of being parked outside, in all weather, 24/7. The police and fire departments plan to discuss housing their special vehicles in one location.
• $3,000 more for officer applicant testing services. The department is looking to fill retirements with new applicants. This money would go towards providing tests, criminal background checks, polygraphs and other parts of long application process.
• $10,000 to pay the hourly contract for additional IT support. The department's one full-time IT employee was overloaded with duties last year. Police brought in an hourly employee to complete some of the extra work and budgeted for the same to happen in FY2012.
• $20,000 to upgrade the department's Reverse 911 program. The department expects the upgrade to cost considerably less than the budgeted amount. This money might be claimed by the city for other uses.
• $29,000 to replace the remaining Mobile CAD, the computer terminals, in all police cruisers. The CADs were purchased all at once with a federal grant. The $67,000 replacement project started after they all started failing at once. Police planned to replace them bit by bit to stagger the replacement cycle, but they can't wait any longer.

The budget also accounts for employee market adjustment. Merit/step increases remain frozen.

Rappoport cited years of budget challenges, sacrifices and successes that led the department to today.

Since 2008, the department has cut backfill overtime costs by 84 percent (about $340K), moved specialized positions into patrol, restructured management ranks, and eliminated a bike patrol unit, an elementary school resource officer and the DARE program.

“There was real sacrifice in achieving these successes," Rappoport said. "Those specialized and rank positions aren’t just boxes on an organizational chart, they’re real career opportunities that officers aspired to and were working hard to achieve, and I eliminated them. And the reduction of nearly $340K in overtime expenses is not just a number on a budget sheet. In 2008 that was real money in their pockets and I eliminated that. And yet day after day, case after case they delivered outstanding service to our community."

The budget forecast looks a little brighter in the upcoming years, though there will be challenges.

Rappoport intends to study the workload and performance issues in the dispatch center.

"Frankly, I think our performance in dispatch occasionally is less than outstanding," he said. "I think it's a workload issue rather than an employee performance issue. We're staffed at the same level as 30 years ago, but we've added new duties while the traditional duties that they've always performed become more complex."

He said the study might lead to additional requests for staffing or new technology. A system that would allow the community to send police tips by text message or via a website might be required.

The study would help determine whether the department is "positioned to allow people to communicate with us in ways they’re comfortable with so we get the community participation we need to be successful."

Another challenge has more immediate consequences.

20 police officers are eligible to retire in the next three years, some of them starting as soon as May 1, according to Sgt. Steve Bouton and Rappoport, respectively.

The department has three new recruits training at the Northern Virginia Criminal Justic Training Academy. They will graduate in June and begin field training, becoming street-effective officers in the fall. Police hope to fill overhire positions to offset that lag time.

Several officers left unexpectedly this year, most drawn away by recruiters from other departments. Additional unplanned attrition could mean more unfilled positions and strain on the remaining officers.