Questions about Greenwood’s public safety staffing boiled over into a public debate between city officials and a city council member during a recent council meeting.
For several months, Greenwood City Council member Bradley Pendleton has repeatedly voiced concerns about the city’s public safety staffing during city council meetings. Pendleton brought it up during the city’s budget process, and since then has brought it up whenever new housing developments are on the council’s agenda, most recently on Feb. 23.
During the meeting, the city council was deciding whether to annex 67.2 acres for a new apartment complex and senior living facility when Pendleton made a comment about an alleged gap in public safety staffing. Pendleton is concerned the city is not doing enough to add more police officers or firefighters, and questioned why the city would add housing without increasing public safety staffing.
“Until we address public safety to close that gap, get us closer to where we should be, I don’t see how we continue to support these residential projects,” Pendleton said.
While Pendleton is not against development, he is against adding housing without first addressing public safety needs, he said.
Pendleton submitted his notes about public safety staffing into the record. The document compared the city’s staffing levels to reported standards from the FBI and National Fire Protection Association. The document by itself implies the city’s police and fire departments are understaffed.
Later on, three of the city’s top officials — the deputy mayor, police chief and mayor — spoke out against Pendleton’s comments.
Deputy Mayor Terry McLaughlin, who has spent 43 years in law enforcement including a stint as county sheriff, criticized Pendleton during public comment, saying while he does not disagree with the need for more officers and firefighters, the issue comes down to how to pay for it.
“You’re the first person that’s ever said we need to hire as many police and fire as we can get. I truly do commend you on that, but also the reality is … being able to support that budgetary item comes into play,” McLaughlin said.
It’s nothing personal, but it’s more than just running numbers when it comes to adding staff, McLaughlin said. He also invited Pendleton to come to his office to get a better understanding of the issue.
McLaughlin criticized Pendleton’s use of the FBI standard, saying the agency doesn’t really speak for what the city would actually need in terms of staffing. It’s easy to grasp the FBI number, but everything needs to be a custom fit, he said.
“Are we where we need to be? No, I’ll be the first one to say that,” McLaughlin said. “This is leaps and bounds that the city of Greenwood has made.”
Previous administrations let vacant positions go unfilled that the city was paying health care for, he said.
For the first time in at least 10 years, the city’s police department had every position filled last November, and while the number has dropped due to retirements and other reasons, the department plans to replace one officer who retired and add three more by April, said Jim Ison, police chief.
This is all despite the department receiving fewer applicants, said Jim Ison, police chief.
In Pendleton’s notes, he used the FBI standard of 2 officers per 1,000 people, and based on his notes, the police department is behind by almost 59 officers. The NFPA standard is about 1.7 firefighters per 1,000 people which, based on his notes, means the fire department is behind by about 27 full-time firefighters. Both standards came from each department’s chiefs, and the analysis was his own, he said.
The FBI standard comes from data collected by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. It is a recommendation and is different for every agency. The average ratio for municipalities between 50,000 to 100,000 — Greenwood has about 60,000 residents — is 1.7 officers per 1,000 residents. Greenwood police is at roughly 1.2 officers per 1,000 residents, Ison said.
The city has a plan to add three officers every year for the next five years, which will help chip away at the deficit. As the department receives more officers, it can do extra things or beef up some of its specialty divisions, such as narcotics, with extra manpower, he said.
“I assure you our citizens are safe; we have adequate staffing levels,” Ison said. “We do need more … but right now we are able to provide an adequate level of protection and services to our citizens.”
Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers said his administration has worked tirelessly to address public safety staffing. He also accused Pendleton of complaining about the issue while not doing anything to fix it.
“You’ve complained constantly, but you have not yet once lifted a finger to come into my office and show me how we are going to put these people on (the job),” Myers said. “Do you have an answer for your council members on how we can add all these officers?”
Pendleton told Myers and the council his point was being misconstrued before turning his attention to the redevelopment of the former middle school property. When the development was discussed with the city council last year, officials said there would be a plan to address public safety staffing. The plan has not materialized, Pendleton said, though the departments’ plan is to add three officers a year.
Myers asked Pendleton if the police and fire departments had grown based on the data he received from the police and fire chiefs, to which Pendleton said no. The city has fewer firefighters now than it did in 2012, he said. Myers said that isn’t true.
Pendleton clarified, saying he was referring to the total number of firefighters when accounting for the full-time equivalent for part-time positions.
The full-time equivalent for firefighters was something Pendleton calculated following a discussion with fire officials. To equivocate full-time versus part-time firefighters, he was told that two part-time firefighters equal one full-time firefighter, he said.
Based on Pendleton’s notes, the department’s full-time equivalent was 74 in 2012, compared to 73 in 2022.
About $6.8 million would be needed to get staffing levels up to the numbers reported by Pendleton, something the city can’t afford to do all at once. For example, each new firefighter costs the city about $100,000, including training and equipment, Myers said.
“Why don’t you start trying to help instead of hinder and cause consternation between the departments, which is all you’ve done,” Myers said. “Either do something to help or stop being a cause of the problem.”
Pendleton later said he made a point during the meeting to say he wasn’t going to speak to the exact numbers. With the document he created, he was looking to see what the city’s future needs are, he said.
Pendleton is aware the numbers may not be realistic after talking with both the police and fire chiefs. However, the goal was to point out the city needs to address public safety staffing at the same rate as it adds population, he said.
“I don’t expect us to add 50 firefighters today. … If you look at the developments we are adding, it’s negating the three (additions). We’re staying where we are at,” Pendleton said. “I know there are financial constraints, but we have to look at different methods for this.”
Pendleton’s notes were meant to be a resource rather than an answer to the problem. They were more about accountability, he said.
“If you say there’s a plan then get it going. It can be misconstrued if it’s used as a selling point for a project without being checked,” Pendleton said, referring to the middle school project.
It also comes down to a difference in beliefs about how departments are staffed. Some people believe a department should have four full-time firefighters on an engine all the time, but Greenwood goes a different route by having three full-time firefighters and one part-time on an engine, Myers said.
It makes more sense financially for the city to have one part-time firefighter on an engine so that if someone needs to take a vacation day, the part-timer could fill in instead of the city paying time-and-a-half for a full-time employee. City staff has tried to explain this to Pendleton, Myers said. Pendleton’s comments during the recent council meeting were the last straw for city officials.
Pendleton has remained vocal about his disapproval of additional housing without addressing public safety first, and he voted against raises for the city council last year for a similar reason. He thought that money should be used for public safety, he said.
“We need to look at the bigger picture. We need to look more at what’s the priority,” Pendleton said. “Maybe we could keep the population in check to get staffing up. It doesn’t have to be up to what the charts show, but getting closer.”
