As the St. Paul Police Department continues to struggle to hire officers, the city’s fire department is fully staffed, the chiefs of both departments told the city council on Wednesday.
But the fire department has been facing an increasing number of firefighters unable to work due to injuries. The department recently started a new initiative to help them get better more quickly, Chief Butch Inks said in his budget presentation to the council.
Meanwhile, in the police department, efforts continue to recruit officers while overtime costs pile up to fill open shifts, said Chief Axel Henry.
St. Paul’s department leaders take turns telling the city council about their budgets for the next year, and the police and fire departments were up Wednesday.
Mayor Melvin Carter’s proposed 2025 budget for the city would grow to $854.9 million, a $25 million increase over the present year, if the council approves it without major changes. It includes a 7.9% increase to the city’s tax levy.
The police department’s budget for next year, including grants, is proposed at $145.6 million, up from $136.5 million this year. The fire department’s total budget for next year is proposed at $88.5 million versus $87.1 million for this year.
Gun violence
While the St. Paul police homicide clearance rate was 89 percent last year, far above the national average, solving non-fatal shootings has been a thornier problem.
The police department started its nonfatal shooting unit in January. They didn’t hire more officers, but shifted officers from other work. Their previous clearance rate was about 38 percent for nonfatal shootings and they’ve brought it up to about 63 percent so far with the focused work of investigators, Henry said.
St. Paul’s homicide rate began increasing in 2019 and there were 32 last year. The city averaged 17 homicides a year between 2010 and 2018. This year, the city is on pace for 25 homicides, though “we hope it’s lower than that,” Henry said.
Carjackings, which used to be rare enough that St. Paul police didn’t track them separately from robberies or auto thefts until 2020, have been trending down after 101 were reported in 2021. There were 42 last year and they’re on pace to have 28 this year.
Staffing
The police department’s authorized strength is 619 officers, though they haven’t been at that number since 2020. They are currently 60 officers short.
While overtime cost the police department about $288,000 a month in 2020, it’s now about $666,000 a month due to being short-staffed and “we have to answer 911 calls, we have to investigate the crimes that are out there,” Henry said.
Overtime isn’t only expensive, but there’s a “human cost of fatigue in those pieces, too,” noted council President Mitra Jalali. And it means “decreased ability to provide services to the community,” said council member Rebecca Noecker.
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Both the police and fire departments hire in waves, holding academies of several months to train officers and firefighters joining their departments.
The fire department had been playing catch-up in hiring until it received funding in 2019 to begin a pilot program to hire 3 percent to 5 percent above their authorized strength, so they’d have new firefighters ready to go as older firefighters left the department. It resulted in being able to meet their daily staffing requirements more often and a decrease in overtime costs, and they’ve continued the program.
The department is currently six firefighters over its authorized strength of 447; the base number of sworn firefighters will grow to 453 next year.
The police department has also begun following the fire department’s model of holding academies twice a year instead of one per year, but “the problem is … there aren’t people that want to be police officers right now,” Henry said. If there is good news, it’s that St. Paul isn’t down as many officers as some other departments, the chief said.
When Henry applied to become a St. Paul police officer in 1995, there were 2,500 applicants for 30 openings. Now, they might get 70 officers to apply and about 65 percent of them wash out in the backgrounding or psychological or physical fitness testing, he said.
The department has a sergeant who works on recruiting full time and they’ve had a program for years to get college students into their ranks. “It is no longer a time to have a program, you have to have about 15,” Henry said.
Injured firefighters
The number of firefighters who are out of work due to being sick or injured has been increasing. In 2019, there would be about 20 at a time. Now, that daily average is around 40, Inks said.
A lot have physical injuries and “a fair amount” are contending with post-traumatic stress disorder or mental health, Inks said, adding that firefighters in their work “see the worst things imaginable … and for them to process that is very challenging.”
This month, the fire department began working with a company to get injured firefighters seen by doctors in 24 to 48 hours, which would typically take two weeks to a month, Inks said.
Busier fire department
St. Paul Fire Department responses have increased 56 percent over the last decade. The city’s firefighters are also emergency medical technicians and/or paramedics, and 63 percent of the increase has been in EMS calls. The increases come as St. Paul’s population grows and ages.
Seven people have died this year in residential fires, a 30-year high.
The city is renovating its closed Station 3, near West Seventh Street and Grand Avenue. When it opens next year, it will bring the number of operating fire stations in the city to 16.
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The first new fire station in St. Paul in 13 years, Station 7, will open next year in Dayton’s Bluff to replace the old station across the street. It will house the state’s first electric fire engine.
Noecker asked Inks about an article that said the city was hoping to get a federal grant for the $1.8 million truck but did not. The Minnesota Reformer wrote about the topic last month.
Inks said the fire truck was never dependent on grant funding.
“I appreciate the fact that they think I can just go spend $2 million on a whim and just someone else figures out how to get the money, but it’s not actually what happens,” he said. The city budgeted money for the truck before purchasing it, while also looking into whether it could be grant-funded, Inks said.
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