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Longmont public safety leaders outline multi-year staffing shortfall and contingency cuts
Summary
Public safety leaders told the council they need roughly 40 additional police officers and 27 firefighters over time to meet target staffing ratios; they outlined phased hiring, contingent reductions and potential program cuts that could save about $3.2 million if required.
Longmont public-safety staff told the City Council on Sept. 2 that the city’s police and fire staffing levels have not kept pace with population and workload growth and presented a phased plan to increase sworn staffing over the next five years.
Presenters said Longmont’s current active patrol staffing is roughly unchanged since 2009 while priority calls for service and the complexity of incidents have risen sharply. The presenters proposed a target to reach roughly 2.0 sworn police officers per 1,000 residents — a level the staff said would require about 40 additional police positions, including supervisory roles, when fully phased in. For fire, staff proposed a target of about 1.25 sworn firefighters per 1,000 residents, which they estimated would require roughly 27 additional firefighter positions.
Public-safety staff also proposed staffing…
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