AGENDA #1
WORK SESSION PAPER
TO: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
FROM: Gregg Jarvies, Police Chief
SUBJECT: Public Safety and Downtown Issues
DATE: November 4, 2002
At the September 23, 2002 business meeting the Council requested that a work session be held for the purpose of reviewing downtown issues and various public safety issues including drug enforcement, traffic enforcement, the allocation of police resources, and the budget implications of increasing the number of police positions. A copy of the minutes from that meeting is attached.
The purpose of this memorandum is to provide a brief summary of each of the issues raised at the September 23 meeting.
DISCUSSION
Drug Enforcement
Most of the department’s drug enforcement initiatives are concentrated in the downtown commercial district and residential areas west of Columbia Street. Statistics have indicated that the presence and sale of illegal narcotics in these areas is accompanied by associated crimes including assaults, break-ins and robberies.
A task force of eight officers was formed in September of 2001 to focus on street-level drug sales in the Northside Community. In FY 2001-2002, 338 people were arrested in Northside on 484 charges. Approximately 25 percent of the arrests were drug-related. Forty-three people were arrested for violating court restrictions placed upon them after previous arrests. Thirty people were arrested for burglary or larceny. The task force continues its work. In addition to enforcement efforts we continue to work with residents, community organizations, and the court system to make the positive impact of our efforts permanent.
Enforcement and Prevention Initiatives
We continue to balance our enforcement efforts with prevention initiatives. The incidences of crime are cyclical. Because of the many factors affecting crime rates it is often difficult to determine long-range trends. For example, national crime rates are creeping up after a couple of years of steady decline. In Chapel Hill, reported major crimes in the first quarter of FY 2002-03 are down 31% from the same period last year. The clearance rate for crimes against persons is up 13% over last year. Crimes involving juveniles as suspects have increased by 34% in the same period. While we believe that our crime prevention efforts have a positive impact on crime rates, we anticipate that the rates will ultimately follow national and statewide trends.
Traffic Enforcement
Street-level drug enforcement and traffic enforcement are the two primary focuses of the department. All patrol officers enforce traffic violations. Four officers are assigned to the Traffic Enforcement and Education Unit and spend all of their duty time on traffic enforcement and education efforts.
Approximately 4,000 traffic citations will be issued in FY 2002-03, a 10% increase over last year. Arrests for Driving While Impaired are up 23% over the same period of a year ago. Collisions are down 8% for the same period. Since July 1 we have had five accidents involving bicyclists, ten involving pedestrians and one fatality.
The police department responds to each request for traffic enforcement. Most of these requests are for speed enforcement on residential streets. Coverage of these areas is balanced with patrols in the high-hazard areas that include school zones, major arteries, and the downtown business district. Traffic checkpoints, the use of unmarked cars, the SHARP Unit (the automated speed detection device), and unoccupied marked police vehicles are also techniques used to supplement our enforcement efforts. We also anticipate that as our technological capabilities improve in the department we will be able to more effectively allocate officers to improve our traffic enforcement efforts.
Downtown Issues
Foot patrol officers work in the downtown district from 8:30 AM through 3:30 AM. At least two officers patrol on foot during these hours. We also provide approximately 75 hours per week of coverage with civilian security monitors. Regular police coverage is further supplemented by officers working off-duty outside of downtown businesses. These officers, hired by merchants, typically work on weekend nights.
Our public outreach efforts in the downtown area include Business Watch, which is a program for businesses modeled after the residential Community Watch program. We have also created a program to educate bar and club owners on alcohol regulations. The BARS (Be a Responsible Server) program also includes a training component on how merchants can keep their businesses from becoming nuisances. At the most recent BARS program held in early October, more than eighty bar owners and bartenders attended.
Panhandling continues to be a primary focus of our downtown patrols. Foot officers closely monitor the panhandlers who frequent the area. Four nights of undercover operations were conducted this fall to determine the extent of the aggressive panhandling problem and to take enforcement action when violations were observed. Officers have worked with representatives of the Inter-Faith Council to reduce the amount of loitering on and around the shelter property. Merchants have been asked to work closely with the police to help reduce the impact of panhandling in the downtown area.
Enforcing the current ordinances and statutes against aggressive panhandling remains a difficult task. Three arrests for aggressive panhandling have been made since June 10. Most panhandlers who solicit money do not do so in an aggressive manner (as defined by law) but they are persistent. It is not unusual for a panhandler to solicit every pedestrian that passes by. Though such behavior is irritating and bothersome, it is not typically illegal. Such persistent panhandling also increases the likelihood that a single pedestrian may be solicited several times by different panhandlers in a single block.
I believe that some level of regulation should be adopted to assist us in reducing the impact of panhandlers on the vitality of the downtown area.
Police Resource Allocation
Police officers are assigned within the organization to best meet the objectives of the department and the priorities determined by the citizens, the department planners, and the Council. For the past two years the department has faced a vacancy rate of between ten and fifteen percent. Currently 102 of the allocated 113 sworn positions are filled. These vacancies require officers to be reassigned on a regular basis to ensure that our objectives are met. However, the number of officers assigned to narcotics enforcement, downtown foot patrols, and traffic enforcement has not been reduced during the past two years.
Approximately 57% of the officers (58 out of the current staffing of 102) in the department are assigned to respond to emergency and regular calls for service. Twelve officers are assigned as criminal investigators, including four narcotics officers. Other officers are assigned to specialty positions including traffic enforcement, School Resource Officers, downtown foot officers, community service officers, training officers, and administration.
A copy of the department’s organizational chart is attached. Further details about how officers are assigned will be presented during the Council work session.
All officers, no matter their assignment, play a major role in community outreach initiatives. These include Community Watch, Business Watch, traffic education programs, self-defense and personal safety programs, Latino outreach forums, Safe Schools Committee membership, the Chancellor’s Committee on Greek Affairs, the department’s public speakers bureau, the recruitment committee, the Sykes Street Steering Committee, the EmPOWERment board of directors, and many others.
Budget Implications for Increasing Staff
To provide one additional officer for twenty-four hour coverage requires the addition of five officers. The first-year cost of a new officer is approximately $47,000. The cost for five officers (including equipment, recruit training, supplies and a vehicle) would be approximately $285,000.
While a review of our workload and our ability to respond to the service requests of citizens may indicate a need for additional police officers, we are experiencing difficulties in filling our current vacant positions. Our last three vacancies resulted from officers leaving the department for other police agencies, including the Hillsborough Police Department and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. All three officers received a salary higher than that currently available in Chapel Hill. I have been working closely with Human Resources Director Pam Eastwood to evaluate measures that could be taken to help us attract and retain quality police officers in the department.
CONCLUSION
I look forward to tonight’s discussion of these issues and to receiving the Council’s comments.
ATTACHMENTS