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Police chief urges new CSO, traffic officer, three patrol positions and second captain
Summary
Chief Peter Mahuna told the council the department is understaffed (29 sworn for ~27,500 residents), cited response-time increases and workload metrics (one CSO wrote 285 reports last year; one traffic officer issued 916 citations/warnings in 2024) and recommended adding multiple positions to improve coverage and response.
Chief Peter Mahuna outlined a series of public-safety staffing needs during the council's budget discussion, describing workload increases and operational gaps.
"She wrote 285 reports last year," Chief Mahuna said of the community service officer position to illustrate the workload; he also said a single traffic officer issued "916 citations and warnings in 2024." Those metrics supported his recommendation for a second CSO, an additional school resource officer, a dedicated traffic officer, three additional patrol officers and a second captain to reduce span-of-control problems.
Mahuna said the department currently responds to roughly 12,000 calls for service and that average response times for priority 1 and 2 calls have risen from about 6 minutes 32 seconds in 2020 to about 8 minutes 48 seconds in the most recent year. He and councilors discussed whether some duties could be reallocated — for example, whether a code-enforcement hire or parks ranger could relieve certain CSO duties.
Council members pressed for prioritization and asked staff to model costs and options, including whether co-funding partners (such as schools for a second SRO) could reduce city costs. No staffing decisions were made; staff will return with more detailed cost and prioritization information.
