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LTC 365-2017 Miami Beach Police Department Staffing UpdateOFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER NO. L TC# 365-2017 LETTER TO COMMISSION TO: Mayor Philip Levine and Members of FROM: Jimmy L. Morales, City Manager DATE: July 12, 2017 susJECT: Miami Beach Police Departme t Staffing Update This Letter to Commission is prepared to update the Mayor and Commission on current officer staffing and deployment within the Police Department, as well as the plan to achieve full employment in the sworn ranks by February, 2018. Introduction In February, the Police Department reached near full employment in the sworn ranks for the first time in several years. However, on June 1, 2017, the budgeted strength of sworn police officer positions increased by 17, from 390 to 407. These 17 positions were added by the Commission in the current fiscal year to address conditions in the new Entertainment District police command known as "Area 4," as well as to supplement specialized neighborhood beat assignments in Mid-Beach and North Beach. It was originally envisioned that 12 of these new officer positions --the Entertainment District additions --would be added in February of this year, with the remaining 5 officers for Mid-Beach and North Beach added in June. In part to achieve savings in Resort Tax expenditures, and in part because of recruitment/hiring challenges, the date for adding all 17 of these positions was pushed back to June 1. With the addition of these 17 new positions to the headcount, and given recent attrition, the Police Department currently has 24 police officer vacancies, an unusually high number. However, the Department has 19 recruits attending two police academy classes, one graduating in September and a second in February. Another 5 licensed/certified officers have been selected and will be hired on July 24. Hence, the Department will achieve approximate full staffing in February, 20.18. The lengthy nature of police officer hiring is such that with their various classroom and field training requirements, the last 10 of these new officers will not achieve fully deployable status and count toward patrol staffing until July, 2018. 1 Deployment of sworn personnel across the breadth of the organization is an ongoing challenge. The Department strives to be flexible enough to provide basic 24-hour patrol _ servicE}whilE:J also_ addre~sing Ol.ff highest priorities, such as reducing crime, conducting quality investigations, and improving traffic safety and traffic flow while also -meeting. demands from the community for a visible, impactful presence in neighborhoods. The Department must perform many functions besides 24-hour citywide patrol services. These include: criminal investigations; traffic management and enforcement; community beat and neighborhood resource officer functions; RDA patrol; Ocean Drive patrol; homeless outreach; evidence collection/storage and property clerk functions; training; hiring and recruitment; background investigations of police and other city employees; K-9 operations; narcotics and vice investigations; physical plant and fleet maintenance; holding cell coverage and prisoner transport; specialized crime suppression efforts; accident investigations; special events planning and coordination; internal affairs investigations; and technology support for a vast array of hardware and software that supports a modern, high-functioning, full-service police department. Patrol Staffing and Deployment Summary Basic patrol staffing -the personnel who respond 24-hours a day to 911 and other calls for initial police response and service -accounts for 286 of the Department's 407 sworn positions, including supervisors. The Department currently projects that there are 14 vacancies in the Operations Division, the Division responsible for this basic patrol function. The minimum staffing for the 24-hour patrol function is 32 officers per shift, to include a Shift Commander and Area supervisors, divided up between the four patrol districts as follows: 1 Shift Commander (City wide) 7 Officers (including a supervisor) in North Beach/Area 3 7 Officers (including a supervisor) in Middle Beach/Area 2 11 Officers (including a supervisor) in South Beach/Area 1 (1 assigned to cell security/prisoner processing and transport; 1 assigned to Headquarters front desk intake and report writing) 6 Officers (including a supervisor) in the Entertainment District/Area 4. These officers' shifts overlap for the following time frames each day: between 7:00 am and 8:00 am; between 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm; and between 10:00 pm and 1 :00 am. The overlap periods are timed to achieve maximum efficiency to address call load. Because there are double the personnel during overlap periods, the overlaps are also used to deploy officers to address particular areas and crime, traffic or quality-of-life conditions. For example, for much of the past two years the 10:00 pm to 1 :00 am overlap has been deployed on weekend nights to Ocean Drive. The overlap periods are also used for training, as they are an ideal time to train entire patrol squads together as teams. In addition to the 32 officers deployed on patrol across the 24-hour, 7-day week, there are approximately 85 other officers (when fully staffed to include supervisors) who are regularly assigned