14 News, The Tri-State's News and Weather Leader-EPD recommendation would give the department more power

EPD recommendation would give the department more power

By Brandon Bartlett - bio | email | Twitter
Posted by Sarah Harlan - email

EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) - Efficiency and savings are key factors why the police chief said his officers can patrol the county too.

Evansville Chief Brad Hill told the City-County Merger Committee his department is ready right now to handle most of the functions of the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office.

So, what's been the reaction so far?

This plan came as a surprise to many.

It calls for keeping both the Sheriff's Office and the Police Department, but the Police Department would have more power.

For Barbara Harris, a member of the Public Safety Sub-Committee, the proposal from the EPD came as a surprise.

"No I haven't [seen the proposal]. I think it was just released," Harris said.

"Leave law enforcement alone," Evansville Police Chief Brad Hill said two weeks ago.

That was the recommendation from Police Chief Hill just two weeks ago, but it was at that same meeting, Hill said he got the sense the committee wanted a firm plan.

"We wanted a vision from him of what it would look like if we had a consolidated law enforcement agency," Harris said.

"This is, to me, the consolidation plan," Chief Hill said.

The Chief's plan, that he said is used by most consolidated law enforcement agencies across the country, calls for the Police Department taking over all law enforcement patrols county-wide.

"For the entire county, we're making 78-percent of the dispatched runs," Chief Hill said.

The Police Department currently has 286 officers.

The Sheriff's Office has 108 deputies.

Chief Hill said some of those deputies would stay with the Sheriff's Office to oversee operations at the jail, serve papers, and provide security at the courts building.

The 78 deputies who currently patrol the county would be eliminated through attrition.

"As they are reducing their numbers, then we would increase our numbers to be able to do that," Chief Hill said.

Chief Hill said in the end EPD would hire 32 new patrol officers.

The Chief said his plan could save close to $2.3 million.

14 News tried contacting Sheriff Eric Williams but he didn't return phone calls.

Following are all the changes the EPD proposed.

Law Enforcement Consolidation

Project

At the request of the City-County Reorganization Committee, the Evansville Police Department (EPD) has examined potential efficiencies and savings as it relates to law enforcement.  Accordingly, the EPD proposes to provide law enforcement services county-wide to cover the entire "Consolidation Area."  These services would include:

• Normal patrols and responses
• Handling of complaints and incident reports
• Community policing
• Special units, such as traffic enforcement, criminal investigations, school resource officers, narcotics, bomb squad including robot, K-9, and containment vehicle, and special weapons and tactics team
• Task force officers assigned to the ATF, FBI and DEA

If consolidated government is approved, the EPD will extend and create patrol zones to bring uniformed officers and patrol vehicles to police the entire county.

Population and Law Enforcement Characteristics:

Source:  Census Bureau/Quick Facts for year 2000

City of Evansville

• 121,582 City population
• 2,987.3 persons per square mile
• 286 officers; 268 devoted to law enforcement operations
• 145,128 dispatched calls for service per year (2009)
• Citizens per officer:  453.6

Vanderburgh County

• 171,922 County population
• 733 persons per square mile  
• 108 deputies; 78 devoted to law enforcement operations
• Population served by deputies: 50,340
• 40,304 dispatched calls for service per year (2009) 
• Citizens per officer: 645.3

Potential Savings

Deputies currently working in a law enforcement operations capacity will be reassigned or eliminated through attrition:

Implementation, Results and Cost

• Addition of 35,772 calls for service per year (2009 Stats)
• Hire 32 Officers at $42,781 (base salary)

   $69,756 including benefits

Total:  $ 2,232,192

Savings:  $2,282,874 by utilizing the Evansville Police Department as the sole law enforcement provider.  

Expectations vs. Results

This is a preliminary proposal and addresses only savings in law enforcement operations realized by changing the salaries and structure of the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office (VCSO) when these services are instead offered by the Evansville Police Department (EPD). 

In 2009, there were 185,432 calls for police service in Vanderburgh County.  The EPD responded to 145,128 (78%) of these calls while the VCSO responded to 40,304.  Of the 40,304 runs VCSO responded to, 3,200 were in the area recently annexed by the City of Evansville, thus reducing VCSO's responsibility even more. 

