Number
180189
Version
SUBSTITUTE 1
Reference
Sponsor
ALD. DONOVAN, HAMILTON, STAMPER, LEWIS AND BORKOWSKI
Title
Substitute resolution relating to the hiring of part-time, seasonal police officers and the training of police officers at Milwaukee Area Technical College.
Analysis
This resolution urges the Police Department, Fire and Police Commission, and Mayor Barrett’s Administration to develop and implement a pilot program to hire part-time, seasonal police officers. It further urges the Police Department, Fire and Police Commission, and Mayor Barrett’s Administration to take the actions necessary to alter the police officer recruit training regimen to consist of the 18-week MATC Law Enforcement Training Academy followed by approximately 8 weeks of training at the MPD Safety Academy.
Body
Whereas, The City’s fiscal constraints and ongoing budget challenges, such as falling State Shared Revenue (inflation-adjusted), the Expenditure Restraint Program, and the inability to create and levy non-property taxes, make it difficult to provide the funding needed to hire more full-time police officers; and
Whereas, At the same time, in a 2016 Common Council survey of Milwaukee residents, 95% of respondents indicated that they would like to see more beat patrol officers on the streets; and
Whereas, The hiring of part-time, seasonal police officers would allow the City to improve police response times and increase police presence during the highest-crime months of the year without placing the financial burden associated with hiring more full-time police officers on Milwaukee taxpayers; and
Whereas, Part-time police officer programs have been successfully implemented in a number of cities across the country, including Houston, Detroit, Omaha, and Roswell, Georgia; and
Whereas, Another possible source of cost savings that could be used to fund additional police officers is a change in the manner in which Milwaukee Police Department police officer recruits are trained, specifically from an all-Safety-Academy training regimen to a training program that combines training at Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) with Safety Academy training; and
Whereas, While under the current MPD police officer training program police officers are hired and paid as City employees at the beginning of their training, with a hybrid MATC/Safety Academy training regimen, officers would not be hired until they have completed the MATC portion of the training, resulting in considerable salary-expense savings for the City; and
Whereas, An analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau found that the estimated cost savings that would be realized if the 200 police officer recruits projected to be hired in 2018 completed the first half of their training in the MATC program and the second half at the Safety Academy is $1.97 million; and
Whereas, The savings from using a hybrid MATC/Safety Academy police officer training program could be used to fund the hiring of much-needed additional police officers and put more beat patrol officers in Milwaukee neighborhoods; now, therefore, be it
Resolved, By the Common Council of the City of Milwaukee, that the Police Department, Fire and Police Commission, and Mayor Barrett’s Administration are urged to develop and implement a pilot program to hire part-time, seasonal police officers; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Police Department, Fire and Police Commission, and Mayor Barrett’s Administration are urged to take the actions necessary to alter the police officer recruit training regimen to consist of the 18-week MATC Law Enforcement Training Academy followed by approximately 8 weeks of training at the MPD Safety Academy.
Requestor
Drafter
LRB171083-2
Jeff Osterman
05/31/2018