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Sample letter to council members and staff re: 2025 budget

Dear <name>,

I have reviewed The Axtell Group’s Richfield Department of Public Safety Organizational and Staffing Assessment Report. It notes that “…while the population, the number of calls for service, and crime in Richfield have remained relatively steady, the demands on the city’s police officers have increased significantly…. [O]fficers are responding to a growing number of mental health calls, often received under a different call type and difficult to predict or recognize until officers arrive, which often require more time on scene. Additionally, more training is required of officers; social media, cell phones, and other technology have made investigation more complex…” – pg 3, Axtell Report

The report goes on to explain that “while the RPD has adjusted its services and training to meet changing needs, TAG found that staffing and scheduling have remained largely unchanged for decades” (pg 3). This has led to many of our officers frequently eschewing their own vacation time to respond to this increase in volume, as they worry that if they do so, their colleagues will be unfairly burdened with the additional work. With this comes stress, mental health fatigue, and adverse effects on retention, and the concern that this pace is ultimately unsustainable. 

To address the concerns related to the current staffing levels and retention, the preliminary 2025 Richfield includes funding for wage increases for the current officers and lieutenants. The Public Safety budget increase also adds officer positions, and while it is understandable that this is one suggested solution, there are other ways that this approximately $300,000 could be used.  Research and experience show the high value of having additional embedded social workers in the police force. Is any of the funding slated for this? For example, since Richfield is basing the Alternative Response Team pilot on Brooklyn Center’s successful approach, we know that it is very likely going to call for funding at least one additional embedded social worker and EMT in order to be able to staff multiple shifts.

Research is also showing, nationwide, stopping people for low-level traffic violations is not contributing to a reduction in crime. Is there an effort to discontinue this practice in Richfield, thus freeing up time for our overworked police officers? If this practice needs to continue because of state / county regulations, does the strategic plan include lobbying efforts by the city and the police department to ask our legislators to pass the required legislation? 

I believe that this remaining funding could be used to increase the number of imbedded social service workers, continue to provide training to dispatch and officers on how to handle the growing number of mental health calls (to reduce the time on the scene), and to support lobbying efforts to stop using valuable police time on infractions that do not contribute to reduced crime. 

I look forward to hearing from you and hope that this input will be considered as this preliminary budget is finalized. 

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