The VCSO responds to all calls by dispatching a deputy.  In a move to make the EPD more efficient and responsive to the citizens they serve, civilian employees of the Administrative and Support Division's Records Section take certain reports over the telephone and process these reports.   The civilians taking these reports make far less money than a sworn officer.  The types of reports taken over the telephone are predominately theft reports and criminal mischief reports.  These reports have minimal solvability and are primarily taken for insurance and statistical purposes.  By taking these types of reports over the telephone, EPD officers remain available to respond to more pressing and urgent runs.  By allowing citizens to file their reports over the phone, the EPD allows them to make the report when it is convenient for them.  This type of service eliminates waiting for an officer to arrive during periods when the calls for service are high.  While some feel this method for handling complaints with minimal solvability amounts to a drop in service from law enforcement, the EPD's experience disproves this theory or mindset.

In July of 2009, the VCSO made 2,948 dispatched runs.  Of those, forty-one (41) Criminal Mischief runs and ninety-six (96) theft report runs were made.  Utilizing a conservative analysis of these 137 runs, it was determined that, had the EPD handled them, 111 of those runs would have been handled by the Record's Section over the telephone.  Central Dispatch records show that the average time spent by a deputy on a Criminal Mischief report was slightly more than forty-three (43) minutes.  The average time spent on a theft report was more than fifty-three (53) minutes.  Taking these reports over the telephone as the EPD presently does would have increased the time a sworn deputy would have been in service to handle other law enforcement issues by more than ninety-two (88) hours in the month of July.  If this number is factored out over twelve months, the number increases to over 1,056 hours, or more than forty-six (44) days of patrol by an officer.

According to its table of organization, the VCSO has 108 sworn officers.  Of the 108 deputies, seventy-eight (78), or seventy-two percent (72%), work in the Operations Division, which includes Patrol and Criminal Investigations.  The rest of the sworn officers are assigned either in the Administrative or Confinement Division.  In comparison, the Evansville Police Department has 286 sworn officers.  Of the 286 sworn police officers, 268 or ninety-three percent (93%) work in Operations, which includes the Patrol Division and Criminal Investigations Division. 

The VCSO presently has thirty-seven (37) supervisors between the rank of Sheriff and Sergeant.  More than thirty-four percent (34%) of the sworn officers in the VCSO are supervisors.  The supervisor-to-subordinate ratio on the VCSO is just over one (1) per every three (3) deputies.  The Evansville Police Department has fifty-seven (57) supervisors between the rank of Chief and Sergeant.  Twenty percent (20%) of the sworn officers on the police department are supervisors.  The supervisor-to-subordinate ratio on the EPD is one (1) per every five (5) officers. 

In 2004, the EPD conducted an evaluation of its entire rank structure within the department.  As a result of this evaluation, two (2) Deputy Chief positions, two (2) Captain positions, three (3) Lieutenant positions and six (6) Sergeant positions were eliminated.  The elimination of these rank positions increased the efficiency of the EPD while also serving as a cost-cutting measure during times of tightening budgets.  This reduction led to a savings of $274,021 per year.  As rank was eliminated, more patrol officer and detective positions were created.  More frontline officers decrease response times and increase the quality of service provided by the department.  Also in 2009, the EPD conducted an efficiency study of its employees for better manpower assignments.

The Evansville Police Department has been recognized nationwide as an excellent law enforcement agency and is nationally and state accredited (CALEA) (ILEAC).  The EPD was first to take a Community Policing stance and first to have a presence in the schools.  The EPD is currently on the cutting edge, utilizing crime analysis and intelligence-led policing to detect crime patterns and more efficiently use resources.  The Evansville Police Department's organization and structure is already in place to safely serve the bulk of the population of Vanderburgh County. 

In conclusion, we have demonstrated that the Evansville Police Department is a proven, forward-thinking, efficient law enforcement agency.   The Evansville Police Department is prepared to begin policing the entire County now.

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