It costs more than $4,200 to outfit an Emporia police officer. And more than $48,000 to buy and equip a police car. And more than $4.1 million to run the department.
Those figures and more started the law-enforcement consolidation task force on its way Thursday afternoon. The seven-member group is studying whether to merge the police and sheriff’s departments in Lyon County.
Mike Lopez, Emporia’s interim police chief, laid out what the department does and how much it costs to do it. Among other things, in 2006, police officers drove more than 300,000 miles, responded to nearly 26,000 calls and made 2,431 arrests, three-quarters of those for misdemeanors or drunk-driving.
Task force member Dale Davis praised Lopez for the level of detail in his presentation.
“Do you think we can get something like that for the sheriff’s office?” he asked county counselor Mike Halleran, an adviser to the task force. “There’s a lot of detail here, and for as long as I was on the city commission, there’s a lot going on in the police department that I didn’t know about.”
“We will try and arrange that presentation for the next meeting,” Halleran said.
The Emporia Police Department had a $4.1 million budget in 2006 but that’s projected to go up this year to nearly $4.3 million. About 85 percent of its expenses are personnel-related.
At full strength, the police department has 47 commissioned officers, although two patrol officers and the chief’s position are vacant at this time. Those officers average $20.67 an hour in pay, ranging from $15.03 for the lowest paid beat cop to $32.74 for Lopez.
In addition to that, the department has 13 people in the dispatch center (two of those jobs are unfilled), five people assigned to the animal shelter or animal control, and 11 other employees in jobs that vary from lab technicians to school crossing guards.
And no those figures for equipping a police officer and police car are not typos. A patrol officer’s gear ranges from a $1,200 walkie-talkie down to a $5 whistle and chain. As for the car, only about $19,500 goes for the vehicle itself — the remaining $28,513 goes for a computer, radar, flashing lights and a lot more besides.
The task force also looked over a version of the statute that allowed Riley County to combine its police agencies in the 1970s. Among other things, that statute called for:
F A seven-member board that would hire the law-enforcement director and oversee the department. The board would consist of a county commissioner, a county resident, a commissioner and two residents from the largest city in the county, the county attorney, and a mayor or council member from the next-largest city.
F The abolition of the sheriff and police chief offices, to be replaced by the director.
F Retirement benefits to be handled by the police plan, which was more generous than the one used by the sheriff’s department.
F No more than a 10 percent budget increase to be allowed each year.
F The first year’s tax funding to come 80 percent from the largest city and 20 percent from the county. After that, the city and county would decide the proportion by joint resolution.
That last provision surprised task force member Julie Johnson, who is also an Emporia city commissioner.
“That wasn’t how I was envisioning it at all,” she said.
Just as it was then, insurance is still likely to be an expensive issue. County controller Dan Slater estimated that it would cost $1.2 million for sheriff’s officers to upgrade to the retirement system used by Emporia police.
“I don’t know how Riley County dealt with it,” Halleran said. “If this happens, we’re going to have to deal with it.”
“Knowing the number of people who are retiring or coming close would be important, too,” noted task force member Paul Cassity, the mayor of Hartford.
“That’ll be a big issue with the police department,” Lt. John Koelsch of the Emporia police told Cassity. “In the next five years or so, a lot of folks my age are going to be at 32 years. There’s going to be a large turnover like we haven’t seen in about 15 years.”
Davis suggested that the group ask a cost accountant to help crunch the figures for both law-enforcement agencies and see where money might be saved in a merger.
“If you’re going to do something like this, you have to produce something the citizens will believe in,” Davis said. “If this isn’t credible, people will pick the plan to death.”
The task force will also ask the city and county commissions to add Gary Watts to the group, to increase its rural representation. Watts lives in the unincorporated county, about eight miles southwest of Emporia.
The other non-Emporia members of the task force are Cassity and Phil Winter. Winter lives in northern Lyon County.
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midnight_rider (anonymous) says...
How can you compare Lyon county to Riley county. It is like comparing apples and oranges. The two have nothing in common.
It is not the fault of the rest of Lyon county that the city of Emporia is in trouble. Leave the rest of the county alone. Let the new city manager and the city commissioners fix Emporia. Remember it was Steve Commons and the city commissioners that put Emporia in the hole to begin with. Why should Emporia be allowed to pull the rest of the county down with them?
March 29, 2007 at 9:25 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
spectator (anonymous) says...
Combining the 2 agencies will be very expensive, a fact brought out in a Gazette article. If you want officers/deputies or whatever they will be called to be standardized in appearance, you're talking new uniforms, leather, belts, holsters, new badges, etc What about sidearms? Do officers/deputies presently carry the same handguns? No? Another hefty chunk of change to bring that into line. THEN you'll begin to standardize the patrol cars. Do you remember another Gazette article mentioning that if money was the only reason for combining the police and sheriffs' office, then that was the wrong reason to do it? The statement "Those officers average $20.67 an hour in pay" is questionable at the least. I doubt the "average" beat cop makes $20.67. Does this "average" include 2 deputy chiefs, 4 lieutenants and 3 sergeants, all supervisory positions? These 9 people have supervisory positions and don't necessarily "patrol." $1.2 million for sheriff’s officers to upgrade to the retirement system used by Emporia police? Where is THAT money coming from? The City claims to be in dire straits (thanks to some poor decisions that went on for years) so probably no money there. The City's problems CAN be fixed but it's going to take a long time to do it. Combining the two law enforcement agencies is not the solution.
March 30, 2007 at 4:42 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jmb232 (anonymous) says...
The most important fact about a consolidated law enforcement agency for the entre county is that the right for the public to elect the Sheriff is taken away. A director is appointed by a board.
The city officers know their towns and the county officers know their areas and they both do a fine job. It is like trying to mix apples and oranges to combine their duties.
There is a reason only one county out of 105 is consolidated.
April 17, 2008 at 8:45 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )