The Denver City Council probably will amend Mayor John Hickenlooper’s proposed 2006 budget Monday night to add more police officers, key council members said Thursday.
“I’m optimistic, and I’m continuing to talk to my colleagues,” said Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz, who has been leading the push to increase Hickenlooper’s hiring goals for the Police Department.
Faatz and colleague Marcia Johnson said support appeared to be coalescing around a plan to hire 19 officers more than the mayor is proposing. That would fall well short of her original proposal to bolster the mayor’s plan by 90 officers.
Hickenlooper budgeted $2.8 million to hire and train 137 officers next year. Once retirements and reductions in overtime are taken into account, the actual number of officers that would be added to the streets is about 22, bringing the authorized strength of the police force to 1,427.
Hickenlooper also has proposed moving another eight officers onto the streets by filling their current roles with civilians.
Council members are required to approve a budget Monday night – the last chance it has to amend the mayor’s budget proposal.
Johnson said discussions were underway to determine where to get the $600,000 that would be needed to hire and train the 19 additional officers. The Hickenlooper administration had urged the council to fund any additional police by cutting elsewhere in the safety budget.
“That’s not going to happen. We have a different point of view on that,” Johnson said.
Hickenlooper’s acting chief of staff, Cole Finegan, said the mayor’s office would not support the proposal.
“We presented a budget that’s fiscally responsible and we believe meets the needs of the city in all aspects,” he said.
The mayor’s budget also would spend $1.3 million for a new police records management system and an additional $1 million to train officers to use the system. Finegan said the increased productivity would translate into “an equivalent of 70 officers.”
Staff writer Christopher N. Osher can be reached at 303-820-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com.