to related patrol/enforcement duties. These are the officers assigned to: the Ocean Drive squads; the Motor Unit; the RDA patrol squads; the Neighborhood Resource Officers (NROs) and Beat Officers; the Homeless Outreach Team, the Crime Suppression Teams (CST) and the Special Investigation Unit, which does undercover 2 vice and narcotics enforcement. The Ocean Drive squads consist of 10 officers and 2 supervisors. They patrol Ocean -DrivEf lrom 5-to 15-Street, the 100 blocks between Ocean-Drive-and Collins-Ave, Lummus Park and the beach. They usually work from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. The first Ocean Drive Squad was implemented in November, 2015. The second squad began work in January of this year, and between the two, MBPD now has seven-day coverage on Ocean Drive, which was a high priority of the Commission in this year's budget planning. The Motor Unit consists of 15 officers and 2 supervisors. They do traffic enforcement 5 days a week, covering the hours from 6:30 am to 9:00 pm each day. Their primary function is to control motorist behavior through enforcement so as to encourage safe driving and the best possible traffic flow. They particularly focus on traffic flow during evening rush hour. They also do significant motorcade escort work for visiting dignitaries and special events. When crime conditions warrant, the motor officers also are deployed to particular areas to do speed and signal enforcement, because this kind of enforcement is a visible and effective deterrent to crime. The RDA officers total is 16 (including 2 supervisors). They patrol Lincoln Road and the City Center seven days a week, from 11 am until 9 pm, focusing on crime, crowd control, traffic safety and quality-of-life offenses. There are a total of 5 officers, including 1 supervisor assigned to the Homeless Resource Unit. Expansion of this unit from 2 to 5 officers was also a priority of the Commission in last year's budget cycle. These officers work all hours of the day and night, varying their schedule to address homeless complaints, conditions and hot spots. There are a total of 3 NROs and 11 patrol beat officers. The three NROs are assigned to Areas 1, 2 and 3. The beat officers are assigned to Areas 1, 2, 3 and 4. All of these officers engage in traditional community policing and problem solvin~ efforts. The beat officers spend nearly all their time on patrol, covering south of 5t Street (SOFNA), Washington Ave, 41st Street, the mid-beach Boardwalk area and the Collins Avenue/71st Street corridor. The NROs combine their regular patrol activity with attending to neighborhood meetings and specific problem-solving initiatives at the direction of their Area Captain. Consistent with Commission direction, 4 additional beat officers will be added in Mid-Beach and North Beach when the Department reaches full staffing next year. For the time being and until full staffing is achieved, the Department is operating with only one Crime Suppression Team (CST), consisting of 6 officers (including 1 supervisor). CST officers operate in both uniform and plain clothes and are dedicated full-time to affirmative crime reduction, addressing current hot spots and crime patterns based on intelligence developed by our crime analysts and our twice-monthly Crime Strategy Meetings. CST officers are not tied to the radio and generally do not respond to dispatched calls for service. Therefore, they have the flexibility to proactively address criminal activity and are the Department's highest-activity arrest unit. CST is also the lead unit charged with finding wanted dangerous fugitives. The MBPD previously operated with two CST teams, but given the current staffing shortage and the demand for a two Ocean Drive Squads, a s.econd CST team will likely 3 -" .l not be up and running again until early in the 2018 when full staffing is achieved. CST generally works 3 pm to 1 am and spends the bulk of its time deployed in South Beach, wher_e the demand fot this kind of_ p9licing i~ highest. __ l-!O\il,lever1 C$T will operate anywhere in the city where a current crime pattern needs addressing. When the second CST team is restored to service, it will likely work an overnight shift. The Special Investigations Unit is the Police Department's vice and narcotics enforcement team --the MBPD's undercover officers. The Police Department does not publicly disclose details about this team or its staffing. However, this is a relatively small squad and is currently short staffed. It is therefore working jointly with CST on nearly all its operations. The Department also expects SIS to get to full strength in early 2018 when full staffing is achieved. Also assigned to the Operations Division is a small Accident Investigation Unit consisting of 5 officers (including a supervisor). They investigate all hit-and-run traffic accidents and serious injury crashes, manage the Photo Red Light program and several traffic safety grants, conduct DUI and seatbelt enforcement operations, and provide essential training for the Department on DUI and traffic-enforcement-related issues. The net effect of these many additional officers in these specialized units is that, depending upon the time of day, the basic patrol staffing of 32 officers is significantly augmented by the presence on the street of anywhere from 10 to 15 additional officers on each shift. At peak times, such