Reluctant Police Chief Outlines Possible Cuts

The Police Department would have 20 fewer officers and crime-prevention programs would be eliminated under proposals the police chief has floated to help the city make up a projected $4-million deficit in its operating budget.

“I am not comfortable recommending any cuts in the Police Department,” Police Chief Ronald E. Lowenberg told the council.

But he did so anyway in accordance with a mandate that city departments look for ways to trim costs. The City Council in the coming months will decide whether to make cutbacks or seek new ways to raise revenue, or both, to offset the 1996-97 general fund shortfall. The council is expected to adopt a new budget in September.

Lowenberg discussed two options. One would yield $765,500 in cuts, or 2.4%, and the other nearly $3 million, or 10%, in reductions that would eliminate officer positions and programs such as SWAT and the helicopter bureau.

Due to city downsizing in recent years, his department, which has a current budget of about $31.4 million, has already lost 10 sworn positions, seven of which are frozen, and 24 civilian positions. There are now 224 sworn officers.

If cuts must be made, Lowenberg said he would rather eliminate programs than basic police services.

Reductions beyond the proposed 2.4% in cuts, he said, would diminish the department’s ability to respond to calls for service. He said such calls have increased 49% in the last 10 years, from 81,000 to 121,400 calls a year.

Lowenberg also described as troubling an increase in the number of calls to which no officer is available to respond. He said that in 1995, no unit was available 5% of the time, or 440 hours.

Response times for priority calls, such as crimes in progress or accidents involving injuries, are also above the department’s objective of five to seven minutes.

“We should be increasing resources,” Lowenberg said, adding that instead, “we’re being asked to decrease them. And in my opinion, that is poor public policy.”