Imagine you live in a city where the newly elected female mayor calls a press conference to make an extraordinary announcement regarding a new recruiting policy for the police department.  Shortly into her speech she says the police department must accept ALL willing recruits meaning anyone, regardless of colour, gender, height and weight as long as they can attend and pass a 14-week course in the academy.  A large number of candidates immediately come forward, sign up, and next thing you know they are standing before the Captain and Lieutenant of  the academy.   They are greeted by their instructors who say, “My name is Captain Harris! In case you missed it, this is Sergeant Callahan! We are the meanest instructors here. We’ve got you because you are the worst people here. You are “D” Squad; “D” for “dirtbags”. When I say: “Hey, dirtbags!” that means you. You people are going to hate my guts for the rest of your lives. I am going to make you sorry that you ever came here.” The group of misfit recruits work hard and train hard in order to prove themselves capable of carrying the badge.  Funny thing is they end up succeeding despite and because of their eccentricities.  Well, that is the plot of the very first Police Academy movie in 1984 which grossed $149.8 million worldwide.  The series of films would become one of the most popular “police movie” franchises in history grossing another $387 million for the sequels.  It was simple slap-stick humor, usually based on simple characterizations and physical attributes of the “underdogs” struggling to prove themselves even though they faced constant opposition from those who ran the academy.   My favorite scene of all time is when Hightower gets a driving lesson on how to drive so he can pass the police exam. 

Any who, in Dragnet (Part 1) we went over the 27 recommendations from the Three-Year Strategic Staffing Plan for the Frisco PD and now we want to tell you about a few points that my wife and found interesting in the study.  First, police calls are rated on a scale of Priority One to Three.  Priority 1 calls are crimes in progress and incidents that put citizens at risk.  Priority 2 calls are to ensure situations don’t escalate into a more serious incident.  Priority 3 & 4 calls are non-critical.  In 2019, the city had 595 Priority 1 calls and they expect that number to be over 900 calls in the next 3 years.  The average response time in 2019 for a Priority 1 call was 5.25 minutes.  Priority 2 calls had an average response time of 6.48 minutes and in 2019 they had 21, 571 calls.   In regard to calls, the study said “Frisco PD patrol staffing increases are necessary to increase the capacity of the FPD Patrol Division to absorb the expected increases in calls for service to decrease response times for calls.  With these changes, FPD patrol will align with contemporary patrol staffing standards and be able to accommodate modern police service demands.”

Another key point relating to patrol was “ The City of Frisco needs to make steady progress towards the goal of adding 42 patrol officers over the next 3 years. Without additional staffing, the FPD Patrol Division will not be able to absorb the expected increases in calls for service, increase self-initiated activities, or decrease response times without negatively impacting other patrol performance objectives (e.g., immediate availability and patrol visibility).”

Second, the study looked at the Traffic Division which handles hit and run accidents, traffic enforcement and accident investigation.  The study said, “As the population of the City of Frisco continues to grow and more visitors come to enjoy its entertainment venues, additional traffic officers are needed.”

Third, when it comes to investigations we learned investigators assigned to the Crimes Against Children Unit was assigned an average of 13.6 new cases per month in 2018, an average of 20.5 new cases per month in 2019, and an average of 25.8 new cases per month in 2020. The number of new cases assigned to Crimes Against Children has substantially increased; almost doubling from 2018 to 2020.  I will be curious to see the average number of cases per month once the Universal Kids theme park opens.  It is important to point out that the study said there is not a national standard on the number of new cases that should be assigned to an investigator each month.  The general standard used by the study is 12 cases per month for violent crimes (which covers crimes against children / persons).

Last, we learned that the Detention Division and the Communications Divisionat the time of the study operated with the minimum staffing level 24/7/365.  More shocking was the Training Unit currently pulls their certified TCOLE instructors from their regular responsibilities as a patrol officer, investigator, or other role within the department to provide the in-service training. The study pointed out that with the size of FPD, this is an inefficient process and impacts the staffing levels within divisions and units from where the trainers are drawn. If the Training Unit is sufficiently staffed, it can provide all in-service training for FPD personnel.

In a city with a population of 227,426 residents, should we be concerned about staffing levels in two of the most crucial departments in this city?  Absolutely we should be concerned about that!  In fact, an insider told us that Purefoy didn’t care too much for Chief Piland because at internal meetings he would constantly try to address staffing issues and was quickly shot down by the then city manager.  All we hear from top city officials, the mayor and some council members are the slogan “SAFEST CITY” and we that could be true right now, but what about the future?   The question everyone should be asking themselves is will we be the safest city 10 years from now.  More importantly, why does it seem as if city management at city hall is operating with a reactive management style meaning reacting to problems as they arise vs proactive management which is where we see ahead, anticipate problems, and take steps to prevent the problems from happening?   Was the city proactive in taking steps to meet the 27 recommendations in the study over the last 3 years?   If not, why? 

Frisco is an amazing city and all we want is for it to stay that way.   We must ask how is it we have all this money for incentives, developments, TIRZ and public/private partnership opportunities but we can’t find the money to fix staffing issues?   Why is it we can find money in the budget for two more Assistant City Managers?   If those questions don’t make you stop and think, then maybe this will. Imagine it is 12:30 am and one of our police officers answers the call for a disturbance in a Home Depot parking lot and upon the officer attempting to make contact with the subject, the man produced a gun and opened fire, striking our officer in the chest just outside of his vest.  As he lays there he knows he is going to die so he calls out on the radio, “118, tell my family I love them.”  Communications responds, “I can’t copy.”  The officer responds one final time, “118, tell my family I love them.”  That is what happened to Officer Dia in Toledo and there is nothing to say it can’t happen here.  What if one of our fire fighters goes into the burning flames of a Frisco home to rescue a child and the next thing you hear is the PASS device sending out distress signals.  Those signals mean that a fire fighter is motionless and probably trapped or deceased.  The flames at this point are out of control and it is clear we have a firefighter down.   Will it take losing one of our own before we before residents wake up and demand more answers?  When does the city decide to step up to the plate, be transparent about our staffing levels and do the right thing?  Is it too late?

Our question is, would they still both endorse Mayor Cheney today? They didn’t in the recent election so it makes you wonder, why?