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Reorganizing Rochester's police department improved response time and reduced overtime costs: That's the finding of a new study by the Center for Governmental Research, a draft of which was obtained by City Newspaper.
The reorganization was carried out by former Police Chief Bob Duffy, and it has become an issue in the Democratic primary campaign for mayor. Two of Duffy's Democratic opponents, City Council members Wade Norwood and Tim Mains, have criticized the reorganization. Residents, they say, are complaining that response time is longer and that they have lost the personal contact with police officers that they had under the old structure.
Until June 2004, the police department was organized in seven sections. But officers in high-crime areas had far more calls for service than those in low-crime areas. That resulted in lengthy response delays when officers were tied up on other calls. Those delays, says the CGR report, were one of the most serious issues facing the police department.
In addition, the department was experiencing large overtime costs, due to staffing shortages in the high-need areas. Faced with increasing budget constraints, police department officials asked CGR to determine whether a different patrol structure could improve service.
For a study released in March 2003, CGR considered three different options for reorganization: compressing the seven sections into five, four, and two sections. CGR's conclusion: Two sections would provide "the greatest flexibility to best match resources with demand."
"Moving to this model," said the 2003 report, "will clearly allow the RPD to provide faster response to calls for service during periods of peak demand."
CGR predicted that under the new structure, response time would drop and work load would be more evenly borne by officers and sections.
The reorganization was implemented in June 2004. In the spring of 2005, the police department asked CGR to assess its effects, based on about six months of data. Here's what the new study found:
What the study didn't measure: