Todd Hubler
A record number of homicides this year. A spike in weapon-related crimes. Officers burning out because of forced overtime. Ald. Paul Skidmore says the Madison Police Department is stretched thin and the city needs more boots on the ground.
“Madison is growing, so are the problems. There is a preponderance of evidence that we need more patrol officers and we need them now,” Skidmore says. “I’m hopeful we will get more officers on the street as soon as possible. It will make a difference.”
Mayor Paul Soglin earmarked $350,000 in his budget to hire more officers over two years, with funding contingent on getting a $1.87 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. The Common Council voted 14 to 6 on Nov. 13 to increase the city’s share to $750,000 in order to hire the officers all next year.
The police department was set to bring on 15 new patrol officers in 2018. They would have been hired in May for academy and field training and been ready for solo patrol in 2019. But a week after the Common Council approved the extra money, the Justice Department announced that Madison would not get a grant this year.
That means the council has to decide what to do with the money it budgeted for the officers, now that the grant funding has evaporated. It could use it to hire up to seven officers instead of 15. Or it could use the money for something else. Or it could return the money to taxpayers.
Whatever the council does, it will need 15 alders to agree. That could prove a tall order.
“Nothing is simple when it comes to the police,” Ald. Sheri Carter says. “But the easy thing is to say is that we need more patrol officers. The hard thing is to look at other ways of policing and other ways of engagement. I’d like to see all the options before saying whether I’ll support [funding new officers].”
Carter is not the only alder who is less than enthusiastic about adding police officers.
“I’d like to see that money go back into the general fund” says Ald. Rebecca Kemble, who voted against the extra funding on Nov. 13. “I’m not saying police aren’t important, they are. But the city has a lot of other important responsibilities that are not getting the same level of increases, year after year.”
Former Ald. Brenda Konkel says the police department has been more successful than other city agencies in securing resources, even in tough budget times.
“The police are very good at playing politics come budget time,” she says. “They have by far the largest budget of any department. They never get cut. And their budget increases at a much higher rate than other departments.”
Konkel says she doesn’t see the same urgency to increase other departments’ budgets. “As the city grows, we have more streets to plow, more garbage to pick up and more services needed on every level. The police seem to be able to make the case on why they need more and more, while other agencies are consistently told to get by with less.”
The police department currently has 486 commissioned officers and 176 civilian employees. The agency has grown faster than any other, adding more than 130 full-time positions since 1999.
Still, assistant police chief Victor Wahl says it is not enough.
“We just don’t have the officers we need. In the last nine years, we’ve been using a very data-driven process to look at our patrol staffing. That has consistently shown that we are not where we need to be in terms of staffing,” says Wahl, citing a 2016 report released by the police and city finance departments. “What the community expects of us is also considerably higher than what other communities expect of their police departments.”
Soglin says the council doesn’t need to decide what to do with the $750,000 until next year. He says he’s talking to Police Chief Mike Koval and other officials about whether some of that money should be set aside to match a federal grant application next year.
The mayor battled with the chief earlier this year over police staffing and budget levels. But Soglin has since changed his stance.
“In reading the daily [police] reports, it’s very clear we need more officers,” Soglin says. “I would think that if we come up with a solid recommendation, we should have the votes.”
And if 15 alders can’t agree? The $750,000 remains in the budget in limbo. Says Kemble: “We have taxed people for no reason at all.”
