Police cope with new 2020 budget cuts
Police chief talks reform during recent council meeting
The Arcata Police Department will lose more than three-quarters of a million dollars from its 2020 budget, City Manager Karen Diemer told the Times Standard on Friday.
The $752,000 reduction in the APD’s budget will result in layoffs of four department staff — two officers, one dispatcher and one office assistant — as well as three layoffs of over-hires, or personnel brought on to ensure staffing levels remain constant when regular personnel retire or otherwise move on from the department.
The layoffs amount to around half-a-million dollars in cuts. An additional $275,000 in money marked for police equipment constitutes the remainder of the budget cuts facing the APD.
The APD’s 2020 operating budget will be $6,006,712. Parking enforcement will receive $236,043 and animal control will receive $96,749.
The reductions leave the APD with 25 police officers.
“While there are reductions now, what’s great about the plan the city manager and council have put together is that we will be getting those officers back in the future,” Police Chief Brian Ahearn said.
“The budget for APD heading into 2020/2021 will enable core services to continue to be delivered. No one’s safety is at risk as the City Council made it a priority to insure basic services will not be compromised,” Ahearn wrote in a Saturday press release. “Where community members will see some of the budget impacts are an increase in response times to non-emergency calls for service and a reduction in self-initiated enforcement such as traffic violations, urinating in public, smoking, drunk in public and other quality of life crimes that are a priority for Arcata but not so much for the criminal justice system as a whole.”
The budget constrictions come as the city prepares for drastic reductions in tax money due to fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
Humboldt State University, the city’s largest employer, expects to conduct the majority of its 2020 fall semester online.
Hotels in the city which have been vacant for months are now beginning to welcome back select travelers.
Diemer said the city is preparing for a 29% decrease in sales tax and a 38% reduction in the transient occupancy tax, which covers taxation of hotels and other short-term rentals in the city.
The city has frozen all vehicle purchases, including for the APD. Aside from the police department, the city has frozen or reduced an additional 10 positions.
More changes could be on the horizon. Ahearn, at the request of the council, made a presentation during Wednesday’s meeting on what reforms the department can make and how it can mirror changes sought by Campaign Zero, a nationwide police reform campaign, as well as 8 Can’t Wait, a similar police reform agenda.
Ahearn said his department is already mostly in line with what the Campaign Zero and 8 Can’t Wait agendas are seeking regarding use-of-force tactics and community-oriented policing.
According to the Campaign Zero website, California is the only state in nation to have adopted the policies it is seeking, APD included.
Ahearn offered several reforms and modifications to department policy, including more use of body cameras.
“Our current policy allows for too much latitude in terms of (when officers turn on their cameras),” Ahearn said.
Ahearn also said he’d be open to returning 14 military-grade rifles given to the department by the Department of Defense.
“We don’t use these rifles, we never have since we got them,” Ahearn said. “We’ve never even trained with them.”
Councilmember Paul Pitino was adamant that the APD adjust its policy to compel officers to always have their body cameras on with very few exceptions.
“We’ve got the cameras, we need to be using them,” Pitino said. “There is really no reason to not have them on all the time.”
Pitino suggesting using the Public Safety Committee as a springboard to launch a civilian oversight committee, one of the goals of the Campaign Zero agenda.
“I have assigned Investigations Lieutenant Todd Dokweiler to work directly alongside me to develop a framework, along with our Public Safety Committee, to implement the immediate reforms as directed by the City Council at their June 17 meeting; to forecast how Police-Community Service Officer positions and other social service entities can be incorporated into APD Operations as services are restored; and to develop a strategic plan to bring civilian oversight of law enforcement to the Arcata Police Department; something that is long overdue and can only make us better,” Ahearn wrote in Saturday’s release. “We realize many will blame us for their own faults because accountability and accepting blame for one’s mistakes is difficult for some people. If you feel you’ve been wronged we have a robust complaint reception and investigation process. Please utilize it. There is no room for law enforcement to get anything wrong. We have to be perfect each and every time out.”
Councilmember Brett Watson said, “I have complete confidence in our police chief and police department. I’m all about making sure they have what they need. As far as redirecting money … it’s not a realistic conversation right now. In the short-term, it’ll be about restoring staffing to the department. I think there is a misconception that there is all this money sitting around in the police department, that’s just not the reality.”