When Chattanooga Police Chief Bobby Dodd assumed office earlier this year, he offered a frank assessment of the department. The men and women under his command, he said then, were competent, hard working and able to meet their mandate to serve and to protect the public. It would be easier for them to do so, he added, if what he called the “personnel situation” was resolved.
That was a polite way of saying the department was understaffed. New hires and a $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice should help remedy the “situation” in the short term, but that provides little in the way of long-term resolution.
In August, Dodd told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that the department was down by more than 60 people and that an additional 40 were eligible for retirement. The shortage created staffing issues. Dodd solved them by ordering qualified administrative personnel to leave their desks and to work in the field. That enabled the department to deliver adequate service to residents. It did not provide, however, a permanent solution to the personnel shortage. That remains an elusive goal.
Adding police personnel is under way. The department recently hired 25 people using funds from the recently passed property tax increase. It will hire an additional 23 with the Community-Oriented Policing Services grant. Even if all 48 graduate from the current and next police academy – unlikely since attrition sometimes reaches 20 percent – and join the force, the department still will have open positions. That’s not the only fact affecting the effort to increase police manpower. There’s a fiscal issue, as well.
The Department of Justice grant, while certainly welcome, comes with strings attached. It will pay the salary and associated benefits of the 23 men and women who are hired under its provisions, but only for three years. After that, the city has to assume the entire cost. That’s a considerable expense for the city – especially at a time when the economic outlook remains mixed. The city could find it hard, in fact, to bear the expense when the grant expires.
Not to worry, says Mayor Ron Littlefield. He said last week that he believes the city will have recovered enough from the recession to continue employment for the 23 officers. “We are expected to take it [the cost of the officers’ salaries and benefits] from there and I’m confident we will,” he said. That might well prove true, but optimism should be balanced by reality. There is no way to accurately predict what city revenues will be in three years.
Clearly, Chattanooga will benefit greatly if the men and women hired, trained and initially paid by the COPS grant remain on the force after three years. Sound fiscal planning now and in the next couple of years, including incremental tax increases as necessary, is vital if the city is to have funds in place to retain those officers and to hire additional personnel to bring the police department to full strength. To postpone or avoid such action in hope that time alone will resolve the police personnel issue – and other pressing problems Chattanooga faces – is wishful thinking that could haunt the city.