Police union: Hamilton's 911 response plan 'risky;' amounts to 'defunding' police

Correction: This post was updated to correct the spelling of Rodgers' name.

A police union leader said Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton’s proposal to have civilian employees of the police department respond to some 911 calls will put people at risk and amounts to a “defunding of police.”

Hamilton in his new budget proposal calls for hiring five non-sworn officers for the police department — to be paid through five unfilled sworn officer positions — to handle some 911 calls such as noise complaints and welfare checks.

“That is an absolutely horrible idea,” said Jeff Rodgers, vice president of the local Fraternal Order of Police union.

Rodgers said most noise complaints and welfare checks do not require the intervention of a sworn officer, and local officers would like nothing better than to stop having to respond to them. However, he said, such situations come with unknown risks.

“You do not know what you are walking into,” he said.

Such calls often involve people who are intoxicated and those situations sometimes turn violent, he said. If no police officer is present, that kind of situation would place a non-sworn officer in danger and could cause liability concerns for the city.

“There’s an inherent danger, an unknown risk, in those kinds of calls,” Rodgers said.

In addition, he said, only officers can issue citations for noise complaints. So if the city wants to send a civilian to respond to such a complaint, the person who made the complaint might just as well walk over to ask the partiers to keep it down.

Rodgers said welfare checks, too, pose a potential risk to the responder. Most times, such checks don't encounter problems, he said, but what happens that one time when an individual is intoxicated and armed, whether with syringes or a machete?

Chief Diekhoff sees a way for proposal to work

Bloomington Police Chief Mike Diekhoff said the non-sworn personnel would not respond to noise complaints, though they could be sent to "low-level calls," such as helping with people who have housing, mental health and/or substance abuse challenges.

Diekhoff said he "doesn't disagree" with the union's concerns, but non-sworn officers would receive additional training and be sent only to calls that public safety officials have deemed low-risk.

The department is doing some of that already, he said, as it sends non-sworn officers to respond to minor theft calls and traffic-related calls where they sometimes have to deal with upset drivers.

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The Bloomington Police Department has been seriously understaffed in the last few years — it has 84 officers now, according to the union, though 105 are budgeted — and the matter has raised the ire of some city council members, the business community and the public.

Council discussions also have revealed competing philosophies on how to tackle public safety, with some council members preferring to hire more police officers while others, especially in light of the 2020 murder of George Floyd, want to look at public safety more broadly and bring in people who often are not consulted on policing matters.

Hamilton said given the open positions in the police department, he wants to use the available dollars to fund five new non-sworn officers, called community service specialists, to launch a pilot program where some 911 calls are handled by a two-person team without a sworn officer.

The city's job descriptions for a community service specialist have included:

• High school diploma or equivalent

• Ability to communicate effectively with City residents utilizing written correspondence and verbal communication

• Basic knowledge of Indiana Traffic Code, Indiana Criminal Code, and Bloomington Municipal Code

• Knowledge of other City departments and the services they provide

• Strong conflict de-escalation strategies and problem solving skills

Hamilton said he envisions the use of those funds as temporary, though Rodgers said he fears the money would be permanently diverted.

Taking away a sworn officer to pay for a civilian position would be "defunding the police," Rodgers said.

However, Diekhoff said the police department is merely taking unspent personnel funds to hire part-time workers to address immediate needs. The department's focus will remain on filling open positions for sworn officers, he said.

"It's not defunding the police," he said.

The department has used the unspent money in the last few years to hire officers from other departments — Indiana University, Ellettsville, Monroe County Sheriff's Department — to help BPD officers with some of the city's challenges downtown, Diekhoff said

The police chief was one of the members of a commission the mayor tasked with identifying alternative ways to respond to some 911 calls.

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Police department struggles to recruit and retain officers

Hamilton said police departments across the nation are struggling with police recruitment and retention, but that local programs, including a housing incentive, are producing results. He said 17 police officers now are receiving rental assistance, which they can get only if they live in city limits. That’s significantly more than the handful of officers who lived in the city when he became mayor, Hamilton said.

Rodgers acknowledged departments across the country are struggling with staffing, but he said Bloomington is facing greater difficulties than most. Other communities, such as Danville, are seeing many more officers apply for open positions than Bloomington, he said, and Lafayette, with a smaller population than Bloomington, has 140 police officers, or 35 more than allotted in Bloomington’s budget.

“We’ve been behind the eight-ball for decades,” Rodgers said.

The union has suggested simple steps to improve the city’s recruitment and retention efforts, but the mayor has refused to take them, Rodgers said. For example, the city could allow officers to take home their patrol cars, a step with minimal cost and which is standard practice for police departments, he said.

Hamilton’s plan is likely to get significant scrutiny during budget presentations this week and even more so during budget talks in the next few weeks. Diekhoff was scheduled to present the police department's 2024 budget to the council Tuesday evening.

You can read the full budget proposal here: bloomington.in.gov/city/budget.

Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington police union pushes back on civilian response proposal