“I believe public safety is far more than the size of the NOPD, but response to violent incidents remains NOPD’s most important role. I’ve continued to press for concrete, achievable steps to address these issues, including increased civilianization and department reorganization. We know augmenting the falling number of NOPD officers with civilians who can respond to non-urgent matters will help and must happen more quickly and urgently. Officers are overworked and stretched too thin. They need nonessential duties taken off them to instead focus on serious calls for service,” said Council President Moreno. “In the meantime, the Council is working to address long-term strategies by significantly investing in community programs to enhance youth activities, recreation and culture through a new Council fund, an initiative being led by Councilmembers JP Morell and Freddie King, and I am proud to co-author.”
Moreno has proposed these immediate steps NOPD could take to help improve response times and officer manpower to focus on violent crime. Those include:
-
Reorganize and Redeploy Current Police Force: A force for 1400 officers cannot operate the same with 983. Consolidate detectives and possibly precincts (especially uptown, 2nd, and 6th) to reduce administrative needs on officers and increase patrol strength.
-
Civilianization: Civilianize response to non-emergency calls for service to the greatest extent possible. This includes hiring civilians to take police reports for property crimes so commissioned police officers can respond to calls for service and non-injury traffic incidents. Overall, expanding the types of incidents eligible for Alternative Police Response (APR) would enable NOPD officers to devote more time to responding to emergency Calls for Service and allow for more resources dedicated to investigating violent offenses.
-
Online Police Reports: Prioritize online police reporting for non-emergency calls for service across the board and heavily advertise the availability of the service.
-
Lateral Transfers: Expedite work on a program and rules to allow for lateral transfers from other law enforcement departments. Currently, officers from other departments must go through NOPD’s full academy.
