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Bozeman police outline staffing shortfall and options after mill-levy defeat
Summary
Police Chief Jim Veltkamp told the Bozeman Inter Neighborhood Council that the department remains understaffed after a failed mill levy and that city leaders approved an operational and staffing study to identify efficiencies and options including technology, reprioritizing responses and exploring funding tools such as impact fees or bonds.
Bozeman Police Chief Jim Veltkamp said the department remains behind its recommended staffing levels and reiterated that the failed mill levy does not end the city’s need to expand public-safety capacity.
“One of our primary goals and for any police department is sustainable funding. So we’ve gotta have the funding,” Chief Jim Veltkamp said, describing the mill levy as one funding option among others.
Veltkamp told the Bozeman Inter Neighborhood Council the police had proposed adding six officers per year for five years; that plan was intended to phase in staffing rather than hire 30 officers at once. He said the department’s most recent staffing plan had called for about 79 officers by 2021; the department is authorized for 76 and remains short a few officers. Veltkamp said hiring and training take many months — more than six months before a new officer can work independently — and that filling vacancies has become more difficult in recent years.
To address gaps, Veltkamp listed several strategies the department is pursuing:…
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