Public Safety Concerns:

Dear Mayor O’Neal and Members of the City Council,

We are writing to you out of concern for the rising vacancy rates in the Police Department. At the City Council meeting on June 5, we heard both police officers and fire personnel speak to the issues facing their departments. We were shocked to learn that out of a total authorized strength of 540 officers, the Durham Police Department currently has 117 true and 148 operational vacancies for sworn officers. Operational vacancies include personnel that are not yet released from training.  That means that the Department has 27 percent of the operational positions not filled.  We also learned that the Department is losing an average of 4.8 officers per month or 58 per year.  The past several police academies graduated less than 10 officers per class, and with only two academies per year, that is approximately 20 newly trained officers. If you count the 4 lateral officers hired in the last year, that is a total of 24.  For perspective, in March of 2016 (4th quarter annual report), the department had 29 operational vacancies. So currently, the city is losing officers faster than can be replaced. As former Deputy Police Chiefs who were assigned to operations, the numbers are staggering and not sustainable for the Police Department to provide services to the community.

We spoke with officers Monday night and were told that 5 resigned last week after the City Manager’s proposed raise of 2 percent. Although the City Manager stated in the news that sworn personnel are receiving a 7 percent raise, that was a misleading announcement as she included the 5 percent merit increase that each sworn officer is supposed to receive each year until top pay is reached. The officers waited to find out whether a serious raise would be offered, and when it was not, they went to other departments that paid significantly more. The City Manager told the news this week that the city would be conducting another classification and compensation study for employees. Some of the surrounding departments to which our officers have gone have increased their pay significantly in the past few years. Unlike in the past, the new city pay study must include the relevant police departments that are benefiting from our loss. 

We also learned that staffing levels in Uniform Patrol are at critical levels. The average patrol shift is at 40 percent staffing and increases to 60 percent with supplemental or overtime officers. It should be noted that supplemental officers are not working the entire shift.  This is a serious safety concern for both officers in the street and the community. Without sufficient officers, response times increase, necessary back-up is delayed, and officers must focus solely on priority calls. This prevents officers from adequately responding to traffic issues and other quality of life concerns of the community. Other divisions such as investigations are also lacking personnel, which affects clearance rates and how the Police Department delivers services.

One of the primary responsibilities of city government is to provide for the safety of its citizens and, in our opinion, Durham is failing. Over the past number years, the city has not properly ensured that police salaries have kept pace with other surrounding agencies. We are losing quality officers that we train to surrounding agencies where the pay is higher, and the workload less. This should be very concerning to all of you, and we hope that you treat it with the urgency it requires.

Respectfully,

Steve Mihaich, Retired Deputy Police Chief

Larry Smith, Retired Interim Police Chief

Rick Pendergrass, Retired Deputy Police Chief