$924,019 Shifted To Police Budget Covers Command Changes, New Positions, Social Workers

  • Wednesday, September 14, 2022

City officials said they are adding $924,019 to the police budget as part of a $1.9 million budget adjustment.

Much of the funding for the budget amendments will be coming from money set aside for contingencies, and the overall budget will not be affected, Chief Financial Officer Brent Goldberg said.

He said $565,000 will be going for police changes and additions.

Those include a new police command setup:

Chief of Police- Celeste Murphy

Executive Chief- Glenn Scruggs

Executive Chief- Harry Sommers
 
Chief of Staff- Nathan Vaughn
 
Assistant Chief- Jerome Halbert
 
Assistant Chief- Jerri Sutton
 
Major- Jonathan Bryant
 
Major- Jon Chambers
 
Major- Bakari Welles
 
Major- Daniel Jones
 
Major Scott Fulgham
 
The executive chiefs and majors are new positions. Assistant chiefs dropped from four to two. Captains went from seven to six and lieutenants from 20 to 16.
 
The police department will be adding a director of Organizational Development & Training, a Development Manager, a director of Public Affairs and four Intelligence Analysts.
 
Joda Thongnopnua, the mayor's chief of staff, said the Intelligence Analysts will be focusing on social media. He said, "A lot of crime starts on social media. They might see something on Tick Tock or Facebook and then we might see some retaliation."
 
There will be three social worker civilian positions transferred to Police from Community Health. An accountant in Human Resources who deals mainly with police finances will be moved to Police.
 
Four vacant police technical positions will be eliminated.
 
Total non-sworn positions will increase from 116 to 123. Sworn positions will stay at 477.
 
Chief Murphy said one aim is to have more visibility in the community for sworn officers. She said command changes were designed to get high-ranking personnel "closer to the people and help the community lines get a little better."
 
On the new director of Public Affairs, she said, "We have been deficient in our communication. We need to be able to communicate to the public as transparently as we can." 

 

 

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