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. I . 'I . -, Captain Switzer explained how important the retention of good, experienced personnel is to the effectiveness of the whole Department, and how detrimental a - return to a five eight plan would be. He said any cost savings resulting from a five eight plan would be negated by the loss of experienced officers and the hiring and retraining of new officers. In answer to Council questions regarding any chance for a five eight plan if salaries were increased, Captain Switzer and Officer Sheffield said the amount would be "so extreme" it wouldn't be worth it to the officers nor the City, but each officer would have to answer that question for himself/herself. Mr. Heiss said he believed recruitment would be hampered if the Department went back to a five eight plan. He said the three twelve did offer better deployment and did offer officers four days off. He suggested that Council study the three twelve plan further when more evidence is in, because of the benefits it really does offer. Vice Mayor Howard said she had worked all three shifts as a nurse, and agreed with the officers' analyses. She described the monetary incentive given to nurses who worked the three twelve plan and how that really helped her family when they really needed it. She said the three twelve plan, although it could be exhausting, allowed nurses to be more proactive and improve their patient's overall care, more than they could do on the shorter shifts. Vice Mayor Howard said she wasn't sure a three twelve plan could work for Police officers, but if a cost savings could be given as an - incentive to the Police officers and they wanted to try it, perhaps they could study it together in the future. In answer to Council questions regarding overtime, Mr. Heiss said they did not study the use of overtime and its impacts, but presumably if staffing was brought up to the recommendations in the Report some level of overtime would be decreased. Police Chief Bolanos said with increased personnel some overtime would go up in different arenas, such as court appearances, and the degree of savings is difficult to predict. Captain Switzer, spoke on behalf of the Investigation officers, the unsung heroes. He said, based on his experience in that division, the Department needs another Investigative officer. Captain Switzer, cited information based on Officer Pollio's team research including the number of detectives per thousand and crimes per thousand in the same jurisdictions as used in the Report, and concluded that Redwood City has fewer Investigative officers than any of the other jurisdictions. He said one more detective would put them right in the middle. Captain Switzer said Redwood City has the highest number of registered sex offenders, and although we don't have the largest problem, we have the largest potential problem, due to the sheer numbers. He said one way he dealt with the problem of too many cases, was to close out the oldest cases once a quarter, to allow the detectives to focus on more important - SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING MINUTB BOOK NO. 55 OCTOBER 13, 1997 MINUTES Page No. 575 PAGE 14