Council approves request to add PD officers, equipment

By Doug Spoon, Editor

The Menifee City Council last week approved a request by city staff to allocate $1.25 million from the general fund for 13 additional Menifee Police Department officers, five more vehicles and equipment designed to more effectively study accident scenes.

Justification for the improvements presented to council members by Menifee PD included a comparison of manpower numbers and crime statistics with the City’s previous Sheriff’s Department coverage and current law enforcement in surrounding cities. A portion of those funds will come from the public safety tax known as Measure DD, which voters approved to continue by defeating a recall initiative in November, with 64 percent of the votes cast against the recall.

Police Chief Pat Walsh and Captains Chris Karrer and David Gutierrez made the presentation to the council. Their report showed that Menifee PD currently has 60 sworn police full-time positions for a population of almost 97,000. By comparison, the report showed, Murrieta has 103 sworn officers in a city over 115,000, with 13 fewer square miles to patrol than Menifee’s 46.47 square miles.

In addition, the report showed that for the first 20 weeks of service after Menifee PD’s launch (through late November), calls for service numbered about 4,000 more (23,339) than the Sheriff’s Department responded to during the same 20-week period in 2019 – and about 1,000 more than Murrieta.

An expansion of the police force was anticipated all along because of the City’s population growth, said Deputy City Manager Rochelle Clayton in an interview with Menifee 24/7. The first expansion is possible now because of the continued Measure DD funds, which brought in about an additional $11 million to the general fund last year.

“We always knew it was likely we would need more officers in the first year,” Clayton said. “The original plan was to get the department into operation and perform a mid-year adjustment in March. What we discovered is there is a need now. Rather than wait until March, this request was made now. It will still be some time until officers are on board because of the recruiting process.”

According to the presentation, approximately $1.25 million will come from the remainder of this fiscal year budget and approximately $1.5 million will come from next year’s budget. Salaries for the additional officers may not factor into the budget until next fiscal year because of the length of the recruitment period.

A chart projecting the five-year growth of Menifee PD shows that the department’s budget for 2021-22 with the approved increase is expected to be $16.85 million, with a portion of those funds coming from the Measure DD public safety tax. With the additional officers just approved, that would give Menifee an estimated 234 patrol hours per day – an average of 23 officers per day on patrol.

In comparison, according to City estimates, the budget the City would’ve needed to afford continued service from the Sheriff’s Department in 2121-22 is $23.76 million. That budget was expected to include 200 patrol hours per day – the same as the 2020-21 budget in the City’s last year with RSO. However, because of a shortage of recruited Sheriff’s deputies available to serve Menifee, RSO provided only 120 patrol hours per day in the fiscal year concluding in June. That's an average of 12 officers per day on patrol.

“It’s a great testament to the benefit of having our own police department with the leadership to provide those extra hours for less money,” council member Matt Liesemeyer said.

The approved amount includes the purchase of two fully outfitted Chevy Tahoes ($137,006); two fully outfitted BMW motorcycles ($94,200); and a Chevy Colorado 4x4 Truck ($50,703); plus equipment needed such as tasers, body cameras and safety equipment for the additional officers ($163,618).

The total personnel costs for 12 full-time employees is $628,987 for a full year. However, it is expected that because of the time required to fill those position,  the cost this fiscal year would be $628,987. The 13th full-time employee will be an officer assigned to the Post-Release Accountability and Compliance Team (PACT), which is county agency through the Probation Department. The City’s cost for that position is $55,700.

The laser scanner is designed to address the issue of serious traffic accidents. According to the presentation made to the City Council, Menifee averages 8-10 fatal traffic collisions per year. Such collision investigations require extra manpower and can close roadways for hours.

“The current measurement equipment utilized by the Menifee Police Department is the Leica CS10 Total Station,” the presentation document stated. “This equipment takes two personnel to operate the equipment and the measurements taken often are time-consuming and can result in road closures for up to eight hours, as well as a significant amount of overtime.

“The Leica RTC360 is a 3D laser scanner that captures two million points per second, while also taking high resolution photographs of a scene. Each scan takes approximately two minutes, meaning larger scenes can be documented in less than 30 minutes, lessening road closures by multiple hours and allowing for a normal flow of traffic.”

Cost of the laser scanner is $98,407.

“This is the start of our plan to keep turning the dial up,” Walsh said in reference to the department’s five-year plan.

Additional programs in the coming years include the possibility of Menifee PD contracting with local school districts for school police patrol and a program focused on deterring gang activity.

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