Jackson City Councilman Jeff Weill has presented an approach to replacing civilian support positions within the Jackson Police Department with sworn officers at no additional cost. Jackson has 38% of its personnel budget tied up into support (i.e. not sworn) police personnel. This compares to the Southeastern average of around 20%. The study used to support these conclusions was authored by Millsaps College Economics Professor Dr. Bill Brister. Weill also cites proposed JPD budget numbers for this fiscal year to back up his data.
There is even a longer term option that provides to provide substantially more sworn officers with a pay raise for no greater allocation of budget dollars than JPD currently puts forth right now.
We asked Councilman Weill a few questions about his new plan.
Q. What’s the catch? How do we get up to 100 free police officers without additional revenue?
A. No catch. The Jackson police department has WAY too many civilian employees in it–roughly twice the average of 9 comparable southeastern cities. Little Rock’s PD is made up of 18% civilians, Shreveport’s PD has 12.4%, etc. The JPD is comprised of an eyepopping 38% civilians. Reduce Jackson’s civilian workforce down to the southeastern average(from 307 to 165) and you can hire 100 new police officers and give all 600 officers a $2000 raise.
Q. How did this happen?
A. Most of the explosive civilian growth in the JPD happened during the Melton administration. My guess is Chief Anderson was eager to please the late mayor by awarding these patronage jobs. The city council helped too, by shoveling money at the JPD to create the impression they were tough on crime without seeing where the money was being spent.
Q. Won’t there be a loss of jobs?
A. There won’t be a NET loss of jobs if each civilian is replaced by one new recruit. For example, if you hire 25 new officers the first year and reduce the civilian workforce by that same number–the average civilian salary is comparable to the salary of new recruits–the total number of employees remains static.
There are a number of ways to accomplish this to minimize the pain for the excess civilian employees. First, natural attrition(death, retirement, quitting, etc.) reduces the workforce annually at a considerable rate–just replace those civilians with new cops. Other options include giving JPD civilians the opportunity to become sworn officers by going to the training academy, or by giving them 1st crack at non-public safety jobs in city government. There will probably be some pinkslips but not a massive layoff if this is done over a few years.
Q. Why do this?
A. I’ve talked to police command staff and cops on the beat and all tell me that more boots on the ground in targeted higher-crime areas make a big difference, particularly when it comes to property crime. 20 new cops per precinct would make a huge difference. More cops would allow us to focus on the small quality of life crimes that degrade society, too. New York turned itself around in the early 1990’s the same way–it’s called the ‘broken window’ theory. Let criminals know we won’t tolerate the small stuff and they will refrain from committing bigger crimes.
Q. Won’t there be other costs such as training and equipping for all these new officers?
A. Sure there will be. We’ll need more cars, computers, fuel, etc. We can pay for that by slightly reducing any anticipated JPD raises from the savings or modifying the number of new officers. The key is to do this carefully and in a well thought out manner.
Q. Where do you anticipate resistance to implementing this idea?
A. These excess jobs are patronage jobs. Each excess civilian in the JPD got his job because he knew someone in city government. That patron will pull out all stops to help him keep his job. I’m hoping the public will agree with me that Jacksonians want fewer bureacrats and more police officers and will raise heck to get that done.
Magnolia Tribune
