Centralia police chief presents staffing models, urges council to set level for comprehensive plan

Centralia Police Department leadership told the City Council on April 22 that current patrol resources leave the department in a largely reactive posture and recommended the council set a staffing level for the upcoming comprehensive plan.

Chief (Centralia Police Department) told the council the department is authorized for 29 commissioned officers, currently counts 27 on the roster and has 24 "usable" officers after accounting for two in the academy and one in pre-academy status. The department's target is 20 officers assigned to patrol but only 16 are available now, the chief said, and officers often spend patrol time completing reports and mandatory training rather than on proactive patrols.

The chief framed staffing choices around three models: staffing to crime levels (not recommended), fixed minimums (long-standing but not evidence-based) and workload-based models (recommended by the International City/County Management Association). He said Centralia averages about 39 calls for service per day and that an officer workload study suggests officers should spend no more than 60 percent of a shift responding to calls for service to preserve time for proactive work such as traffic enforcement and community policing.

The presentation included local comparisons and caveats. Centralia’s reported offenses per thousand residents was presented at about 82 — above the state average cited by staff — and the chief emphasized that the city’s position on the I-5 corridor brings retail and transient activity that raises some call volumes compared with inland communities. He also noted Centralia’s clearance rate for reportable crimes tracked by state systems at about 48 percent.

To illustrate growth impacts, the chief provided per-unit call estimates used in development review: roughly 0.92 calls per unit per year for high-density housing and about 0.36 calls per unit per year for low-density housing. Using projected annexations and two large residential projects, staff estimated roughly 1,100 additional residents could add about 227 calls per year — a change that, over time, could require additional staffing to maintain service levels.

The chief proposed three policy choices for the council to consider for the comprehensive plan: 1) keep the current staffing level (1.5 officers per 1,000 residents); 2) adopt 1.67 officers per 1,000 residents (the 2018 comprehensive-plan level and near national guidance from professional associations); or 3) return fully to the 2018 adopted level (also 1.67 per 1,000), a change the chief said would require about 14.4 additional officers under current population assumptions. He also described a potential partial alternative: a pilot program using special services officers (career staff without arrest commissions) to perform non‑arrest tasks such as accident reporting or transports; he estimated a starting total compensation of roughly $141,000 for a commissioned officer versus about $112,000 for a special services position and noted additional equipment and vehicle costs per commissioned officer.

Council members asked technical and policy questions about how the ratios are calculated (per commissioned officer only), whether noncommissioned staff are included (they are not), how annexation would change the officer-per-thousand metric (it would lower the ratio on paper until staffing is adjusted) and what the state and national benchmarks indicate. The chief said Washington’s agencies have higher training standards that affect staffing and cited recent state legislation intended to address statewide staffing levels.

Council did not take a final vote at the workshop. Mayor Smith Johnston and several councilors said the staffing-level decision belongs in the council’s broader priority-setting and budget process; the council scheduled further consideration during an upcoming priority/goal-setting workshop and asked staff to provide the presentation materials and follow-up information to council members for review. Deputy City Manager/Planning staff and the city manager are expected to integrate council guidance into the draft comprehensive plan and the manager’s budget requests.

The chief repeated that the department prioritizes calls for immediate safety needs and that proposed changes would aim to expand proactive work without reducing response to emergencies. He invited council members to contact staff with follow-up questions and to discuss the implications for the 2026 budget process.

Implementation details and costs remain to be refined. The chief noted hiring timelines: a candidate takes several months to hire and then roughly a year of field training before operating independently; vehicle and uniform costs add several thousand dollars per officer and vehicle procurement can delay readiness. The council expressed interest in staff-provided follow-up on workload modeling, annexation impacts and budget implications before making a final policy decision.