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Committee reviews annual work plan; chief outlines staffing shortfalls and timeline to rebuild capacity
Summary
The Des Moines Public Safety Emergency Management Committee reviewed a proposed yearly meeting schedule and heard a staffing update from the chief: the department is authorized for 35 FTEs but is functionally down several officers due to training, deployment and disability, with an estimated improvement in May if officers complete field training.
The Des Moines Public Safety Emergency Management Committee reviewed a proposed yearlong work plan and discussed staffing levels, crime-data reporting and several planned briefings.
The chief presented a draft schedule that would bring regular reports to the committee on body-worn camera upgrades and related grant funding; the planned closure of a substation; comparative crime statistics (2023–24); accreditation renewal; chaplaincy program changes; summer events and staffing; development of a crime-reduction team and traffic unit; co-response team updates and grant funding; a new CAD dispatch system; the state crime report; SCORE updates; and an annual code enforcement report in December.
Deputy Mayor Steinmetz asked for quarterly crime-statistics briefings. The chief said the department can provide raw quarterly statistics but warned that a previously funded crime-analysis position was eliminated and that the city no longer has the staff capacity to produce the scrubbed, neighborhood-level analytics the committee previously received.
On staffing, the chief said the department is authorized for 35 full-time equivalents and has 34 employees on the roster. Several personnel are not deployable: four officers are in field training (FTO), one is on a 12-month military deployment and two are out on disability, leaving the department “functionally down 8 people” despite being short by one on paper. The chief said the four on FTO could come off training by May and one officer on disability is expected to return around the same time, improving deployable strength if no new injuries or leaves occur.
The chief confirmed active recruiting is under way and that hires are being chosen for cultural fit; entry-level hires typically take about a year before they operate solo patrol shifts. The chief emphasized that the department often runs “on a razor thin margin” and that unfunded training, ordinary injuries and family- leave contribute to predictable absences.
Councilmember Grace Matsui and others requested additional briefings on animal control, camera locations and performance, potential legislative asks, community outreach such as National Night Out, and a South King Fire update on call volume and response times. The committee asked staff to schedule South King Fire for a future meeting.
No formal policy votes were taken on staffing or the work plan at the meeting. The committee did, however, approve the October meeting minutes unanimously at the start of the session.
