Police cost analysis
-
Upload
jonah-contreras -
Category
Documents
-
view
26 -
download
2
description
Transcript of Police cost analysis
Police cost analysis
Steve Yurgartis
Presented to the Potsdam Village Board of Trustees
July, 2010
Overview of police department costPrepared by Steve Yurgartis, July 2010
Data from 2009 budget, actual amount spent
Direct police department costs $1,240,057Retirement $147,508Soc. Security $78,569Work comp $13,592Health/dental/pharm $243,000Post employment benefits $297,214Total $2,019,940
Total general fund expenditure $5,427,924
Fraction of police cost to general fund 37%
Conclusion
If the board is serious about controlling the tax rate, it is unavoidable that we must consider police force costs.
Benchmarking our police dept.
• Affect of student population• Per capita cost• Force size• Pay scale
Demographic background information
• We are a “college town” and this has a large effect on our police force costs
• Our census population is 9425• However, the census counts some students,
but not all students• Need an estimate of actual full time village
residents• This was done using census age group data
Estimated population of Village of Potsdam corrected for 4851overcounting of college students
Student population, Clarkson 3045Student population, SUNY Potsdam 4332
Estimated total population of Village of Potsdam 12228
Estimated fraction of students in Village population 60.3%
Our population picture…
Students…
• Are a significant “consumer” of our police services
• Are a source of additional police cost for property tax payers
Estimate college cost to police servicepaid for by property taxes Prepared by Steve Yurgartis, July 2010
Data from 2009 budget, actual amount spent
Direct police department costs $1,240,057Retirement $147,508Soc. Security $78,569Work comp $13,592Health/dental/pharm $243,000Post employment benefits $297,214Total $2,019,940
Chief Kaplan estimateof police service directly attributed to students 50%
Cost to general fund of providing police service to colleges $1,009,970
Fraction of general fund raised in property taxes 52%
Estimated property tax contribution
in general fund to college police service $528,214
Student population, Clarkson 3045Student population, SUNY Potsdam 4332
Cost per student $72
Current per capita cost of our police force
Examples from around NYSCollected by Steve Yurgartis, 11/28/09
Year Village Population Police budget Per capita Rank2008Springville 4252 $472,091 $111 12009Hamburg 10116 $1,349,059 $133 22008Trumansburg 1581 $215,778 $136 32009Cambridge 1925 $263,899 $137 42009Seneca Falls 6861 $1,011,318 $147 52009Brockport 8103 $1,208,939 $149 62008Cooperstown 2032 $354,207 $174 72009Cornwall on Hudson 3058 $569,000 $186 82009Saranac Lake 5041 $1,372,734 $272 92009Ossining 24010 $7,103,387 $296 102009Malverne 8934 $3,285,249 $368 112009East Aurora 6673 $2,615,918 $392 122009Lynbrook 19911 $8,130,198 $408 13
Average $224
2009Potsdam, census 9425 $1,722,726 $183 Potsdam, Full time 4851 $1,722,726 $355
Potsdam, FT+students 12228 $1,722,726 $141
FT + Clarkson 7896 $1,722,726 $218
*Potsdam police budget does not include OPEB
Force size comparison
Potsdam village police force size compared to national data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics
Police force size comparisonPrepared by Steve Yurgartis, 5/13/10
Data, nation-wide* Average number of FT employees Population Total Sworn Civilian 1250 4 3 1 6250 14 12 3 17500 39 31 8 37500 80 63 18 75000 154 119 36 175000 379 284 95*Bureau of Justice Statistics, Local Police Departments, 2003
Model, Potsdam* Average number of FT employees Population Total Sworn CivilianFull time only 4851 10 8 2FT + Clarkson 7896 17 13 4
FT + All students 12228 26 20 6
FT + Half students 8540 18 14 4*Estimated force size to operate Potsdam PD if they were at the national average.
Actual, Potsdam*
Number of FT employees Total Sworn Civilian
18 14 4*May 2008
Conclusion
• The relative size and cost of our force depends on how we define the size of our clientele
• SUNY Potsdam has a full police force• Clarkson has a safety patrol, but no police
powers• Most students reside on campus• The question remains: how do we define the
size of our clientele?
Police salary comparisonPrepared by Steve Yurgartis, 11/27/09
Salary data from Bureau of Justice Statistics, Local Police Departments, 2003For departments serving populations in the range 2500-9999.
Entry officer Sergeant/equiv. Chief
Min Avg Max Min Avg Max Min Avg Max
National data 2003 $29,000 $32,600 $36,200 $37,400 $40,500 $43,600 $48,900 $52,550 $56,200
Projected national data 2007* $32,640 $36,692 $40,743 $42,094 $45,583 $49,072 $55,037 $59,145 $63,254
Potsdam actual 2007 $37,179 $53,529 $70,798
percent difference 1.3% 17.4% 19.7%
*Projected based on 3% annual raises
End of benchmarking
Now let’s look at the future
Cost of post employment benefits
of retired village police officers
Post employment benefits
• Post employment benefits are the benefits (primarily health insurance) that the village must continue paying a person after they retire.
• In short, this is money we are paying to people who no longer work here.
