A study of Dunwoody’s police department by the consulting firm BerryDunn reveals that the department is understaffed and inexperienced, according to a final report released last week.
The two-year study, which involved community input, research, and interviews with 50 staff, government officials, and community members, produced 33 recommendations to improve the department’s leadership, communication, staff development, operations, staffing, technology, and training.
The Dunwoody City Council was to hear a presentation about the study and its findings at the Oct. 30 city council meeting.
City officials call the 338-page report encouraging
“This assessment is an encouraging endorsement of current leadership, practices, and policies, but it also provides a road map for improvement,” Dunwoody City Manager Eric Linton said. “I was particularly pleased that BerryDunn described Dunwoody Police as one of the most well-run organizations its team has studied, giving significant credit to Chief Grogan as the primary architect.”
The report noted in the summary that “notwithstanding the findings and recommendations outlined in this report, the DPD is a generally efficient and effective agency with a commitment to community policing, and staff provided BerryDunn with several examples of collaborative problem-solving efforts.”
The report acknowledged that several of the perceived deficiencies in the department have already been either addressed or acknowledged.
The most critical finding of the report involved staffing and allocation of services in the patrol division.
“The staffing levels in patrol are not optimized and do not meet operational demands,” the report said. “The DPD should add three patrol officers to primary CFS (Call For Service) response in the UPD (Uniform Police Department), adjusting the allocated total of sworn primary response patrol staff to 33.”
The report also listed as a top concern the attrition within the department, which it called a “critical workforce shortage, particularly for sworn personnel.” The study recommended that the police department “examine and revise its recruiting, hiring, and retention practices, to improve its ability to maintain a stable workforce, and to reach and maintain optimal staffing levels.”
It also found that the department “dispatches officers to numerous CFS that do not require a sworn officer response. This volume of activity is impeding the ability to focus officer CFS response to more critical and demanding incidents.”
High-priority recommendations included improving internal communication, focusing on positive leadership, changes to the way that property and intake storage are managed, developing a better system to collect data, and revisions to its investigative reporting methods.
The report pointed out the relative inexperience of the department, noting that 38% of those in the rank of police officer have less than one year of experience and 82% in that same division have less than five years of experience.
The report notes that 23% of the total departmental sworn staff have less than one year of experience and 51% have five years or less.
“The general youthfulness particularly at the police officer rank and, consequently, on patrol, is somewhat balanced by experience throughout the department and its ranks where almost one-half of total sworn staffing has over five years of experience and over one-third of total sworn staffing has more than 10 years of experience,” the report noted. “Civilian staff experience is distributed similarly to sworn staffing with 58% of civilian staff under five years of experience and 42% over five years of experience.”
The report also noted that one of the shortfalls in the department is a lack of a formal staff development system that “includes systems or mechanisms for consistent coaching, mentoring, or succession planning.”
It also said because of the lag time associated with hiring and providing initial training for officers, “the DPD is constantly working without its full complement of personnel.”
The BerryDunn report did have some kudos for the manner in which the department is operating, including some leadership engagement activities, training for supervisors on 21st Century Policing Pillars, the manner in which monthly supervisor meetings are conducted, and the $800 monthly stipend for officers who live in Dunwoody.
“This report gives us great guidance on making the department more efficient and effective,” Dunwoody Mayor Lynn Deutsch said. “I am pleased with both the tone and tenor of the report and the recommendations. City council looks forward to working to make the necessary investments to implement the report.”
