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Prince George police ask for seven officers, records clerk and pay adjustment in 2027 budget pitch
Summary
Police leaders told the board they need seven additional sworn officers, a full-time records clerk and a lieutenant reclassification to address rising calls for service, minimum-staffing gaps and investigative workloads; estimated non-salary vehicle and equipment costs for seven officers total roughly $553,600.
Prince George County police leadership asked the Board of Supervisors to include seven new sworn officer positions, a full-time records clerk and the reclassification of a lieutenant to captain in the county's 2027 budget planning.
Chief Early and Major Nicholas said the requests aim to reduce minimum-staffing shortfalls, lower response times and give the department capacity to handle multiple major incidents simultaneously. "We are requesting 7 new police officer positions," Major Nicholas said, adding the positions are in addition to current staffing and existing grant-funded posts.
Why it matters: presenters said calls for service have grown sharply in recent years and that proactive policing and highway-safety work require additional patrol capacity. Chief Early explained the staffing math behind the request: to maintain a minimum of seven officers on a 12-hour shift, each shift must be staffed with roughly 10 to 11 assigned officers to allow for vacation, training and other non-availability. "If you have 10 or 11 officers on a shift, you can staff it at 7," Chief Early said.
Budget details and offsets: Police staff provided cost estimates for equipment and vehicles, saying vehicle plus equipment per officer is "right at $80,000 (79,086)." That figure multiplied by seven produces an estimate of about $553,604 for vehicles and equipment alone; the presentation also showed a total salary-and-benefits estimate for the seven positions (spreadsheet item referenced in the packet). Presenters acknowledged some current positions are grant-funded (school resource officers and a ceasefire program) and noted some grants are ending, which affects long-term staffing projections.
Records and command adjustments: The department seeks a full-time records clerk to centralize and professionalize recordkeeping now handled by several part-time staff, and a reclassification of an existing lieutenant to captain to restore a third division-level command role that the department had historically. Presenters said the changes would free other employees (crime analyst, accreditation manager) to focus on their core duties.
Questions from the board focused on whether additional staffing would increase downstream costs (for Riverside jail inmate costs and court processing), the composition of grant-funded positions, and whether vehicle and overtime savings could mitigate new costs. Chief Early and financial staff said some cost mitigation is possible but that full savings are not guaranteed. The department did not request immediate board action; the presentation will inform upcoming budget deliberations.
What happens next: the board will consider this request during the budget review and appropriation process; no formal vote on the police request occurred at the work session.