• It is a contractual obligation; there is no way to reduce this cost once it is encumbered.
• It is a recurring annual expense, and is growing.
Current post employment benefit costs for retired Potsdam Village police staff.
Year ending Amount
2007 $234,888
2008 $244,237
2009 $258,758
2010 $297,214
2011 $307,265
Comparison of post employment costs
Post employment cost (2010) $307,265
Fire department $301,678 102% Same
Snow removal $235,273 131% More
Community development $141,009 218% Double
Recreation $193,618 159% One and a half
Street maintenance $360,175 85% About the same
Police department salary $1,112,352 28% About 1/4 of salary cost
Some comparisons to put this cost in context…
The trend… 7% per year on average,Likely to increase
Cost projection
Year Cost
2011 $307,265
2012 $328,774
2013 $351,788
2014 $376,413
2015 $402,762
2016 $430,955
2017 $461,122
2018 $493,400
2019 $527,938
2020 $564,894
2021 $604,437
Estimate of cost to hire a new police officer
•Three scenarios are presented (high, middle, low)•All numbers in net present value
Police officer cost model
Steve Yurgartis 7/9/10
Age at hire 25
Age at retirement 45 Sum of net present value $13,521,815
Age at officer death 85 Post employment net present value $11,428,993
Ratio of post employment to total value 85%
Inflation rate 3.0%
Net Salary Health Social Pension Retirement AARPpresent insurance security health value insurance
$1,070,743 $792,405 $79,770 $149,904 $8,412,179 $3,016,813
Annual rate of Service years To age 65 To deathincrease ----> 3.5% 14.0% 0.0% 0.0% 10.0% 8.0%
High estimate
Police officer cost model
Steve Yurgartis 7/9/10
Age at hire 25
Age at retirement 50 Sum of net present value $7,296,002
Age at officer death 80 Post employment net present value $4,870,994
Ratio of post employment to total value 67%
Inflation rate 3.0%
Net Salary Health Social Pension Retirement AARPpresent insurance security health value insurance
$1,349,034 $786,606 $100,503 $188,865 $4,057,348 $813,645
Annual rate of Service years To age 65 To deathincrease ----> 3.5% 10.0% 0.0% 0.0% 8.0% 6.0%
Middle estimate
Police officer cost model
Steve Yurgartis 7/9/10
Age at hire 25
Age at retirement 55 Sum of net present value $5,637,241
Age at officer death 80 Post employment net present value $2,674,028
Ratio of post employment to total value 47%
Inflation rate 3.0%
Net Salary Health Social Pension Retirement AARPpresent insurance security health value insurance
$1,634,144 $978,545 $121,744 $228,780 $2,347,347 $326,681
Annual rate of Service years To age 65 To deathincrease ----> 3.5% 9.0% 0.0% 0.0% 7.0% 4.0%
Low estimate
Conclusions
1. Hiring an officer encumbers a very large expense on the village
2. Most of the cost occurs after the officer retires (about ½ even in the best case estimate)
3. By hiring an officer, the board places a large cost on future generations of village residents, who will be paying the officer without the benefit of the officer’s services
Alternatives?
• Public safety is vital to the village.• Are there ways to enhance safety without
encumbering large future costs?
Some examples of alternatives we could consider are:
• Strategic placement of security cameras• Better public education (particularly of students and
businesses that sell alcohol)• Increasing fines to discourage bad behavior• A neighborhood watch program• Increasing cooperation with other policing agencies• Other?
Temptation…
As a board, I believe we face a classic temptation for politicians:
The temptation to make a short term decision that will please our constituents, while passing the long term cost on to future generations.
I feel strongly we should resist this temptation, and that we should make the necessary hard decisions.
My recommendation
• Since the cost of hiring officers is so high, particularly in encumbering future residents to pay for services they will not receive…
• Since the timing is right (vacancies by attrition)…
• Since there are alternatives we could try…• Since we are struggling to contain the village
tax rate to preserve the future of the village…
My recommendation
• I recommend a one year moratorium on the hiring of new police officers,
• Experimenting with alternative public safety strategies,
• And based on this experience, re-evaluating the need for more officers after one year.
Some will say: “Yes, it is expensive, but we need these police officers.”
I hope the reasoning does not stop there, because it fails to address the questions of
How are we going to pay for them? Should we continue to make expensive
promises that we expect future residents to pay for?
Some will say: “We have managed to pay for the size of our present force, and we will figure out how to continue to do so.”
Unfortunately I do not think this approach recognizes that we are on a path with rapidly rising costs, as I have shown.
It does not recognize that only a few of our promises have yet come due, and many more are pending.
In short, I do not think we are on a sustainable path.
Difficult recommendation
• I recognize that this recommendation will cause difficulties for the police department.
• I would ask for their patience, cooperation, and good will, as they have shown in the past.
Public safety needs• I too feel public safety is vital to the village.• I am proud of our police department and the work they do.• People will argue, correctly, that we need a sufficient number
of police officers to ensure adequate public safety.• However, I believe we must balance present needs against
future costs.• I believe now is the time to experiment with a small shift in
that balance by having a hiring moratorium for one year.• I urge my colleagues on the board to join me in this
experiment
Thank you
Questions?