Waterford police report traffic enforcement gains, council asks for cost options for full-time traffic deputy

The Waterford Police chief reported that traffic enforcement activity has increased since the city and the sheriff’s office received an Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) grant, and council members asked staff to return with detailed citation breakdowns and cost estimates for a dedicated traffic deputy.

The police chief said February calls for service totaled 281 with 15 arrests, including three new felony charges. He reported residential burglaries were down 17% and commercial burglaries down 23% compared with the previous reporting period. Using OTS funding and a collaboration with the sheriff’s office, staff said the department supported 24 saturation patrol shifts focused inside city limits; those shifts produced about 210 stops, roughly 35 citations from those stops and 11 arrests, according to the chief.

Chief’s presentation emphasized that deputies prioritize violent-crime response and property-crime investigations; when not assigned to those duties they are directed to perform traffic enforcement. The chief noted a staffing constraint: deputies who are tied up on a call or an arrest cannot also cover planned traffic shifts, and that reality can reduce morning traffic coverage. The chief estimated it takes nine to 12 months to recruit and onboard a new deputy.

Council members asked for more data before committing to long-term staffing additions. The chief agreed to provide at the next meeting a breakdown of saturation-patrol stops and citation types, a summary of what deputies are assigned to while in town (downtime/availability), and details on traffic-education programming tied to the OTS grant. Sergeant Cicero (scheduling lead for education programs) was cited as the staff contact for traffic education; the chief said he will confer with Cicero and present the education schedule at a future meeting.

Councilmembers also discussed options such as radar trailers, decoy/bait vehicles and motorcycle units as lower-cost or tactical alternatives to immediate full-time hires; one councilmember asked staff to include the cost of a full-time traffic deputy as an alternate for the draft budget. The chief said the Waterford Unified School District is pursuing a contract-funded school resource officer that may be in place by July or August, and that the district is funding that SRO directly because deputies were previously unavailable to respond to on-campus incidents due to calls for service.

There were no formal council votes on staffing at this meeting; council direction was to return with cost and activity reports to inform budget deliberations.

Quotes (verbatim from chief’s remarks):

"We had 281 calls for service, 15 arrests. 3 of them were new felony charges." — Police chief (unnamed in record)

"Using that money, we were able to … hire back 24 saturation shifts. The shifts consist of 2 deputies for 5 hours… we were able to make 210 stops, ... 35 citations were written out of the 210 stops with 11 arrests made." — Police chief (unnamed in record)

Ending: The council asked staff to return with a citation-type breakdown for saturation patrols, deputy availability statistics, and a cost estimate for adding a full-time traffic deputy so the option can be considered during the upcoming budget process.