Council discusses police staffing challenge

Published 12:45 pm Friday, September 16, 2022

The Baker City Council resumed its discussion Tuesday, Sept. 13 about the challenge of keeping at least two police officers on patrol at all times with the department’s current 12-hour shifts.

Councilors and City Manager Jonathan Cannon met with Police Chief Ty Duby and Sgt. Mike Regan during a work session prior to Tuesday’s regular meeting.

It was a discussion only — councilors have made no decision about changing the 12-hour schedule or, as Duby has mentioned, not patrolling from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. daily. In that case the department would call in an officer if needed to respond to an emergency call during those hours.

Duby told councilors that the department has to deal with an “incredible amount of turnover,” frequently losing two officers per year over the past couple decades.

Although some employees retired or left for jobs with other departments or higher pay, Duby told councilors that he’s certain that work schedules, and in particular the need for officers to frequently work on days off and to be unable to take vacations, have also contributed to the turnover.

Duby said that in exit interviews, departing officers have mentioned staffing.

“What happens if somebody leaves the agency or somebody takes a vacation or somebody calls in sick, then we either have to call somebody in on overtime or the sergeant on that team covers the calls. And it happens a lot,” Duby said.

Councilor Johnny Waggoner Sr. asked about the police department’s overtime budget and costs.

The budget for the fiscal year that started July 1 includes $60,000 for police overtime.

“We’re burning through it fairly rapidly this year and the reason is, it’s because we’ve lost a few people,” Duby said.

The city’s police overtime cost for the 2020-21 fiscal year was $48,000, and for 2019-20 it was $61,000.

In late June Duby said officers are “overworked, honestly.”

His comments came after social media posts claimed the city, starting Aug. 23, would no longer patrol from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. and would change from 12-hour shifts to 10-hour shifts.

Duby said that was a proposed schedule, not a final decision.

After discussing the issue with Duby on June 28, councilors decided to schedule the work session for Sept. 13.

“I think we can all agree 24/7’s ideal,” Duby told councilors on June 28. “If we can figure out a way to get there, that’s great. If we can’t, financially, then maybe we come up with something else.”

During Tuesday’s work session, Duby told councilors that national studies found a schedule of four 10-hour shifts per week reduces overtime and allows officers to get more sleep.

He said the 10-hour shift schedule would also make it easier for the department to accommodate training.

“Any time you’ve got guys training, you’ve got to cover shifts,” he said. “So, it’s really difficult.”

The idea to not patrol between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. is based on department data showing that emergency calls are rare during that period. Duby told councilors he reviewed call logs for a month and “I came up with like four calls in that month” during that timeframe.

To maintain 24-hour coverage on a 10-hour shift schedule, the city would need to hire more officers, Duby said.

“If your goal was 24-hour service, the schedule we’re on is what we need to stay on,” he said.

Waggoner said he thinks the department needs three officers per shift – two on patrol and one who can cover needed shifts due to vacation or illness.

The city is using money from the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to hire one new officer this year, boosting the department’s full-time equivalents to 19.08.