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Police outline wage plan, recruitment progress and tech investments; requests SRO camera funding
Summary
Assistant Chief Joe Messerch presented the Police Department FY26 budget, described recruitment and retention steps including a revised wage plan, new non-sworn forensic and analyst positions, staffing levels, and a recurring request to outfit school resource officer vehicles with cameras.
Assistant Chief Joe Messerch presented the Police Department’s FY26 budget to the council April 10, emphasizing recruitment, retention, new technology and non‑sworn staffing additions.
Messerch described a multi-year wage strategy that increased pay steps to improve retention and said FY26 adjustments will further move the department toward a competitive 50th-percentile benchmark. “When an officer is hitting that 4 year mark, they know that they've still got pay steps in front of them,” Messerch said, explaining part of the plan to reduce turnover of more senior officers.
He reported authorized sworn strength of 109 officers for FY26 (a technical reduction from FY25 to reallocate vacant non‑sworn positions to the Precision Policing Center) and actual on‑the‑street strength near the mid‑90s (95 at the time of the presentation, rising with hired recruits and offset by pending retirements). Messerch described 14 sworn vacancies at budget snapshot and outlined recruitment activity: applications are up, but only 29 candidates reached certification lists and 11 job offers were rescinded after background checks.
The department has added non‑sworn roles: a computer‑forensics non‑sworn position, crime analysts and PPC technicians. Messerch said the newly filled crime-analyst position will improve crime-data insights. He also summarized major programs—crisis intervention, school resource officers (SROs) and community engagement—and said resolution and clearance rates compare favorably with state and national benchmarks.
The department’s FY26 property-tax request was presented and Messerch identified one improvement package for FY26: recurring funding for SRO vehicle cameras ($16,000 recurring) to provide SROs the same in-vehicle camera tools used by patrol officers. Messerch said computers had been funded previously and cameras are the remaining gap.
Council members praised the department’s training and community engagement record and asked for a follow-up report on taser use and other operational items; Messerch said the department can provide that information.
