Mayor John Hickenlooper on Thursday squared off with City Council members Jeanne Faatz and Rick Garcia over whether his proposed budget puts enough police officers on the streets.
During a budget hearing on safety issues, Hickenlooper defended his plan to increase the authorized strength of the police force by 20 officers. He said a push by Faatz and Garcia for more aggressive hiring would stretch resources for other city services.
“A lot of the investments we will be making will have a material affect on safety,” Hickenlooper said.
He said he would like to hire even more officers, but “given the uncertainty of the economy, we’re in a very tough spot.”
Hickenlooper’s proposed 2006 budget earmarks $2.8 million to hire and train 135 new officers in 2006. But Police Chief Gerry Whitman said with projected vacancies due to retirements and a reduction in overtime, that would translate to about 20 new officers on the streets.
Still, Whitman said the budget increase will allow the department to be more tactical and have rested officers on the streets for the first time since 2002. By the end of the year, the department will be about 100 officers short of its authorized strength of 1,405. The police department has been plugging that hole with overtime, costing $1.48 million through Sept. 15 of this year.
Whitman says he expects he’ll have about 1,414 officers by November 2006, and 1,436 by February 2007.
Faatz is pushing for many more officers. She said that next year, she would like to see the city have 1,492 officers, the amount it had in 2002. She also would like an additional 52 officers in 2007 and 52 more in 2008.
Faatz proposes using money that would go into the city’s vehicle replacement fund to finance the additional hiring. Hickenlooper already is using about $8 million from the vehicle replacement fund on public safety issues and hopes to start replacing that money if voters this November allow the city to keep about $5 million in sales tax revenue collected in excess of state limits.
Faatz said she would rather give the voters the option of using that money on hiring additional police.
Garcia said he would like to add 60 officers next year.
“We keep hearing we need more officers,” Garcia said.
Staff writer Christopher N. Osher can be reached at 303-820-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com.
