Guest View- John Musolf: "Officers On The Force"

Did you ever wonder why Oro Valley has 97 Police Officers? Why not have 70? Why not have 120?

Chief Sharp justifies the number of officers on the force by using a ratio of "Police to Population" of 2.5 per 1,000. Based on his numbers, Oro Valley would have 103 officers. So, I guess from his viewpoint, he's doing a simply great job of keeping it to 97. Why he's six positions short.

Not so, Chief.

The ratio method that you use is a bogus method. Your fellow Chiefs know that the ratio method should not be used. This, from the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP web site): “Defining patrol staffing allocation and deployment requirements is a complex endeavor which requires consideration of an extensive series of factors and a sizable body of reliable, current data”. In short, staffing should not be based on a police to population ratio.

Even if the "ratio method" of staffing were a valid method for determining the number of required Officers, the IACP states that, according to the Bureau of Justice Studies (BJS) (last study was 2003), the ratio BJS suggests for a town the size of Oro Valley is 1.8 officers per 1000; not 2.5 officers. This means based on the 1.8 ratio with a population of 41,000 the chief should have 74 sworn officers. The current FY 2011/2012 budget for the OVPD has 97 sworn officers. It looks like the Chief, using his own flawed methodology, has overstaffed the police force by 23 sworn officers.

For years Chief Sharp has used his faulty ratios from IACP to justify his sworn officers only. He has a total of 126 FTE for 2011 (29 are not sworn police officers) and 129 FTE for 2012 (32 are not sworn police officers). These extra people are all civilian overhead. With a hiring freeze still in effect how does he do it? For example, there are 13 FTE in the communications department that are all civilians. A large portion of them are 911 operators that could be incorporated into a regional center for all of Pima County instead of Oro Valley. Perish the thought that the Chief would recommend a regional center. He would lose part of his empire.

Isn't it time for the Chief to provide factual justification for determining the number of officers needed? Isn't it time to Chief Sharp to bring some creative thinking on how to properly staff his department?

John Musolf
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