Chairman Brazil, members of the Committee, distinguished guests—thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to offer comments on "The Police Deployment Act of 1999" and to answer any questions you may have.
When it comes to the deployment of our police personnel, it is clear that all of us share the same goal: namely, to put more officers on the street—patrolling our neighborhoods, answering calls for service, working with the community to prevent crime, addressing priority problems through focused law enforcement, and engaging in the myriad other activities that define a true, community-oriented police department.
Putting more officers on the street was a top priority of mine when I assumed leadership of the Metropolitan Police Department 19 months ago. And, as I have reported to this Council on several previous occasions, we have made tremendous progress toward achieving that goal over the last year and a half.
Today, 1,515 full duty sworn members—including officers, sergeants, and lieutenants—are assigned to our 83 Police Service Areas. That’s 70 percent of all full-duty officers, sergeants, and lieutenants working in the Districts (by full duty I mean not on administrative leave, indefinite suspension, extended sick leave, limited duty, and non-contact status—a number which fluctuates on a daily basis). This number exceeds by 4 percent the mandatory minimum PSA staffing requirements (consisting of officers, sergeants, and detectives) established by Department General Order on August 31, 1997. We have increased our sworn staffing in the PSAs, despite a 3 percent decrease (107 members) in total sworn strength from August 1997.
Looking only at full-duty officers—including master patrol and senior police officers—in the Department, 60 percent are assigned to the PSAs. We have also put other sworn personnel in the community, directly supporting the work of the PSA officers. These include focused mission teams in each district, which concentrate on hot spots of criminal activity, violent and property crime detectives in each district who now handle follow-up investigations in a geographically defined area and, where needed, police officers who focus on special problems such as traffic enforcement and prostitution.
At the same time, we have fewer police officers working in administrative assignments through our aggressive civilianization program. Most recently, we have civilianized our Central Cell Block, Recruiting background investigations and Fleet management functions - placing dozens of additional sworn personnel into Operational Services.
And finally, we have implemented a totally new shift schedule system that is assigning our officers to better meet the demands for our services. The new system went into effect on November 7th, and already we have seen dramatic increases in the number of officers working during the critical evening, night-time and weekend hours when crime and calls for service are at their highest.
Taken together, these two reforms—assigning more officers to our neighborhoods, and having them work when their services are needed most—have put our Department in a much better position to implement our new community policing strategy—what we call "Policing for Prevention."
But while we have made tremendous progress, our work in these areas is far from done. We still have a long, long way to go. The question before us is, how do we get there?
"The Police Deployment Act of 1999" proposes one approach: to legislatively mandate how many police officers will be assigned to one particular function of the MPDC—patrolling our neighborhoods and answering calls for service. That is certainly a critical function of our Department, but under community policing it is by no means the only critical function we must perform.
Taken together, these two reforms—assigning more officers to our neighborhoods, and having them work when their services are needed most—have put our Department in a much better position to implement our new community policing strategy—what we call "Policing for Prevention."
But while we have made tremendous progress, our work in these areas is far from done. We still have a long, long way to go. The question before us is, how do we get there?
"The Police Deployment Act of 1999" proposes one approach: to legislatively mandate how many police officers will be assigned to one particular function of the MPDC—patrolling our neighborhoods and answering calls for service. That is certainly a critical function of our Department, but under community policing it is by no means the only critical function we must perform.
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