Franklin plans to invest in its police department next year, growing its budget by about 6.5%, and equipping all of its officers and cars with cameras.
The city will add one new employee next year, a licensed crisis intervention officer to focus solely on mental health and diversity training at the police department and within the community. The crisis intervention officer will also serve as a mental health outreach coordinator, helping the community with drug addiction rehabilitation.
"A lot of people are talking about defunding the police. We’re not. And as we were all talking one-on-one, none of us are for that. We’re actually adding to our police department," Mayor Steve Barnett said during a budget presentation Thursday night.
The additional employee, plus a 2-3% pay hike for most and rising costs of services, will grow the city’s budget by 3% next year to $24.9 million. The city’s net assessed value improved by about 6%.
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"Since 2017, we’re averaging 5.25% a year on assessed value. That just goes to show that what we’re doing is working. We’re all doing a good job of getting people here and fixing our city up," Barnett said.
Barnett has proposed the 2021 spending plan to the city council, which will vote on it Sept. 21.
Departments receiving the most significant increases under the proposed plan are Information Technology and Board of Works, as well as the police and fire departments.
Information Technology is getting a nearly 57% increase due to the on-boarding of police body cameras, which will cost the city about $120,000 a year for five years, and another $35,000 for improved technology and software that will allow the city’s planning department to streamline business processes on its website, and the city to live stream public meetings, Barnett said.
The Board of Works budget will increase by nearly 3% due to rising costs associated with curbside trash collection and recycling, and plans to add street lights and continue repaving alleys and sidewalks, he said.
In total, more than 38% of city spending goes to public safety: training, equipping and paying police officers and firefighters.
The fire department’s budget would increase by about 2.5%, bringing it to more than $5 million for the first time. But the fire department is not adding any firefighters in 2021.
Franklin police has wanted body cameras for years, but the funding wasn’t there, Chief Kirby Cochran has said.
The city will buy BodyWorn cameras for all 53 police officers and their patrol cars, and hopes to have those on-boarded early next year, Barnett said.
"We didn’t make a knee-jerk decision. This is something that we spent a lot of time on so we could get the biggest bang for our buck," he said.
The Greenwood Police Department and Johnson County Sheriff’s Office are the only other departments in the county that use body cameras. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department recently took the leap as well.
The city’s budget is funded primarily with property tax dollars and with tax dollars collected by the state, such as the gas tax, then funneled back to communities. The city’s budget also covers salaries, operating and equipment costs for all departments. After the city council approves the budget, state officials will review the spending plan and estimated tax revenue for the year.
