Chico’s Mayor and Police Staffing: Is he still stoned?

I’m really getting tired of Chico’s Mayor blabbing his chops about our “fully staffed” Police Department! Recently, he hasn’t stopped there with such claims, but he instead continues and pontificates about National police staffing standards as if he’s some sort of expert. As per his usual, he has absolutely no idea what he is talking about, and so he has again relied on MSU (Making Shit Up) when talking to citizens or the media about this important community issue.

This is not the first time I have felt compelled to offer factual perspective on police staffing in Chico (since the public narrative on this issue seems to be routinely devoid of such factual information). If you want to know more, take a look at the Mike Maloney Musings post from May 7, 2015.

Here’s what has prompted my latest:

In a January 28, 2019 Facebook exchange related to a March 2018 USA Today article about 25 cities where crime is soaring (Chico was ranked #19 in the article), the Mayor said to a local realtor and other commenters, “Back of the napkin National figures show one police officer per 15,000 residents… our sworn staff is full staffed as of two weeks ago (which would have been approximately January 14, 2019) but using population figures from before the Camp Fire… under the presumption that Chico has increased by 20,000… that’s two officers, back of the napkin. One has been fully funded for the next three years (apparently the one funded at the request of a North Valley Community Foundation donor), allowing us the flexibility to hire another.” He continued, “Regardless, I proposed and passed a doubling of police officer hiring and training rate to ensure we had a solid pipeline of recruits… Officer numbers are within reasonable ranges, the Camp Fire notwithstanding. And, that is moving forward, thankful for the bandwidth jumpstart I gave the hiring process last year.”

What exactly did he do – I mean very specifically? What "doubling" of hiring and training did he make happen? I ask because the CPD still has less sworn officers then in 06-07!

Then, in media reports on his State of the City address on Friday, February 15, 2019, we read: “With regard to addressing crime, the Mayor suggested getting creative and possibly funding more Downtown Ambassadors and Social Workers. He noted that Chico has adequate policing levels relative to its population size.”

Who, that knows anything about professional policing, says so? Is it according to population size, or population served?

Stone next shares on his Facebook page, a Chico ER article from March 1, wherein City Manager Mark Orme is reflecting on the impacts from the Camp Fire on Chico. Stone specifically highlighted: “While Chico was ready to celebrate having a fully staffed police force for the pre-Nov. 8 population, that’s no longer the case.”

What exactly is “fully staffed?” Does it mean that all authorized positions are filled? I ask because a couple years ago when the Council turned their backs on the PD and let it dwindle to 82 authorized, it could be said that they were fully staffed then too. Or, does “fully staffed” mean restoration of what was taken away starting 12 years ago? That still has not happened.

And finally, in comment to one of his own Facebook posts on March 2, 2019, Stone speaks to only being “in control” for 12 weeks, and he mentions that the previous Council was “dithering” for 4-6 years in a Federal Disaster Zone, and some “didn’t even bother to show up for work months and years at a time.” He said it will take more than 12 weeks to right 4+ years of ineptitude. Then, after ridiculing the commenter he responded to, he finished by saying, “… PS, I moved the Police Staffing Plan that brought these officers here. I moved the *doubling* of police staffing. Both of those have had the single greatest impact on police staffing and *I* proposed both.”

Wow….the Mayor thinks it is about him “being in control?!” Dithering, ineptitude and not showing up for work (at Council?) for years? This guy has an out of control ego/sense of self importance, and to use such terms to blanketly describe all his past colleagues on Council? Just wow!!! And then we have the big misrepresentation: “I moved the Police Staffing Plan and doubling of police staffing!” Do tell Mr. Mayor….please provide the details of exactly what you did. And while you are at it, please let us all know specifically what you did to support/enhance/increase police staffing while the other Council ineptly dithered?!? What did YOU double from/to?

Let’s be very clear about a few things:

1.         The Mayor has no idea what he is talking about when he speaks of National police staffing standards (his “back of the napkin” reference). How do I know? Because no such thing exists! It appears his perspective is that only two additional officers would be needed to service what is believed to be an additional 20,000 people in Chico. Even if his numbers did constitute a standard (one officer per 15,000 population), Chico with its current population of about 92,000 would only need 6 officers, or only 8 TOTAL if we assume 20,000 more people in Chico after the Camp Fire……REALLY? I think not!

