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Supervisors press Police Chief on hiring plan, overtime and new BLA performance audit
Summary
Chief William Scott outlined a multi‑year plan to add sworn and civilian positions. Supervisors focused on skyrocketing overtime and the newly released Budget Legislative Analyst (BLA) performance audit and its recommendations on civilianization, administrative time, and shift scheduling.
Police Chief William Scott presented the department’s budget proposal and four‑year hiring plan that would add sworn officers and civilianize administrative roles.
Chief Scott said the request includes 250 new sworn hires funded over multiple years and 25 civilian positions to replace officers in administrative roles (backgrounds, property/evidence, media relations). He told supervisors the additions are intended to sustain recently doubled foot‑patrol and support new programs such as a Strategic Management Division to enable data‑driven decision‑making.
Supervisors seized on a BLA performance audit released June 12, which flagged a potential for large numbers of civilianizable positions, rising overtime (up by 76% in one metric), and inefficiencies in administrative time. Members asked whether civilianization could be increased beyond the 25 positions requested; Chief Scott and the department’s CFO said they would review the audit recommendations and report back by Tuesday.
Chief Scott also defended longer call‑handling times and increased administrative work tied to expanded digital evidence, body‑worn video, and mental‑health responses; he said more time per call explains some of the overtime figures and that proposed staffing changes are aimed at improving response capacity and reducing overtime over time.
The committee did not take final action on the police budget, but members signaled close scrutiny of overtime trends, civilianization opportunities, and a preference to see concrete implementation plans and modeling when the department returns.
