Nampa police outline staffing shortfalls, tech gains and a $560,000 five-year drone proposal

A captain from the Nampa Police Department told the City Council at a workshop that technology and policy changes have improved investigative speed but that significant patrol staffing gaps remain, and presented a proposed five-year drone-as-first-responder (DFR) program with an estimated all-in cost of $560,000.

The captain said the department has implemented AI-assisted report-writing that "has saved us a tremendous amount of time," using body-camera and jail audio to auto-generate narratives that officers review and sign off on. Staff also rolled out a linking tool (referred to in the presentation as "Paragrin") that aggregates valley-wide contact and investigative data to speed cross-jurisdictional searches.

Why it matters: Council members were presented performance targets for FY27 (a Group A crime metric of 55 per 10,000, a crash rate under 20 per 1,000 population, a 45% case clearance rate and a 12-minute priority-one response-time goal) and a staffing assessment that shows a persistent gap between current patrol staffing and recommended levels. The department argued that new technology reduces time spent on investigations and records work but does not eliminate the need for additional patrol officers to maintain response coverage as the city grows.

Details and debate: The department cited a 2024 policing-allocation-model (PAM) assessment that recommended 27 additional patrol and traffic officers; staff said six of those positions have been filled, six remain open, and hiring plus training pipelines (about 34 weeks from academy start to independent patrol status) make reach-for targets long-term. The captain urged adding 17 officers to raise minimum staffing across key hours.

The presentation included a request for two additional real-time crime center (RTC) technicians. Staff said those technicians would increase RTC coverage from roughly 10 hours a day to about 20 hours and would serve as the initial pilots for an expanded drone program to support patrol operations.

On drones, presenters summarized vendor demonstrations and a proposed DFR package the department estimates will cost $560,000 total over five years (presenters clarified this can be paid as a lump sum or spread across the five-year term). The proposal would place drones at two launch sites and provide two to three drones; staff described use cases including searches for armed suspects, shootings and other high-risk incidents and emphasized safety benefits for officers arriving on scene.

Council members asked about refresh cycles, battery and redundancy operations and whether technology would be outdated mid-contract; staff said some vendors offer refreshes and warranties and that operational funding could come from prior-year rollover and current budget allocations. The captain also provided a rough average annual fully loaded cost for a patrol hire of about $120,000'$125,000 and estimated initial equipment costs of roughly $27,000 for first-year kitting.

What happens next: The captain said Lieutenant Shepard will bring a detailed bid and procurement recommendation to council in a future agenda item; budget deliberations and discussions of funding sources (impact fees, rollovers, or a potential levy) were flagged as the next steps.

Ending: Council asked staff for follow-up materials on pipeline timing, cost-per-officer scenarios and procurement options; the police presentation concluded before the meeting moved into the animal-control update.