2.         Chico DOES NOT have adequate staffing levels relative to its population size. Off the record conversations with any line level CPD employee will confirm this anecdotally, but there other facts which will also help to illustrate why. Unsolved crimes, delayed officer responses, non-responses, deprioritization and non response to quality of life calls, increases in traffic accidents are all functions of not having enough people to do the job. The shuffling of people around to new units and assignments (like the announcement of 4 new people going to the Street Crimes Unit within the last couple weeks) is tantamount to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic or moving walls around in a house of cards. This is what has been going on for years as CPD has struggled to get by. Its very simple: CPD does not have enough people to do the job that; 1) Needs to be done, and 2) The citizens of Chico want them to do

3.         Chico DOES NOT have a “fully staffed’ police force! In fact, Chico still does not even have as many police officers as it did in 2007. If we are going to call CPD “fully staffed,” it would seem that the starting point would at least be restoration of the previous (yet inadequate even then!) staffing levels. If not, I would opine as a 37 year veteran of law enforcement, the last 20+ of which were as an administrator in CPD, that “fully staffed” would at the very least be to be consistent with “average.” Currently, Chico can claim neither. By the way, the addition or deletion of even one of two sworn officers or non-sworn support staff can have a profound impact on CPD when they have been struggling for so long to keep their heads above water.

4.         Randall Stone may have been the person to make a Council motion when presented with a no-brainer proposal by City staff to increase police staffing….. but….be very clear: Randal Stone is in no way responsible for “doubling” or having “had the greatest single impact” on police staffing. His delusion, misrepresentation, self-aggrandizing and outright lies continue. 

Lets take a moment to talk FACTS about police staffing levels from a National perspective – the REAL facts – not the Mayor Stone “facts.”. The first, and perhaps most important thing, to know is that unlike the fire service, there are no staffing level standards in the USA for policing.  Generally (per US DOJ COPS Office Newsletter, Volume 5, Issue 11, November 2012), agencies and communities take one of four approaches to determining staffing needs: per capita (generally, # of sworn officers per 1000 population), minimum-staffing, authorized level, or workload. There is however a singular, universalized annual assessment that can serve as a point of comparison of police staffing levels between communities based up their size and geographic location in the country. That assessment takes place every year and is reported as a component of the FBI Uniform Crime Report (UCR).  Specifically, Table 71 of the UCR reports the average number of officers in various communities based on how big the communities are or where in the country they are located.

Typically, UCR reports are about a year behind when it comes to publication of nation crime and police staffing stats. As an example, when the previously referenced USA Today article was written in March 2018, the most recent complete UCR stats available were from 2016. Currently, the most recent full UCR report available is from 2017. The FBI only recently released the preliminary 2018 crimes stats (not yet the complete report). 

For perspective on how cities throughout the nation compare in relation to police staffing, consider the following excerpts (with analysis related to Chico) from the 2017 UCR, Table 71:

Now, lets take a look at the history and actual staffing levels of the Chico Police Department, and one will then be able to make a comparison between them and the points of comparison reported in UCR Table 71.

SIDENOTE PEEVES

Before suggesting some conclusions about police staffing in Chico, there are a couple other things I feel compelled to get off my chest and share:

1.         The City’s senior appointed leadership and the elected Council in Chico have a long history of selectively disregarding the opinions, assertions and professional recommendations of their professional police leaders when it comes to addressing issues related to policing. This historical circumstance, which I personally experienced for at least two decades, is exacerbated by the fact that people in key positions of leadership in the City and in the Police Department actually change quite often. The unfortunate result of this change is that history is either disregarded or forgotten. It is absolutely maddening to me that as a police administrator, I had a personal hand in FY 04-05 in making recommendations for what ultimately became reductions in police service, and here we are 14-15 years later. There seems to be no understanding or regard for what has happened historically, and as a now outsider it feels like the current leadership is only able to speak to what has happened in the last 2-4 years. The indisputable truth is that Chico has been struggling with providing adequate policing services since 04-05, and NOBODY in a leadership position has had the balls to assertively propose a strategic solution to the problem. I’m tired and disgusted with the handwringing….true leadership is sometimes uncomfortable….it would sure be nice to see some – anywhere – in Chico.

2.         One of the most essential jobs of senior leadership in a police (or any other) organization is to plan for the meeting of future needs. Prior to my retirement from CPD in 2012, we had compiled several different iterations of a future staffing plan (based at the time on the assumption that the City would grow, and City deficits would not be eliminated on the back of the PD). Its all well and good that after the Council and the appointed leadership of the City gutted the Police Department a group of citizens came together in June 2014 under the name “Clean and Safe Chico” to present a “Police Staffing Strategic Plan,” but truthfully, it kinda rubbed me wrong for two reasons; 1) The basic plan at that point should have been to simply replace the 20 plus positions that had been eliminated – to restore what had been taken away (this STILL HAS NOT happened); and 2) Beyond the 20+ reduced positions, the PD should have already had their own plan, which they should have asserted/presented. Then now, five years later, reeling from the impact of the Camp Fire, we have the Chamber of Commerce presenting the public recommendation for additional police officers. Don’t get me wrong, I love it that we (finally) have businesses and citizens that are interested in policing in Chico – it just frustrates me that with an entire staff of professionals in the police department, we don’t seem to get a whole lot of public discourse on the issue of police staffing until people from outside of the police department speak to it.

