Various conditions create a ticking time bomb within Peoria Police Department

Recently, despite evidence to the contrary, the Peoria City Council was treated to a rosy picture of public safety by the chief of police. For example, Chief Roy Minter told the council that the time it takes police to respond to crime only increased by a small amount and that crime in the city is falling.

The situation on the ground refutes those claims. Cherry-picking statistics to show only a small increase from one year to the next ignores the fact that response times are much worse than they used to be.

The overall time it takes police to respond to crime has increased by almost 35 percent from February 2011 to March 2016 (5 minutes 30 seconds to 7 minutes 24 seconds). The figures are even worse for communities like Vistancia, where it takes as long as 13 minutes.

What about the claim that crime rates are dropping? To answer this question, it is important to know how crime statistics are created. Peoria has repeatedly altered how it measures and tracks crime, which makes the validity of the statistics Chief Minter is using unreliable.

Showing only the crimes reported on the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting does not provide statistics for all crime. A crime is measured only if it is reported or detected by police.

You get less crime in the statistics when you don’t have enough officers to investigate crime: Peoria police have not had anyone assigned to investigate reported child pornography since 2012. Multiple images provided by the Internet Crimes Against Children Phoenix office have sat on a desk without any investigation since 2012. These crimes against children didn’t make the statistics.

Another example: Officers have been directed to not investigate fraud under $10,000.

The heart of the issue is this: As the city grows, Peoria police need to add a proportional increase in officers.

Tragically, the policies of this council have caused Peoria to be one of the worst cities for officer compensation. The 12 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index since 2008 means that the 2 percent increase in officer pay is actually a net loss in take-home pay.

This is why officers have left, and are leaving, the city. In the last year alone, Peoria lost 9 officers with decades of experience to other cities, and there are more who are actively looking to leave.

The Peoria Police Department has more than 16 vacancies for patrol staff and other specialized officer positions. Further, there are many other critical support positions which are still vacant. And if we use the benchmark of 1.5 officers per 1,000 people, that would require an additional 80 police officers.

These staffing vacancies have serious implications for public safety. Just one domestic-violence call can tie up three officers, leaving the rest of north Peoria to be protected by only two officers. Add to these issues the national sentiment against police, the burnout of officers who cannot take vacations due to staffing shortages, expired safety equipment, reduced training, low morale and you have a ticking time bomb.

The City Council has spent millions of dollars on parks and other pet projects while the men and women who keep us safe are left behind.

Recently, the council voted on a tax increase to fund more of these types of pet projects and no additional funding was included to address the crises in the police department.

Peoria officers are concerned to speak out because of retaliation. The Peoria Police Officers Association’s expectation is that the chief and council work rapidly to improve the safety of our community by coming to terms with the problems and working with us to address them.

Please take a stand with us by calling your city council representative and asking them to sit down with us so we can begin solving the problem together.

Luis Ebratt is the executive director of Peoria Police Officers Association. Email him at luisebratt@yahoo.com.