DEPARTMENT: City Manager’s Office
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Chief William McManus
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City Wide
SUBJECT: San Antonio Police Department FY 2021 Proposed Budget
SUMMARY: Presentation on the FY 2021 Proposed Budget for the San Antonio Police Department.
BACKGROUND:
The FY 2021 Proposed Budget for the San Antonio Police Department Budget was presented to the Mayor and City Council on August 12, 2020 at a scheduled budget worksession. This presentation followed the City Manager’s Presentation of the City’s FY 2021 Proposed Budget on August 6th to the Mayor and City Council.
At the request of the Chair of the Public Safety Committee, Staff will be providing a briefing of the Police Budget at the Public Safety Committee Meeting.
The table below reflects the budget allocation within the FY 2021 budget for the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD).
The FY 2021 Proposed Budget includes several enhancements to the department which are funded through redirecting existing resources. This funding is being used towards programs including domestic violence, community relations, and creating a statistics and reporting unit.
The FY 2021 Proposed Budget assigns one civilian vacancy and one uniform position in the Police Department to form a Community Liaison Office. The newly formed office will focus on developing relations between the San Antonio Police Department, community members, and organizations through targeted outreach and collaboration with various neighborhood organizations.
The Proposed Budget further redirects three civilian vacancies to form a Statistics and Reporting Unit, which will study and document data related to calls for service, community interactions, and various other performance related metrics. The positions will report to the Office of Innovation.
As part of the FY 2021 Proposed Budget, 20 community services specialists with the San Antonio Police Department will be moved to Metro Health to work in conjunction with the Violence Prevention Initiative. These positions will maintain their collaboration with Uniform Crisis Response Team uniform personnel in the Police Department but work more closely with the coordinated efforts of Metro Health on the social services elements of violence prevention.
The FY 2021 Proposed Budget reduces $3.4 million in overtime. In FY 2019, the department increased efforts to fill uniform vacancies by adding funding towards cadet applicant processing to increase cadet class sizes. This investment has reduced the need for officers to perform district fill overtime. Some of these savings will be redirected towards a required cash match for the FY 2021 Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Grant.
Included in the Proposed Budget is $1.6 million for a grant cash match to the Department of Justice for year one of a four-year grant to fund 25 police officers funded from Department savings in FY 2020 and from the reduction in overtime. The COPS Hiring Program (CHP) is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), and funds salary and benefits expenses over a three-year grant period. Part of the grant agreement is that the Department will retain officers hired under the grant for a minimum of 12 months after funding has ended. All 25 officers will be assigned to address incidents related to domestic violence throughout San Antonio.
RECOMMENDATION:
This item is for discussion of the FY 2021 Proposed Budget for the Police Department and is for briefing purposes only.