Bellevue Police Chief Jon McClain said his department remains short-staffed at the city’s November council meeting. After unsuccessful efforts to fill an opening in the department, he proposed a restructuring that would help in efforts to support and retain his remaining officers.
He proposed eliminating the open position and dividing the salary among his officers. The move would allow him to provide a much-needed salary boost for remaining staff without requesting additional funds from the city, he said. To accommodate the loss of an officer position, he would also reorganize some of his officers’ duties.
Across the country, police and fire service departments are grappling with problems in recruiting and retaining first responders. Bellevue is not alone, he said.
According to a recent U.S. Department of Justice report and a survey of 182 police departments nationwide, staffing has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. While this year has shown some improvement, departments continue to struggle to attract new recruits and retain their current employees.
The chief’s proposal
“We have been an officer down for the last year,” McClain said. “We had tried to do some lateral or contract officers without success.”
He described efforts to hire a new recruit to send to the police academy, but those efforts were also unsuccessful.
“I previously reached out to you with ideas I have for some pay raises for my officers,” the chief told council. “And after digging into the numbers, it was going to be a six figure request, which I felt was not doable,” the chief told council. “I wanted to do my part to try to find a way to make that a reality…We’ve gotten used to being an officer short for the last year, and we’re still able to function. We’re still able to do everything that we’ve always done.”
Still, some changes would be needed, he said.
“I worked those numbers and decided that to make that happen,” McClain said. “We would suspend having a full-time detective and stay with the nine road officers, ten including myself, and be able to take that money that we had budgeted for the open position and distribute it to the officers. So that’s what the restructuring is basically, not filling the vacant detective position.”
Technically, the open position was for an officer, so he would reorganize, swapping the open position to that of detective and using that salary for the pay increases. The department has a detective on staff, but due to the officer shortage, that person has been performing the duties of and providing coverage for the open officer position.
The compensation, after removing various costs (pension, payroll taxes), would be about $113,000 to split among the remaining officers.
Adjusting detective work
While detective work is still needed in Bellevue, the chief said the number of crimes requiring that type of work has greatly declined in recent years.
“And I can say I’m looking through the numbers, and the amount of cases we have that usually require a detective…has been drastically reduced,” McClain said. “I think that’s a good thing…Not to say that it’s not a beneficial position to have. It is, but the amount of cases we have that require that amount of follow up and attention is drastically lower than it has been.”
He said the department got its first full-time detective about 10 years ago, and many of the crimes requiring detective work were associated with the opioid epidemic (such as thefts to support drug habits). The number of those crimes has dropped in recent years.
Council member Sean Fisher asked how the cases that would require detective work would be handled if there weren’t a full-time detective.
At a recent department meeting, McClain said he discussed the plan with his officers. Many were interested in learning more about investigative practices and taking more advanced courses. Some suggested rotating detective duties.
Retention is key
“How confident are we that we’re not going to need that detective position five or 10 years down the line?” Fisher said.
McClain said he could not predict what might be needed in the future, but current trends show a significant decrease in major crimes within the city. The department did not have a full-time detective until 2013, and the city could revisit in future budgets. Part-time and contract work might be an option to look at if the need arose, he said.
He concluded that his main concern now is in keeping the officers he has, many of whom bring years of experience and have become an integral part of the Bellevue community.
“I’ll reiterate what Chief McClain was saying about retention and recruitment,” added Bellevue-Dayton Fire Chief Chris Adkins. “I can say this…I’ve seen departments that are around us paying more than we pay, but they cannot hire anybody. I’ve got guys that could walk into those departments right now, and they’re choosing to stay. We have a really good group and retention is so important right now…Small things that we can do make a big, big difference with these guys. They’re not chasing the dollar anymore. They want to find a place they like that they feel respected, like they’re appreciated. And that’s our fuel, allowing me to do what I can do.”
Council heard the first reading of the ordinance to amend and update the classification and compensation of the police officers and will discuss the matter more in depth at the next council meeting on Dec. 13. Several council members took the opportunity to praise and thank both the police and fire service leadership and personnel.