Flower Mound — The police chief told the Town Council at a work session that recruiting and retention remain the department’s top operational challenges, and that personnel costs account for the large majority of the department’s budget.

The presentation was framed as part of a larger “service delivery” series leading into FY27 budget conversations. Council members were given program details, workload metrics and a set of unfunded decision packets that the department says the council should consider during budget planning.

The chief said the department faced a period with “10 openings at 1 point” but reported staffing has improved and current vacancies are lower; in the presentation the chief estimated the department was missing roughly three to five positions at the time of the meeting. He also said police personnel and associated benefits account for the largest share of the department’s budget and noted several operational metrics: about 59 9‑1‑1 calls per day, roughly 20,000 traffic stops year‑to‑date with a projection up to about 25,000, an expected 1,500–1,600 arrests for the year and roughly 7,000 active warrants.

The chief listed recent investments and priorities: adding school resource officers (partially funded by the school district), issuing tasers to field officers, upgrading to safer handguns and modern handheld radios that can use trusted Wi‑Fi in schools, and a public outreach recruiting video produced with seized funds. He said the town’s police budget is roughly $29 million (department‑wide) and that about 90% of the department’s expenditures are personnel‑related.

On technology and facilities the department requested a wireline radio upgrade and AES radio encryption to improve channel capacity and interoperability with neighboring jurisdictions. The chief said the wireline upgrade would move the department from roughly 16 channels to a far larger channel set and provide a more robust backup for field communications; councilmembers and staff noted the upgrade was funded in part from crime‑district funds in the current planning package.

The chief presented a package of “unfunded” requests that included a dedicated recruiting officer, replacement or additional vehicles for community services staff, two motorcycle officers for the traffic unit, field‑training software to reduce administrative time for training officers, and additional records capacity to reduce a backlog of filings. He explained choices made when some requests could not be funded: the department moved a community services officer role to personnel to create a recruiting function as an operational trade‑off.

Councilmembers asked about outreach, civil‑liberties concerns with stationary license‑plate readers, compensation competitiveness, and how the department measures service levels. Members praised the department’s community programs and open‑house plans, and several councilmembers said they want more information on compensation benchmarking and the specifics of any LPR (license‑plate reader) proposal before authorizing purchases.

No formal budget decisions were made during the work session; the presentation was described by staff as context for upcoming revenue and budget discussions and as input for council direction during the FY27 process.