Q: How many Tasers do we need?
A: Blah, blah, blah, blah. In short, I can’t answer that right now.
Q: Can you get me the information about how many Tasers we need?
A: Yes.
The first round of amendements were due the 16th, this memo was written on the 17th. So, here’s the answer. Sort of.
TO: Ald. Rhodes-Conway
FROM: Terri Genin, Police Finance Manager
SUBJECT: Taser deploymentAt the Board of Estimates meeting on September 8, you requested detailed information in regards to the Police Dept. request for Tasers, which was included in the capital budget for 2009. This is a very difficult number to calculate because of all the variables. However, I will attempt to explain our calculations to date.
At present we have the following personnel, which may overlap shifts due to either scheduling or unforeseen incidents that extend a work shift:
– Patrol 1st detail officers 31
– Patrol 2nd detail officers 44
– Patrol 1st & 2nd Sgts 11
– Neighborhood officers 12
– Detectives 64
– School ERO’s 4
– CPT officers & Sgts 32
– Canine officers 3
– TEST officers & Sgts 7
– Court Services officers 2
– Field Lts 2
– Grants & Special Duty 15
– Field Training for Academy 18
– In addition, 3 tasers are assigned to the Training Dept. and at any given time 3-5 tasers are down for service.This totals 253 tasers. However, it’s unlikely that on most days this is the number of tasers actually needed. It is rare to have all 5 CPT’s working at the same time there is a special grant or TEST initiative. It is also unlikely that all 64 Detectives would overlap shifts on the same date and time. The challenge is trying to anticipate when and where those overlaps might occur. This challenge is compounded by decentralization, as the Dept. must have additional tasers on hand throughout the city, rather than just a central pool in one location.
It’s important to note that the Patrol staff listed above is not the total number assigned to those shifts. Instead, due to rotating days off, I only included 2/3 of the number assigned to each shift in my count. For special events, we often change days off so that all shifts and all rotations work overlapping hours.So, rather than use direct counts, I did a fairly quick evaluation of several dates in the fall. The fall is a fairly active time and there are often special initiatives particularly related to Downtown Safety, traffic enforcement, and special grants. Based on scheduling info, and considering the upcoming field training for the Academy, in general we would need about 200 tasers to ensure that most staff had access to a taser regardless of their district assignment or the potential for other shifts to overlap their work hours. However, to ensure that in all cases other than special events such as Rhythm & Booms or the Mifflin Street Block Party, we should adhere to the current capital plan to have 220 tasers by 2010.
As of 2008, the MPD has 137 tasers. The 2009 plan would provide for the purchase of approximately 41 additional tasers (depending on cost increases and shipping), which would give us a total of 178 tasers in 2009. As you can see, even with the capital funds in 2009, the availability of a taser for all trained personnel would not be guaranteed.
I hope this helpful. My phone number is 266-4477 if you have additional questions or concerns.
Q: So, how many tasers do we need?
