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that was presented to the City Council .

 

LPPA PROPOSAL
The membership of the Lubbock Professional Police Association would like to explore the options available to the City of Lubbock and the Lubbock Police Department to increase our effective manpower for the betterment of our citizens’ safety and security. We believe that we can moderately increase our effective manpower without increasing the size of the Lubbock Police Department budget. We believe raising taxes is not an option in this economic or political environment. We respectfully endorse Chief Holton’s proposal to reduce authorized manpower by eliminating and divesting our unfilled positions’ salary allocation. The funds from those positions will be used to provide for an increase in the salary structure of the positions that remain. We believe this is the most effective, prudent, and fiscally responsible way to increase the Lubbock Police Department’s ability to compete with the top ten highest compensated departments in the State of Texas.

City Council Resolutions
The past city councils have had intentions to help the officers of the police department keep the city as reasonably secure as possible and provide for the officers’ safety as well. We appreciate the approval and passage of the following two resolutions.
City Council resolution #2006-R0332, the council resolved that as the 11th largest city in Texas, the council must present a competitive pay, compensation and benefit/retirement package that will attract a sufficient number of high quality applicants. In order to compete for these individuals the goal will be to place the Lubbock Police and Fire Departments within the top 10 police and fire departments in the State of Texas as far as pay, compensation, and benefits/retirement. This resolution was executed on July 10, 2006. The mean salary for the top ten, highest paid cities in Texas is $49,398 for a first year officer and $64,910 for a five year veteran officer.
City Council Resolution #2004-R0472 where the council resolved to provide for two officers per one thousand population within the city limits of Lubbock, TX. Two officers per thousand is also a FBI recommended staffing limit. This resolution was executed September 28, 2004, and was signed by Mayor Marc McDougal.
As of January 5, 2009, the city population stands at 218,000 and our sworn officers number 362, eight of which have just begun field training and cannot yet serve on their own. These numbers put the ratio of officers per 1000 citizens at 1.6. To meet the two per thousand resolution, the LPD is in need of 74 additional officers. The LPD staffing, where this resolution is concerned, is 20% below this resolution’s requirement of 436 officers. 

 

FACTORS IMPEDING LPD RECRUITING AND STAFFING LEVELS
The current issues facing our manpower problem is twofold. Our data show that we are falling behind in our ability to recruit qualified new hires as compared to other departments. Secondly, our ability to maintain our competitiveness with those departments as officers grow in years of experience falls behind within the first five years and continues to fall behind as the years progress. This is just the economic explanation for veteran officers leaving for such agencies as the FBI, US Marshals, and better paying local agencies.  Below is a chart illustrating the results of the LPD recruiting effort. The Bars show the number of applicants versus the number of applicants that tested, those that were hired and finally the number that graduated the LPD Academy and made it to the streets.



The cost of recruiting each successful graduate also needs to be considered.
Fiscal year 2005-2006, LPD spent $7500. We graduated a total of 64 officers from the academy for a total recruiting cost of $117 per candidate.
Fiscal 2006-2007 LPD spent $61605 and we have graduated a total of 21 officers for a total expenditure of $2934 per successful graduate from the LPD Academy to the streets.
Fiscal 2007-2008 LPD spent $76,638 and we have graduated a total of 37 officers for a total expenditure of $2071 per successful graduate from the LPD Academy to the streets.

 LPD recruiting staff put forth a tremendous effort to find and draw the interest of the qualified applicants that we must have. As the above graph illustrates, the total number of applicants did go up but they failed to show up for the test, which indicates a lack of commitment and true desire to join the police department in Lubbock. The ratio of those qualified and determined to complete the academy and actually become peace officers is equally disappointing for the amount of money spent recruiting those individuals.  The resulting data show that we are not attracting the “qualified” applicants that can make it through the hiring process to become police officers. LPPA has two theories to explain this phenomenon.

Qualified individuals may not want to come to Lubbock.
Our recruiting efforts are broad. We rely heavily on the internet and travel to areas around our region, the state and target military bases for military personnel leaving and rejoining civilian life. While our recruiters are getting the word out and promoting Lubbock and our department, the people applying do not test to become a Lubbock Police Officer. Furthermore, of those that did test, the number of applicants that were actually hired was even more disappointing.  It appears that qualified applicants do not want to come to Lubbock, Texas. This could be a result of a variety of factors including lack of family relationships, environmental concerns, distance, lack of entertainment venues and activities available in other municipalities such as the Metroplex, Houston, Austin, and the San Antonio areas.
Cost of living does not appear to give Lubbock any significant advantages within the state.
Benefits such as fleet car have become more the norm with most departments than it is the exception.
 LPD efforts to recruit here in Lubbock have yielded minimal results.
Visual ads such as the LPD hiring signs remain out along major thoroughfares almost year round, LPD decals on Citibus travel the city, TV ads, etc. have had little impact on recruitment success. Those individuals who already live here and know what to expect of the community are not being persuaded by these advertisements to join the LPD.
Lubbock needs to increase compensation to attract qualified candidates.
The members of LPPA know that Lubbock is a great place to live and work. We feel confident that those who are qualified and interested in working for LPD who are here already have heard our pleas to come apply and join us but there are not enough interested individuals in our region who can successfully graduate from the academy. Therefore, we must go outside of our region and we must be competitive with other bigger departments. Lubbock compensation levels don’t compete with agencies in the Metroplex, Houston, Austin and San Antonio areas when other variables such as those listed above are included in the equation.  Lubbock must offer a better pay and benefits package to lure the qualified applicant away from family, friends, bigger venues, closer beaches and numerous other factors that are important to the qualified individual.
Additionally, LPD must then remain competitive to keep those officers once we get them here and get them trained. As the PolicePay.net study indicates, the pay scale of Lubbock is not competitive with the comparative departments after the first few years of service. 

