News Room April 8, 2002 Oversight Hearing on FY2003 Proposed Budget for the Metropolitan Police Department Charles H. Ramsey Chief of Police Metropolitan Police Department Chief Charles H. Ramsey delivered the following statement to the Committee on the Judiciary, the Honorable Kathy Patterson, Chair, Council of the District of Columbia. The hearing was held April 8, 2002. Madame Chair, members of the Committee, other Councilmembers and distinguished guests - I am pleased to present to the Committee today the Metropolitan Police Department's proposed budget for fiscal year 2003-the first budget developed under the new performance-based budgeting guidelines. I am also here to answer any questions you may have about this budget. As a reminder to you and to our viewing audience on DC Cable 13, the text of my prepared remarks is available on the Police Department's website - http://mpdc.dc.gov. The Metropolitan Police Department is proud to be one of first agencies selected by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer to transition to a performance-based budget-or "PBB" budget, for short. We began putting the PBB budget together last July, and involved all the top managers and nearly a hundred other Department members in the process of developing the PBB structure and performance measures. While I consider the PBB performance measures a work in progress, I am looking forward to exploring how this PBB budget can be used as a management tool to track and monitor whether MPD programs are meeting their goals from a performance and a fiscal perspective. The six "strategic result goals" of the Metropolitan Police Department have not changed, nor have many of the performance measures associated with those goals. These still represent the key priorities for improvement in the police department: Reducing crime through our Policing for Prevention strategy; Improving homicide clearance rates; Enhancing a sense of safety and security in public spaces by increasing police presence and reducing drug and disorder problems; Reducing sustained complaints of misconduct against officers and ensuring that officers, when they use force, do so within the Department's use of force policy guidelines that we have worked so hard to develop and institutionalize during my tenure as Chief; and Assuring customer satisfaction by swiftly responding to the scene of priority calls for service and by ensuring that victims of crime receive the quality of response and services that they deserve. Finally, while we have made great strides in this area, I continue to place as a priority the development of the MPD as a competitive, professional equitable police organization that is equipped with state-of-the-art tools and system. The proposed 3 percent increase in local funding for the Metropolitan Police Department reflects the realization by Mayor Williams and his administration that more than ever the citizens of the District of Columbia need to feel safe. This has taken on added priority as our Department and our city deal with the recent and disturbing spate of violence in several neighborhoods, including drive-by shootings involving automatic weapons. The proposed budget will allow us to meet all of our strategic goals-in particular our goals around reducing crime and enhancing safety in public spaces-but not because of any new bells and whistles. We will achieve our goals primarily because we will continue to improve our policing tactics and apply strong management accountability. The proposed FY 2003 budget will allow the MPD to put more officers on the street and equip them with the basic tools, while placing civilian crime analysis in the districts to support the field units. It will provide greater security for our Public Safety Communications Center in these critical times. Primarily, the proposed budget increase will cover larger expenses for fuel and phone; facilities, vehicle, and equipment maintenance. There is no "fat" in this budget. This budget will allow the MPD to continue providing the quality of service it has achieved during the past several years--a level of service that has contributed to cutting the homicide rate in half over a decade and reducing shootings, stabbings, and other serious assaults nearly 20 percent since 1998. Page 1 of 6         1   2   3   4   5   6