Brentwood to Bring Back Reserve Police Officer Program

The Brentwood City Council voted this past Tuesday at authorize the Brentwood Police Department to re-establish its reserve program that will bring on 10-additional reserve police officers.

The Program actually dates as far back as the 1960’s, while in the 1970-1980’s the program had twice as many reserves as full time officers. The significance of the program is it puts extra people out of the street for free—minus training and equipment costs.

The program originally went away after the State training requirements changed which took a lot of good candidates out of the running as it meant a reserve officer (volunteer) was trained like a full-time police officer in terms of time commitment.

Times have improved and now folks are interested in volunteering.

“Where we are at now is times have changed. Others agencies in the county including Sheriff’s Department still have a strong reserve program. Now that Brentwood has grown, population is getting up, a lot of community involvement. We are pushing this community police, it’s not a word or phrase, we are doing it. We have people calling all the time asking about a reserve program. The interest is back,” said Captain James Martinez on Tuesday night to the city council.

“The Police Department is suggesting adding 10-additional reserve officers.  If all 10 want to come in, they will put them to work,” explained Martinez . “If you have an emergency situation, perimeters, you call these people; they come on in and work. We use them for a lot of things.”

There are many benefits to not only the offices, but to the community by ensuring officers remain on the street.

“Where it really means a lot to us, during the day, when you have a lot of cop cars out and there is an arrest, you now take people off the street. Seeing how it goes now, it takes two people to handle an arrest so it takes two people off the street and then transport to Martinez,” said Martinez.

The reserves provide a bang for the buck on the weekends and do the transports for us to leave the officers on the street.

“The Reserve Police Officer Program will benefit the entire City of Brentwood. The Reserves will reduce the down time officers and Community Service Officers are currently experiencing.  By freeing up the regular personnel from the time consuming task they are currently doing, officer availability will increase,” explained Martinez. “As a result, officers will remain in service, in the field and available to respond to calls and conduct enforcement activities.”

The reserve officers are always under the supervision of a regular police officer, but after proper training, they may provide support services such as:

• Prisoner transports—could take up to six-hours of time
• Traffic control
• Public event security
• Crime scene and evidence security
• Patrol with a full time police officer
• Crime prevention
• Various administrative functions.

By implementing the program, the goal is to ensure greater availability in the police force.

“This is an opportunity for the Brentwood Police Department to deploy support personnel in the field that will increase the availability of the full time Police Officers and Community Service Officers on patrol,” said  Martinez.

When asked where this program will most help the Department, Martinez did not hesitate with an answer.

“The most significant benefits to the department will be in two areas, patrol on the street and in holding facility operations, specifically for prisoner transports to county jail in Martinez.  For patrol, a Reserve in the car (a two person unit) results in built in cover/assistance which can free up other officers on duty.  Single car units (which we have) requires officers from a different patrol area to respond for cover taking that officer out of service for calls in their area and can cause a delayed response to pending calls,” said Martinez.

Then there is the arrest aspect which doesn’t end on the street, you have other procedures which are time consuming.

“As for arrest, a Reserve will be able to assist and expedite booking procedures and they can perform prisoner transports.  Now, prisoner transports to the jail in Martinez are taking a police officer or Community Service Officer off of the street and out of service for 3-6 hours depending on the day and time regularly,” said Martinez.

The financial impact of the program is straight forward, in the event the department selects a recruit who has not completed the required training models, the current total cost for reach trainee for each model is $1,386. If the recruit has some training, the cost is reduced. In addition, cost associated with the hiring process is expected to hit around $5,000.

The department would provide all necessary safety equipment including ballistic vest, portable radio, a camera, as well as one uniform, at cost of $11,780 per Reserve. In return for providing hours of uncompensated service to the community, the department would provide a uniform cleaning allowance of $25 a month.  In the rare event their appearance is required in court; a maximum $100 would be allocated to the Reserve Police Officer for his/her court appearance.

For a reserve who is willing to go on-call for weekend transports, they would be paid $100 per weekend for committing to respond when needed thus freeing up the Police Officers and Community Service Officers to remain available for service to the city.

According to the staff report, the estimated costs associated with the Reserve Police Officer Program for fiscal year 2013/14 are $136,660 for hiring, training and equipment costs and salary and benefit costs of $16,390  for a total of $153,050. Some of the costs may be offset by overtime and other savings.

The thing to remember here is a reserve officer must work at least 20-hours a month—which pays for itself pretty quickly when you figure they are bringing on 10-reserve officers.

Still, even with the cost, it’s a great investment for the community and the council showed its commitment to the Police Department and public safety to re-invest.

“It shows that the city places a high priority on public safety.  It also demonstrates that the city understands that front line law enforcement efforts on the street are necessary to maintain a safe community and the quality of life Brentwood residents have come to expect,” said Martinez.

According to Martinez, the Police Department will advertise and recruit for the position of Reserve Police Officer in the next 30-days.  Once candidates are selected they will go through the same hiring process as a regular sworn police officer.  Depending on an individual’s required training and the availability of upcoming Reserve Training Modules at the police academy, it is anticipated that it will take 6-12 months to get Reserve Police Officers trained and on the street.

The Reserve Police Officer Training consist of (3) levels.  Levels 3 and 2 are required prior to Reserve Officers starting a Field Training Program on the street with a training officer.

In speaking with Police Chief Mark Evenson shared that this is an exciting opportunity for Brentwood to be able to put more uniformed police officers on the street and provide needed assistance to the hard working patrol officers.

Here is a link to the staff report which will provide more information on this program.