The executive board the of the Lubbock Professional Police Association is concerned about the current state of the LPD staffing levels and the current economic and social climate in which we all live. Our biggest concern is the ability of the Lubbock Police Department to provide a safe and secure city for our citizens to live and work. Our nation’s economic instability is alarming, yet the City of Lubbock has so far been immune to many of the unfortunate consequences of fiscal irresponsibility. The city council has annexed additional property into the city limits. The Lubbock Economic Development Alliance has achieved great success in bringing new businesses into our city. Texas Tech University has ambitious recruitment goals to reach a total student body level of 40,000 by 2012. Growth is everywhere, yet the number of officers to police these new homes, businesses, and additional population relative to the growth rate has remained stagnant or decreased over the last few years. The classes of 1987, 1988 and 1989, have since reached their 20th year of service and are now eligible to retire. Our current total of sworn officers, including those in the field training officer program total 362. The total number of officers eligible to retire is 110 (One hundred ten) or approximately 30% of the entire police department.
The next five to ten years will be extremely challenging for the remaining officers of this department if successful recruitment efforts are not realized. There is an event on the horizon that is very similar to the large retirements that occurred in the mid 1990’s. The mid to late 1990’s were an extremely difficult time to be a Lubbock Police Officer. Officers sustained injuries resulting from handling calls without backup. Citizens were irate with the length of response time to dispatch an officer to a scene. As calls for service were stacking up, units were called from Southwest Lubbock and dispatched to East Lubbock and units in North Lubbock were taking calls in South Lubbock.
The employment situation with LPD is becoming precarious. The competition for officers as cited above has caused other departments to become far more aggressive in their recruiting tactics than in the past. In August of 2008, the Round Rock, Texas Police Department sent recruitment letters specifically addressed to our senior female officers. Their compensation package is extremely impressive, especially when one can retire from here, begin collecting on their TMRS annuity and then go to work for Round Rock for comparable compensation, which also includes a fleet car. As of yet, none have accepted but the opportunity is still there. Additionally, the cost of living in Round Rock area is similar to Lubbock. The Lubbock Police Department is 70 officers short of the 436 officers that we should have according to Resolution #2004-R0472 or 56 short of our current authorized strength of 422. The last four LPD academy classes have had added 48 officers over the last two years and we are still too few. Fortunately, as of 2009, we only anticipate three retirements at the end of January 2009. We have some time but we must soon formulate a plan that is within acceptable limits of the City of Lubbock budget constraints and yet, will encourage and entice qualified applicants to come to Lubbock and stay employed with the Lubbock Police Department.
Solutions to the problem
The members of LPPA recognize the fiscal constraints within which the City must operate. We recognize that safety, security, and the rate of crime are also factors that influence businesses and people to relocate to a particular area or city. We believe that we can have the best of both worlds and still support each other in the most amicable way possible. We would like to propose a possible solution.

Increase the total budget of the Lubbock Police Department
The current budget of the Lubbock Police Department is approximately $48 million. The majority of the budget is allocated to salaries and benefits. The budget currently accounts for a total of 422 officers as is our authorized strength. However, we only employ a total of 362, leaving 60 unfilled positions. These funds allocated for these unfilled positions were returned to the City General Fund for a total of $1.6 million at the end of Fiscal 2007-2008. We can increase our budget at the same compensation levels for a total of 436 officers and continue with the same recruiting results and return even more money to the City at the end of the fiscal year. This will create an even greater amount from the police budget to be returned to the General Fund, which is futile as it does not assist our existing officers with the extra help we need. 
Decrease the authorized strength to increase competitive compensation
We would like to propose another alternative. LPPA would like to propose keeping the Lubbock Police Department budget allocation the same. No increase in dollars budgeted to the police department from the city. We appreciate the 2 per thousand resolution but as the data show, it is not possible to achieve the goal of this resolution under the current compensation levels. LPPA endorses a proposal to reduce the authorized strength to 390 officers.  The compensation and benefits allocated to those 32 open, unfilled positions would be applied to a significant raise in pay and benefits to the remaining 390 positions. Each entry level officer’s base salary is $41,221. The total of the 32 forfeited positions would yield $1.3 million to be reallocated to the remaining 390 positions. This proposal will not impact the amount of money allocated to the police department from the City and it enables our department to raise our compensation and benefits package to levels that are more competitive with other, higher paying cities in our state and region. Once all positions are filled, we can then explore the possibility of increasing the authorized strength of the department as the city continues to grow. This is an opportunity for the Lubbock Police Department to be successful in our efforts to fill out ranks without overburdening the City resources or cannibalizing other departments to fund the police department. This proposal is in essence, financing our own growth. We acknowledge and thank the council under the leadership of Mayor McDougal for making possible Resolution #2004-R0472, however, it is clear to our members that the City cannot afford to allocate such funds as is sufficient to provide for a competitive compensation package with that number of officers.
The members of LPPA would like to appeal to the council to work with us to get our staffing requirements where they provide the citizens of Lubbock with the safety and security that they deserve. Lastly, we appeal to the council to approve of our solutions to provide the police department with sufficient staffing so that the officers on the street can also have a level of safety and security in carrying out our duties with sufficient numbers that we know our city council cares as much about the men and women in blue.