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. I I . I . .1 Patrol will identifY that as an issue, provide some on scene response, and they'll dissipate, but the young people will come back again. That same thing holds true for vice issues in the area of Sequoia High School and some other areas in town. - Expressed concern about some of the gang issues. Not overwhelming, but there is an awareness out there, and there is a partnership of the community and the Police Department to address those issues.... We met with the Chamber Board, and explained to them what the focus of the study was going to be and... there wasn't any specific feedback from the business community." In response to Council questions regarding the 35-45% of uncommitted time, Mr. Heiss said that in the 1970s, efforts were made to find that level where officers could do all the Patrol related tasks and still have time to do the proactive work necessary for effective law enforcement management. He said it had been refined over the years and now there is a computer model that has been developed that shows if uncommitted time drops below the 35% level "you start to see increases in call stacking... That threshold level is not only accepted, but it is supported in fact by quantitative research. The higher level is really more of an agreed upon industry standard, which says that essentially if you are going to embark on community oriented policing where the primary instrument of that community oriented policing is your field Patrol officer, then you need to be able to take blocks of time... so that officers can in fact deal with people on their beats... in meetings developing specific plans and approaches... and it is tough to do that if you have less than 35% proactive time.... There are different schools of thought about what that upper level should be. We typically try to use 45% to be conservative." Mr. Heiss said the 35% minimum - level is solidly supported by statistical research and has stood the test of time. The higher level of 45% is becoming accepted as Departments try to pursue community oriented policing, and those functions are generally accomplished through the Patrol team. In response to Council questions regarding Mountain View, a City similar to Redwood City, Mr. Heiss said when they did the same study there about two years ago, Mountain View was at 30% of uncommitted time, very similar to where Redwood City is now. They embarked on a program to expand Patrol staffing and within a year "will probably be at a level we have proposed for Redwood City." Their Council adopted the 45% target, but they adopted the policy of "differential response" which Redwood City tried, didn't like, and has rejected. Mr. Heiss said that a differential response policy includes "substantial use of CSOs and also taking reports by telephone which is an effort you tried here and essentially is not consistent with the Chief's service philosophy.... They have diverted about 40% of Patrol workload to CSOs or telephone reporting, which is a big piece of police services." In response to Council questions regarding assigned versus authorized positions, Mr. Heiss explained that the Department has more authorized positions currently than personnel actually assigned or deployed. The figures on Page 15 of the Report show - SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING MINUTE BOOK NO. 55 OCTOBER 13, 1997 MINUTES Page No. 571 PAGE 10