3.         The sad, sad truth for Chico is that we have a well documented history of steady decline in police staffing, and steady incline in crime, calls for service and population served. The PD apparently elected not to continue keeping this data after 2012, but the graph below illustrates the trend. Based on my knowledge of the related measures, I would assume these trends have continued since then.

 4.         For years, I have debated with people about how many citizens are actually served by the Chico Police Department. My experience is that Council members and the senior City leadership prefer to hang their hats on the Department of Finance (DoF) annual population figures. Others want to assume that the 17,000ish FTE students at the University should be added to the base population number. Most forget that most of the students from Butte College also live in Chico. The bottom line is that it is actually impossible for anyone to determine what the actual service population of the City is. Between CSUC and Butte alone, there could easily be 20,000 people above and beyond the DoF numbers who the PD serves – some are permanent Chico residents, some are not, some are counted in the census, some are not, some are registered to vote in Chico, some are not – there is simply no way to know for sure how many Butte or CSUC students are counted in the DoF number. On top of that discussion, there are an untold number of people who come to Chico 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for work, to attend school, to engage in commerce, to avail themselves of recreational opportunities and to seek medical care. Since Chico is a regional hub in the State, this number has to be big, but it simply cannot be determined. The bottom line is this: in Chico, discussion about police staffing has always been based on the reported DoF population (now with an estimated addition of 20,000 people displaced from the Camp Fire). The truth is that the CPD has for decades and decades provided services for 10s of thousand more each day than are reported on the population sign at the entrance to town.

5.         I was once asked by a Council Member in a Council Meeting how Chico compares to other communities when it comes to police staffing. I bring this up now because if it has not yet been asked in the current discussion police staffing, it very probably will be. The short answer is: Chico does not compare with any other community – in or out of California. Our nature as an urban hub, our position as a large city between Redding and Sacramento, the existence of the community college and the university, and all the other reasons described in #4 above make Chico quite a unique place. This means that long-term plans for police staffing will have to be similarly unique. If resources can’t be provided to do all that Council members and citizens want done, there have to be honest conversations between City and Police leadership, and then Council must support the PD. When the PD cannot do what somebody thinks they should because they have no resources, and Council remains silent and/or turns their backs on them….or worst yet, criticizes them publicly (all of these things have happened consistently with the Chico City Council and the PD, regardless of who was “in control,” as the current Mayor says).

OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS       

Based on the foregoing facts and historical tid-bits, it is now appropriate to suggest some conclusions and/or informed opinions regarding police staffing in Chico:

1.         In order to be considered “fully staffed,” the Chico Police Department should, at a minimum, have as many officers as it has before staff reductions started taking place in FY 06-07 – That number is 102. They are currently authorized for 98 officers + one “overhire” who will fill one of the 98 that is anticipated to become vacant.

2.         Ideally, to be considered “fully staffed,” CPD should at least have enough officers to be considered average when compared to cities its size. Currently, that ratio/level for cities the size of Chico in the Western/Pacific states is 1.1 sworn officers/1000 population. At the current DoF population of 92,348, in order to rise to the level of average, would need to have an authorized strength of 101, which is only one less than the peak level of 102 in FY 06-07. If Chico wants to be average with an assumed population of 20,000 more than the current DoF population of 92,348, they would need to have 123 sworn officers, or 25 more than are currently authorized. This is generally consistent with the Chamber of Commerce Camp Fire report and recommendation. Even better would be "average" level staffing based on a reasonable estimate of the actual 24/7 service population in Chico.

3.         Chico has a well documented history/trend of decreased police resources at the same time as all typical measures of police activity have trended an increase. Its time for leadership in the City to get some nads, take a strategic look at what is desired for the culture of safety in Chico, and take some action – assert a vision and philosophy, and then develop and implement a real strategic plan to get the City to that point. Chico needs to quit treating policing as an afterthought or a means to balance the budget during difficult times.

4.         Finally, it is well established that the Mayor likes to hear himself talk, and that there is no greater fan of the Mayor than the Mayor. My suggestion to and for him is that when he really doesn’t know what he’s talking about (like police staffing standards) or he’s trying to get people to believe he’s a champion for policing and public safety (his extensive record indicates otherwise), it would behoove him to call on his subordinate professional leaders to speak to the issues. That sir, is the sign of a true leader……instead, your perpetual “I’m the one who took care of this,” and “thank God for me (and all my accomplishments as evidenced by the posting or my resume front and center on  my FB page)” is absolutely nauseating and wearing thin on many of Chico’s citizens.