Police and fire chiefs outline staffing shortfalls, joint ICS training and May drone rollout

Chiefs for the city’s public safety departments briefed the Police and Fire Commission on staffing, interagency training and a drone first-responder program during the commission’s Jan. 8 meeting.

The chiefs said they expect a spring recruit class to fill roughly four openings, with possible over-hires to cover long-term injuries and military deployments. “We anticipate to have 4 openings,” a chief said, and department representatives reported eight candidates currently in background checks, five recruits starting in the academy last Monday, seven retirements expected this year and three officers on long-term military leave. The chief added the city currently has 175 sworn positions filled, of which 158 are fully deployable.

Commissioners and chiefs described expanded joint training and adoption of an incident command system (ICS) model so police and fire can work under a shared command structure at large incidents and events such as Packers games. One chief said the ICS approach is already used for large public events and tactical calls and that the agencies are working to bring patrol officers and patrol-level incident leadership into that model.

On the drone program, the chiefs said the city council has approved the initiative and staff are preparing policy, training and the technical integrations required for the equipment to work with the computer-aided dispatch system. “We are aiming for implementation of this drone program in May,” a chief said. The chiefs also said they plan to include a review of the city’s license-plate-reader policy while drafting drone policy because the same vendor provides both systems.

Funding for the first year was described as a mix of one-time funds, leftover ARPA money, and some fire-department funds and reimbursements; after the first year the chief said the program would shift to the general fund. Meeting remarks about the program’s cost were inconsistent: a chief stated the vendor waived “more than $1,000,000 in start up costs,” and described the program as having a $170,000 figure in the record (the transcript contains conflicting statements saying $170,000 may cover three years and elsewhere saying it covers five years). The commission did not vote on funding during the public portion of this meeting.

Chiefs noted internal interest among officers and said the department intends to be public about the rollout to show the community how the technology will be used and to address privacy concerns. The chiefs said they also expect the program could aid recruiting.

The commission took no further action on the drone program at this meeting; members asked that policy and technical details be finalized before implementation.