Police cost analysis

1. Police cost analysis Steve Yurgartis Presented to the Potsdam Village Board of Trustees July, 2010

3. Conclusion If the board is serious about controlling the tax rate, it is unavoidable that we must consider police force costs.

4. Benchmarking our police dept. • Affect of student population • Per capita cost • Force size • Pay scale

5. Demographic background information • We are a “college town” and this has a large effect on our police force costs • Our census population is 9425 • However, the census counts some students, but not all students • Need an estimate of actual full time village residents • This was done using census age group data

7. Our population picture…

8. Students… • Are a significant “consumer” of our police services • Are a source of additional police cost for property tax payers

10. Current per capita cost of our police force

13. Force size comparison Potsdam village police force size compared to national data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics

15. Conclusion • The relative size and cost of our force depends on how we define the size of our clientele • SUNY Potsdam has a full police force • Clarkson has a safety patrol, but no police powers • Most students reside on campus • The question remains: how do we define the size of our clientele?

17. End of benchmarkingNow let’s look at the future

18. Cost of post employment benefitsof retired village police officers

19. Post employment benefits • Post employment benefits are the benefits (primarily health insurance) that the village must continue paying a person after they retire. • In short, this is money we are paying to people who no longer work here. • It is a contractual obligation; there is no way to reduce this cost once it is encumbered. • It is a recurring annual expense, and is growing.

20. Current post employment benefit costs for retired Potsdam Village police staff.

21. Some comparisons to put this cost in context…

22. The trend… 7% per year on average, Likely to increase

24. Estimate of cost to hire a new police officer Three scenarios are presented (high, middle, low) All numbers in net present value

25. High estimate

26. Middle estimate

27. Low estimate

28. Conclusions Hiring an officer encumbers a very large expense on the village Most of the cost occurs after the officer retires (about ½ even in the best case estimate) By hiring an officer, the board places a large cost on future generations of village residents, who will be paying the officer without the benefit of the officer’s services

29. Alternatives? • Public safety is vital to the village. • Are there ways to enhance safety without encumbering large future costs?

30. Some examples of alternatives we could consider are: Strategic placement of security cameras Better public education (particularly of students and businesses that sell alcohol) Increasing fines to discourage bad behavior A neighborhood watch program Increasing cooperation with other policing agencies Other?

31. Temptation… As a board, I believe we face a classic temptation for politicians: The temptation to make a short term decision that will please our constituents, while passing the long term cost on to future generations. I feel strongly we should resist this temptation, and that we should make the necessary hard decisions.

32. My recommendation • Since the cost of hiring officers is so high, particularly in encumbering future residents to pay for services they will not receive… • Since the timing is right (vacancies by attrition)… • Since there are alternatives we could try… • Since we are struggling to contain the village tax rate to preserve the future of the village…

33. My recommendation • I recommend a one year moratorium on the hiring of new police officers, • Experimenting with alternative public safety strategies, • And based on this experience, re-evaluating the need for more officers after one year.

34. Some will say: “Yes, it is expensive, but we need these police officers.” I hope the reasoning does not stop there, because it fails to address the questions of • How are we going to pay for them? • Should we continue to make expensive promises that we expect future residents to pay for?

35. Some will say: “We have managed to pay for the size of our present force, and we will figure out how to continue to do so.” Unfortunately I do not think this approach recognizes that we are on a path with rapidly rising costs, as I have shown. It does not recognize that only a few of our promises have yet come due, and many more are pending. In short, I do not think we are on a sustainable path.

36. Difficult recommendation • I recognize that this recommendation will cause difficulties for the police department. • I would ask for their patience, cooperation, and good will, as they have shown in the past.

37. Public safety needs • I too feel public safety is vital to the village. • I am proud of our police department and the work they do. • People will argue, correctly, that we need a sufficient number of police officers to ensure adequate public safety. • However, I believe we must balance present needs against future costs. • I believe now is the time to experiment with a small shift in that balance by having a hiring moratorium for one year. • I urge my colleagues on the board to join me in this experiment

38. Thank you Questions?