as the late afternoon/early evening, the number of officers out on street, responding to calls and protecting residents is typically 20 additional officers or more. Further, during the overlap hours of 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm and 10:00 pm and 1:00 am, basic patrol staffing is doubled from 32 to 64 officers. Detective Staffing and Other Support Personnel Because MBPD is a full service police department, it performs many other functions besides patrol services. The majority of the non-patrol personnel, 66 detectives and supervisors, are assigned to the Investigations Division. The Department currently projects that there are 11 vacancies in the Investigations Division, all of which exist in CST and SIS. The Investigations Division is broken down into Units with titles that generally describe their expertise and specialties. They are: Major Crimes; Property Crime; Economic Crime, Human Trafficking, Special Victims, Crime Suppression, Special Investigations (Vice and Narcotics) and the Robbery Unit. Detectives are working seven days a week and are typically available for immediate response to a street incident requiring their services from 7 a.m. until 3 a.m. Since on any given day, these detectives may be out on the street investigating a case and/or searching for suspects, they are an immediate additional resource to patrol officers in a crisis. The Robbery Unit, in particular, spends a majority of its time on the street hunting for wanted robbery suspects and is a prolific, high-arrest unit. It consists of 7 detectives and a supervisor. The other significant non-patrol units of the MBPD are: the Internal Affairs Unit, consisting of 7 supervisors: the Training Unit, consisting of 5 officers and 2 supervisors: the Background and Recruitment Unit, consisting of 3 officers and 2 supervisors: and the Information Resources Unit, consisting of 5 officers and 2 supervisors. The Information 4 Resources Unit does all the technical support for the Department, including managing and training on software programs, maintaining and installing hardware, managing surveillance camera and license plate reader (LPR) technology, doing research and procurement and managin~.f the myriad of technological issues associated with running a modern police department. Eight (8) officers are assigned to local area task forces and special assignments because of the nature of the work these units perform and the significant additional value that accrues to Miami Beach and crime fighting/public safety because of their presence. One (1) sergeant is detailed to the Parks Department to assist in running the Park Ranger program. The 7 detectives are assigned as follows: 1 to the Miami-Dade Robbery Interdiction Detail (RID); 1 to the IRS/HIDTA Financial Crimes Task Force; 1 to the FBI Human Trafficking Task Force; 1 to the FBI Public Corruption Task Force; 1 to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force; and 2 to the State Attorney's Public Corruption Task Force. There are a handful of other assignments in the Department that require sworn personnel, to include among others the 1 Public Information Officer position, 3 supervisors assigned to the Property and Evidence Unit, 3 supervisors assigned to the Special Events/Off-Duty Office, and 1 officer assigned to the Police Athletic League. Impact of Arrest Processing on Patrol Presence In 2016, the MBPD made 5,431 custodial arrests. Each arrest takes the arresting officer, and perhaps a second officer depending upon circumstances, off the street for a period of time to process the prisoner, prepare reports and voucher evidence. So each arrest has a direct impact on officer patrol presence on the street. It is difficult to calculate the patrol time lost to arrest processing, but the number is significant. The Police Department has applied some basic assumptions and analysis, below. Of the 5,431 custodial arrests in 2016, perhaps 8 percent were made by detectives. That leaves 4,997 arrests made by patrol officers in 2016. A conservative assumption is that in each such patrol arrest, the arresting officer was taken off the street for a minimum of 90 minutes to process his/her prisoner and any evidence. A further conservative assumption is that in 30 percent of these arrests, a second officer was needed to assist in prisoner handling and post-arrest processing, also for a minimum of 90 minutes. Applying these assumptions, the MBPD conservatively calculates that in 2016, approximately 10,000 hours of officer patrol time were lost to post-arrest processing of prisoners and evidence. This is the equivalent total patrol time in a year provided by approximately 7 full-time police officers. The impact of these arrests on the day-to-day street patrol time and visible street presence of our police officers is significant Arrest-processing time has a particularly significant impact on teams with high-volume arrest activity, like the Ocean Drive Squads and the Crime Suppression Teams. For example, on a busy weekend overnight shift on Ocean Drive, the Ocean Drive Squad might make 6 arrests, which would quickly translate into 9 to 12 hours or more of lost patrol time for the members of that team, with a corresponding lack of visibility and presence of these patrol officers on Ocean Drive. 5 Injuries and Impact on Staffing and Patrol Presence -injuries-are a-routine -part of policing. At any given time, a -number of officers will be unavailable because of line-of-duty injury, and in some cases because of injury or illness unconnected to police work. At the current moment, the MBPD has 10 officers at home recovering from injury or illness. Nine (9) are line-of-duty related, and 1 is from illness/injury unrelated to police work. Another 2 officers have returned to work but in a limited capacity and are assigned to non-enforcement duties while they fully recover. The total of 10 injured officers out of service at one time is higher than usual. The loss of their patrol services has had a significant impact on staffing and visible patrol presence for the Department. Hiring Plan to Resolve the Staffing Shortfall The 24 vacant police officer positions will be filled by February, 2018. Nine (9) officers are in training in the Miami-Dade Community College Police Academy and will graduate in early September. All college graduates, these are the first ever recruits to attend an Academy part-time on a track that guarantees them employment with MBPD upon graduation from the Academy. A second such class of 10 recruits is also in the Academy and graduates in February, 2018, when they will be hired. The final 5 officer positions will be filled on July 24, 2017. On that date, 5 licensed/certified officers, all with college degrees, will be hired directly by the MBPD and begin their in-house and 21-week field training program. Conclusion With the addition of 17 new officer positions as of June 1 and due to recent attrition, the Police Department is currently dealing with a staffing shortfall of 24 positions. Despite this shortfall, the Department has reallocated resources to address the Commission's priorities expressed in the 2016-2017 budget process, particularly in the new Entertainment District/Area 4 and regarding homeless conditions. The Department has in place a plan to re-achieve full staffing by early 2018, but field training of the last 10 of these new officers will take an additional five months, and only then will the new officers fully count toward staffing. The shortfalls of personnel are roughly evenly divided for now between Operations Division, which supports basic patrol services, and the Investigations Divisions, which performs the Department's basic detective functions and specialized crime suppression and narcotics and vice operations. The Police Chief and his management team are available to go over details of the Department's staffing and deployment priorities and answer questions with individual Commission members at their request. A copy of the Police Department's organizational chart is attached. DJO JLM:DJO:tr ATTACHMENT 6 MIAMI BEACH oa...~~ Organizational Chart Oper1tlons Division M1jor Guerrero Area 1 (South) Captain De Le Esprtelll NRO Ofc. O. Martineau RDA Sgt. A. Flaherty Detention Officers Traffic Operations Lt. H. Chon1 AIU/Red Ll&ht Com. Sgt. J. Rodri1uez Motors Sat. P. Elmore & S1t. R. Mortlnaz ------ K9 Sgt. J. Brudzlnskl II Area 2 (Mlddle) Coptoln Plrosnor PATROL SQUADS NRO Ofc. E. Hazzi 41st Street Beat Doys Marine Patrol School liaison Officers REVISED: 07/12/2017 I Area 3 (North) Copt1ln Doce PATROL SQUADS NRO Ofc.J. Blanco Collins Ave & 71st Street Foot Patrol Days Collins Ave&: 7ht Street Foot Patrol Afternoons lntelllcence Squod Sat. AJ. Prieto Area4(Ent.) COptoln Robinson PATROL SQUADS NRO (Vacant) Homeless liaison Unit Washln1ton Avenue Ocean Drive Squad 1 OcunDrlvt Squad 2 Chief of Police CMef 01n~I J. Oates Deputy Chief of Police Deputy Chief Rick Clemenu lnveat111ttons Division M1JorC1u11y Crlmlnal lnvest11at1on Section Clpt1ln Acosta Property Crimes Persons Crimes Lt. J. Campbell Lt. G. Baldwin Burgl1ry South Speclel Victims S1t. J. Motola Sat. T. Houser Burtlary Mid./ Nor. Victfm Advocates Set. 0. Brown I Crime Scene Squid 11 Crime An1lysls Unit 11 Supv. J.C. Pedroso Supv. C. Sparks EcoCrlmH bGenerol II S1t. L. Corps 11tt11tfons I.A.Soto f1:or Crimes t.J. Reina t.1. Garcia StrntCrlme Section Copt1ln M0'11io Street Crimes Lt. E. Spin1Rlaylor CST Squid Mids Sgt. P. Gunto Strate1lc lnv11tt1attons S1t.J.Madu Internal Affairs C.ptain Weissman FOP Robert Jenkins (Re~red) Support Services Division Major Jones Business& Personnel Resources Unit {Backgrounds, Court Liaison, Payroll) Lt. 0. R1belo Sat. c. Pfroaner Specl1I Events/ Off-Duty Lt. D. Simon Set. M. Schoenfeld Sgt.A.Gil Property & Evldenc.e Unit Lt. L. Bornstein St:t. J. Alessf:ndri Tralnln& Unit Lt. M. G•or1e Sgt. R. Hernandez Technlcal Servl<es Lt. S. Foldmon S1t .. A. Loperfido Records Mamt. Unit J. B•bcock Chief of Stall Wendy Rlch-Goldachmldt Flnandal Mamt. Unit M. Rattigan PAL Grants, Plannlna and Reseerch 0. Warner Ofc. A. Martinl!aU Accreditation P. Patrone PIO Office Ofc. E. Rodri1uez Ole. W. Collado (Alt) Bod~Worn Camera (BWC) Program Sgt.A. Bello BWC RHHrth Pro)ect Coordln1tor Ofc. A. Mouro Special Detaltsaask Forces ... Mlaml-D1de Robbery Det1!1 (AIOI 1 Detective (Full-Time) • IRS Financial Crim ts TISk For~ 1 OetKtive (Full-nme) ... FBI Human Tr•ffickirc ·Minors 1 Detective (Fu11-Time}-Speclal Vktims ... FBI ITTF 1 Detective (Full·Time)-lntel ... U.S. Marshals Service-Regional Fugltlv• 1 Detective (Part-Time}-Robberv ... FBI Violent Crimes 1 Detective (Part-Time>-Robber;" ... SJ\O Public Corruption 2 Detectives (Ful~lime)-lntemal Affairs ... Miami Beach Park Ranger Proeram 1 Ser1eant (Full-Time)