By Tonia Moxley
The Roanoke (Va.) Times
April 24, 2008
Summary: Town council approved four new officers and a dispatcher, but a study shows the town needs 11 new officers and four dispatchers.
BLACKSBURG — When Montgomery County sheriff’s Cpl. Eric Sutphin was killed by a fugitive on the Huckleberry Trail in 2006, there was one dispatcher on duty in the Blacksburg Police Department communications center.
On April 16, 2007, when Blacksburg police, fire and rescue departments were responding to the Virginia Tech campus and the scene of the worst school shooting in U.S. history, one dispatcher again was on duty.
This in an office that last year fielded 21,568 calls for service on 10 emergency services radio frequencies and 20 phone lines, including 911 lines.
Ideally, Blacksburg Chief Kim Crannis said, at least two dispatchers would staff that center 24 hours a day. But minimal coverage in this office has become more common as the department’s staffing lags behind the population it serves. The shortages are not limited to dispatchers, however.
As state and local law enforcement funding tightens and recruitment of officers becomes more difficult, Blacksburg police struggle to deal with rising rates of drug crime and violence that follow with the rapid urbanization of Virginia’s largest town.
Similar funding issues exist across Virginia, according to Dana Schrad of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police. This year state funding for local police forces was cut by 5 percent, while the budget for the Virginia State Police was reduced by 9 percent.
As cuts deepen and state police are less able to back up local departments, law enforcement agencies across the state will fall further behind, Schrad said.
Blacksburg’s 30-plus road officers and investigators have worked an average of 4,440 overtime hours per year since 2000 to fill gaps, according to department records. During last week’s April 16 anniversary, every officer worked 12-hour shifts, Crannis said. Some were on duty for eight or more days without a break. Vacations had to be canceled.
Meanwhile, drug and weapons seizures are up, as are the rates of assaults and other violent crimes. Nighttime bar crowds demand more police presence downtown, especially along Draper Road.
“It wears you out,” Crannis said. “It makes you tired all the time. I don’t think there’s anyone in the department who wouldn’t say ‘We need a break.’ ”
In response, Blacksburg Town Council on Tuesday approved funding for four new police officers and one new dispatcher. It was the first increase in police staffing since 1994 when then Chief Bill Brown hired four new officers under the auspices of the Clinton Crime Bill.
But according to a staffing study conducted by Crannis’ staff and released in October, the recent increases may not be enough to offset the demands placed on the department today.
The study found the force operating at “dangerously low levels” and suggested a minimum of eight new police officers and three dispatchers to meet critical needs. To meet staffing standards set by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for police departments in Southern states, the department would need 11 new officers and four dispatchers, the study states.
Even with the newly funded positions, relief from the long hours — some officers work as much as 20 extra hours a week now — will not be immediate. From the date of hire, it can take up to 11 months to train and outfit a new police officer, Crannis said.
Before the Virginia Tech shootings, there had been little discussion of police needs among town council members, Mayor Ron Rordam said.
Brown, who was chief from 1994 to 2006, said he requested more officers from time to time after 1994. But increases in police funding, like funding for all other town services, depends on tax increases, which are always a tricky sell to voters.
“A lot of times before you could ask at the manager’s staff meeting, they’d say, ‘Hey, we’re not going to have new personnel this year,’ ” Brown said. “They didn’t want to raise town taxes. Sometimes it would be an election year. It’s difficult to raise taxes if half of the council was running that year.”
But since the shootings, Rordam and other town officials have spent time riding along with patrol officers to better understand their needs.
One reason for the inattention, according to Rordam, is that the Blacksburg force has “been very efficient with the resources they have.”
But over the past two years, town leadership has changed drastically with a new mayor, new town manager and new police chief in place. “I think we look at staffing with new eyes and a somewhat new vision,” Rordam said.
And if in a year from now, the police chief and the town manager come to council and say they need more police officers?
“I think it’s the responsibility of the council to provide it,” Rordam said.
While the Blacksburg Police Department could certainly use more police officers, Crannis said, “We’re not greedy. We’ll take what we can get. Every little bit helps.”
By the numbers: Police comparison
Blacksburg
Population: 39,284
Authorized strength: 62 sworn officers
Jurisdiction: 19.5 square miles
2007-08 budget: $6.3 million
2007 calls for service: 21,568
Charlottesville
Population: 40,315
Authorized strength: 117 sworn officers
Jurisdiction: 10.4 square miles
2007-08 budget: $12.7 million
2007 calls for service: 49,689
Harrisonburg
Population: 40,885
Authorized strength: 87 sworn officers
Jurisdiction: 17 square miles
2007-08 budget: $7.6 million
2007 calls for service: 34,009
SOURCES: Blacksburg Police Department, Charlottesville Police Department and Harrisonburg Police Department, 2006 U.S. Census population estimates
Copyright 2008 The Roanoke (Va.) Times
Tags: april 16 shootings, Blacksburg Police Department, funding, town council, Virginia Tech shootings