Background/Discussion
The Council Bluffs Police Department (CBPD) has been diligently managing its current authorized strength of 143 positions, which includes both sworn officers and civilian support staff. To date, the CBPD employs 113 sworn officers and 22 civilians for a total of 135 positions.
Consistent with the diligent management of its current authorized strength, the CBPD is requesting to abolish one Records Technician I position that was recently vacated. Additionally, the CBPD requests to establish two new civilian positions; a Criminal Intelligence Analyst and a Management Systems Specialist, increasing our total number of civilian employees to 23.
While recruiting, hiring, and retaining sworn officers remains CBPD’s highest priority, it has become increasingly clear the CBPD requires additional civilian expertise to maximize the effectiveness of its sworn officers. Hiring civilian specialists in the areas of data analysis and criminal intelligence will enable the CBPD to make more data-driven strategic decisions and better focus investigative efforts.
The CBPD previously demonstrated that hiring specialized civilian employees enables sworn officers to work more efficiently. In the late 1990s, the CBPD created Identification Technician positions, more commonly known as crime scene investigators (CSIs). These positions perform highly technical support tasks which free up officers to perform other duties central to their roles as law enforcement officers such as patrol, arrest, and interrogation.
Similarly, the Criminal Intelligence Analyst will collect, analyze, and disseminate intelligence and thereby support criminal investigations and free up time sworn officers would otherwise spend performing these tasks. The Management System Specialist will analyze data related to crime trends, calls for service, response times, and strategic goals to ensure efficient utilization of CBPD resources.
The roles of Management Systems Specialist and Criminal Intelligence Analyst have been adopted and validated at other midsized and large law enforcement agencies across the United States. The establishment of these two positions represent a strong investment in technical knowledge workers that will greatly improve the CBPD’s effectiveness.
As the CBPD further embraces data-driven management and intelligence-based policing, it will continue to diligently manage its authorized strength of civilian staff. The CBPD is committed to ensure our sworn officers are properly supported and resources are efficiently used to continually improve the quality of life and attractiveness of the city of Council Bluffs.