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Police budget review: vacancies, Axon body‑camera software and early talks about community service officers
Summary
The finance committee reviewed the Police Department's FY26 budget. Officials described recruitment progress for an August academy, current vacancies, the department’s use of Axon body camera tools (including automated draft report functionality) and a cross-committee effort to explore a community service officer role.
Chief Du Bois and finance staff told the committee the police department’s FY26 operating request is about $20.3 million, roughly a 2.8 percent increase from last year; revenue offsets bring the net rise to under 2 percent.
The chief described staffing and recruitment: the department has an authorized sworn strength of 58 and 29 current sworn vacancies. He said three officers are hired and awaiting an August academy, one lateral transfer starts next week, and several candidates are in background checks. "It's looking pretty strong in that regard," the chief said about the August academy candidate pool.
On technology and evidence storage: staff described the department’s body-camera contract with Axon and cloud storage on evidence.com. Chief Du Bois said the department will use Axon software that includes an automated, draft‑report feature based on body‑camera recordings. "There's AI involved ... it creates a draft of a police report," the chief said, adding officers must review and finalize any automated drafts. Finance staff said the department compared time saved in trials and concluded the software was a net benefit after weighing cost and added patrol hours.
Committee members raised privacy and data-retention questions. One councilor asked whether raw video would be retained; staff replied that storage is cloud-based through evidence.com and that the vendor provides the storage and security safeguards in the contract.
Separately, the mayor and committee discussed a possible new position type — often described as a community service officer or quality-of-life unit — to handle non‑criminal, behavioral-health and community-stabilization tasks. Assistant city management and HR staff said they are exploring how such a role might be structured, union implications and costs, and they offered to return with scenarios. "We are looking at it," an assistant city manager said, and added staff could come back to the finance committee or the Health and Human Services (HHS) committee with design options.
Why it matters: The police budget and staffing levels influence public safety response capacity; the introduction of specialized community-oriented roles could change how non‑criminal calls are handled.
Ending note: Committee members asked staff to prepare cross‑committee options for the potential community service officer pilot while continuing to monitor hiring and vacancy reductions ahead of the August academy.
