The Ferguson Police Department does not have as many police officers as it’s supposed to have, nor as many as the mayor has claimed – and a dispatcher has resigned, saying the department cannot do its job and is putting police and citizens in danger.
“Mistakes are going to happen, and someone is going to get hurt, whether a citizen or officer,” said Shannon Dandridge, who resigned on August 10.
“I don’t feel at this point we can properly staff the dispatch center to keep the community and officers safe. Something needs to be done immediately.”
Dandridge spoke tearfully at a turbulent August 23 meeting of the Ferguson City Council.
Dandridge said budget cuts have decimated staff, reducing her office from seven full-time dispatchers and 10 part-time dispatchers to five full-time dispatchers and an “unlimited” amount of part-timers.
The number of officers on the street also is down. When the Department of Justice investigation in Ferguson began in 2014, there were 54 officers on the force. By May 2015, that number was down to 43, a Ferguson spokesman told The American. They were down to 41 officers as of mid-July, a spokesman told The Huffington Post, which was the most recent tally of officers the city could provide.
Dandridge said the number is actually more like 36 officers at this point – and accused Mayor James Knowles of lying to the media about having 44 officers.
Knowles did not deny that he gave an inaccurate number of officers, but he also did not explain why he gave the wrong number. He told people at the meeting that although the city is authorized to have 44 officers, they did not, in fact, have 44 at the time he announced it.
The city hired a consultant to complete a staffing study of the department and make the necessary recommendations on how many people should work in each department. The consultant recommended that the city have 52 officers on the force, including a minimum of 11 full-time and four part-time dispatchers, to comply with the consent decree, according to Dandridge, who said she spent approximately 120 hours working with the consultant.
Ferguson official said the city is facing budgetary and hiring problems across the police force, in the wake of mandated reforms in police and municipal court practices, due to an inability to fill the gap in revenue the city used to bring in from traffic tickets and municipal fines.
Ferguson was already dealing with a $2.9 million deficit, and now it can no longer rely on collecting excessive municipal fees from its citizens – which brought in $2.5 million in revenue for the city in 2013 – under the agreement with the DOJ. The city is also on the hook for a monitor, to make sure officials are implementing changes consistent with the DOJ agreement, which is going to cost up to $350,000 per year.
The city will also likely face significant legal costs in connection with several ongoing lawsuits (though it is possible that those costs will be covered by insurance). Meanwhile, the city has spent tens of thousands of dollars on prosecuting protesters.
City officials have tried to fill the gap with tax increases. Voters approved a sales tax increase in April, which is expected to bring in $800,000 per year – but they rejected a property tax increase. Voters also approved an increase in business taxes earlier this month, though that is only expected to bring in another $700,000 annually.
The Ferguson Police Department faces a double bind, in that the DOJ consent decree mandates expanded training for police. Police Chief Delrish Moss acknowledged this in an op-ed.
“The responsibilities of the department to keep the public safe have greatly expanded,” wrote Moss. “The heavy workload comes amid budgetary constraints and high levels of attrition leaving fewer police officers on our streets.”
Though Moss told The American the extra police training will make Ferguson safer, the reality is that it’s a “heavy workload” that a police officer can avoid by working for any other department not undergoing a DOJ consent decree.
City Manager Carl Seawood admitted at the council meeting that hiring additional staff has been an issue, given the scrutiny Ferguson is under.
“We want to make sure we are hiring the right people, so our process is more tedious,” Seawood said. “We’re making sure that the people who are hired are bringing not just the skillset, but the right personality for our community.”
Moss, who was hired in May, echoed Seawood.
“I understand the need to hire police officers – we are short,” Moss said. “I understand the need to hire dispatchers – we are short. But what keeps police chiefs up at night is the fact that you hired the wrong person.”
