Staffing levels will remain Starkville Police Chief Frank Nichols’ top priority as the city prepares its upcoming fiscal year budget.
Starkville Police Department is understaffed compared to its contemporaries, Nichols told the Starkville Rotary Club on Monday, but the police chief said he is working on plans to secure additional funding for new hires and institute a part-time program for football game weekend traffic details.
SPD’s 55 officers is 10 positions short of the 65 recommended by a staffing formula developed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police for a city of Starkville’s size.
When adding the estimated student population that the census does not account for, Nichols said SPD should employ at least 70 officers.
“We’re bigger than Oxford and we have more students than Ole Miss, yet we have fewer officers (than Oxford Police Department),” he said. “Last year with the great season we had in football, I made it mandatory that three-fourths of the police department had to be at work because I don’t have the manpower (to give time off during game day weekends). Out of all Southeastern Conference towns, we have the fewest officers. In the Golden Triangle, we have the lowest crime rate. The people I do have work their butts off.”
Nichols said he is optimistic the board of aldermen will grant him additional funding for two or three new officer positions in the upcoming Fiscal Year 2015-2016 budget and one or two additional officers in each of the coming fiscal years.
SPD’s staffing situation spurred Nichols to institute a volunteer program in which five certified officers will work traffic detail during Saturday football games and means the department will delay opening two substations until manpower is added.
In all, Nichols estimated each police hire costs the city $70,000, which includes equipment, training and salary.
Since taking over as police chief in 2014, Nichols has made community outreach, employee pay and manpower top priorities in his administration. He warned aldermen in his job interview that the department cannot continue operating with so few officers and without making an attempt to solidify community relations.
“I want to make sure I address every need the city has and that I’m trying to cater to every person. We’ve seen there are bad relationships with officers in communities. We’ve seen the Black Lives Matter (protests), and police officers have Blue Lives Matter. I’m here to let you know I’m not for black people and I’m not for white people. I’m for all people,” he said to Rotarians. “It takes a village to raise a child, and I think the police department should be part of that village. We shouldn’t have delinquent children in this community. What can we do as a police department besides locking them up? There has to be another alternative besides locking everybody up.
“What can we do to make this a better community? If we don’t, then the buck stops here with us,” Nichols added. “What’s going to happen to the next generation of the world if we don’t try to make a difference right now.”
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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