From the Councilman Randy Corman blog.
Renton would dedicate 36 police officers,
including 5 detectives, to patrol and investigate crimes on West Hill.
West Hill would be covered by an all-new police "West Sector"; Renton
police currently divide the city into a North Sector and a South Sector.
The
new West Sector would have one new Patrol Commander, four new patrol
sergeants, 24 new patrol officers, and two motorcycle officers-- all
dedicated to patrolling the West Hill. In addition, there would be a
new detective supervisor and four new detectives dedicated to crime
resolution on West Hill. When scheduled around the clock, this works
out to a typical presence of seven officers. This will surge up to nine
officers during the hours the motorcycle officers are patrolling. The
numbers on patrol will occasionally dip below seven during times of
significant illness or vacation, but would never drop below a minumum of
five commisioned armed officers at any hour of the day or night.
This
compares to our understanding that King County typically staffs West
Hill with two deputies, which drops to one if one is needed for
transport or back-up elsewhere.
In summary, it appears Renton
would provide approximately three or four times as much police presence
on West Hill as King County currently provides, with greater dedication
of detective support.
In addition, Chief Milosevich tells me that
the Renton plan would also provide seven non-commissioned police
personnel dedicated to West Hill crime resolution, prosecution, and
prevention, and animal control. New evidence technicians, records
specialists, a training export, a community crime prevention/block watch
coordinator, and a new animal control officer would fill these needs.
Finally,
Developmental Services would be providing a new code enforcement
officer for West Hill, specifically to enforce clean-up of derelict
buildings and other code-violation nuisances. King County just has a
few of these inspectors covering the whole county, so this would be a
major increase in attention to code enforcement. And for those owners
who need permits to repair their derelict buildings, Renton has the
staffing and procedures to process these much quicker than King County.