Lincoln's public safety - how safe are we?

Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series on Lincoln's public safety. This week, we look at the overall situation, with a dive into our Police Department. Part II in two weeks will concentrate on the Fire Department and explore options for future growth of both our Police and Fire departments. It's the middle of the night and a family member is having a medical emergency. Or you arrive home to find it has been broken into. Bad things happen to good people and you need help! Now! Public safety – police and fire – is arguably the primary function of local government. How do they, and we, stack up against the norms and what can be done to increase our safety? In theory, one cannot ever have enough public safety protection but the reality is the opposite. Like everything else in life, there are practical (read budgetary) limits. Our Police and Fire budgets for fiscal 2020-2021 total 70 percent of the General Fund, which is funded primarily from property and sales taxes. Another 17 percent is devoted to recreation, the library and community development, with various administrative departments comprising the balance. In a cost-saving approach, Lincoln has a public safety chief, who oversees both the Police and Fire departments. Chief Doug Lee's background is in law enforcement; he came to Lincoln nearly four years ago as police chief after retiring from the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department. When the Lincoln-Rocklin shared-leadership agreement for fire services ended, the Lincoln City Council created the public safety chief position and, from all appearances, it's working just fine at this time. Police – looking at just the raw protective forces statistics, we're way behind the curve. According to 2016 FBI statistics, cities with populations between 25,000 and 50,000 residents have 1.7 sworn officers per 1,000 population, and there's not that much difference in ratios until you reach 500,000 in population. Lincoln reached its highest level of coverage in 2008 with 1.0 officers per thousand (equal to 43 officers). From there, it has been all downhill - blame the Great Recession. Today, we have 0.5 officers per thousand (equal to 23 officers). At any one time, we have four officers on duty (three patrol officers plus a field sergeant) protecting the entire city. With holidays, vacation, sick leave and court time reductions, we often only have three police officers available at any one time. Take one officer out to transport a prisoner to the county jail or on another call-for-service, for example, and there's little back-up for our officers. The Lincoln Police Department responds to about 20,000 calls for service each year and the officers initiate another 9,000 or so actions, i.e. traffic, business checks, etc. The greatest number of 9-1-1 calls are for larceny (theft), followed by assault and burglary. According to City Rating.Com, Lincoln's crime statistics are significantly lower than national crime rates, i.e. 64-percent lower than the national average. That's good news considering our protection levels, offset by the fact that we have limited resources to respond to incidents and no opportunities for proactive policing or special functions we had before the economic meltdown. Public Safety Chief Lee said: "We certainly need more police officers and staffing at the levels prescribed for new development (0.85 officers per thousand) would allow us to address traffic, narcotics and other issues more proactively." The 0.85 level would mean an additional 15 officers and would bring us closer to the staffing levels we were at a decade ago. Other good news is that Lincoln is essentially a new community without a pre-existing criminal undertow. Also working in our favor for policing is that currently 25 percent of our population is located in the Del Webb Sun City enclave for residents over 55. As someone who lives there, I can attest to the fact that we don't have many code 4-1-5 calls (primarily fighting or loud or unreasonable noise levels). This being said, they do require more medical responses from the Fire Department. Asked about his highest priority, Lee said "without question, it's adding two dispatcher positions for more workable coverage. Lincoln has a combined police-fire dispatch system and that, of course, is a 24/7 operation. Normal staffing is only one dispatcher per shift and with holidays, vacations and sick time allowances, there is zero slack…we have zero flexibility (and they answer about 14,000 9-1-1 calls each year); we really should have eight dispatchers for proper coverage." For his near-term goals, Lee sees recruiting and training new patrol officers as his biggest challenge. To sum up, we're currently under-protected regarding police staffing/dispatch and our ability to respond is certainly compromised. The good news is that at this time, our levels of crime are well below the national average. Can we use more sworn officers? Certainly. Can we afford them: See Part II of this series in two weeks. Note: I have received numerous requests for information about the city's current development projects, and the map and legend. It can be accessed on the city website at lincolnca.gov: City News column on the Home Page > Community Development Activity Map > click on the Interactive Map button > click on the "download" link. Richard Pearl is a Sun City Lincoln Hills resident for the last 12 years. He can be reached at richardpearl.LNM@gmail.com.