The likelihood of fully staffing the department is low due to the city’s current budget crisis, Police Chief Randy Adams said.
“It makes a difficult challenge because I think the City Council, management and myself and everybody would like to be able to grow the department, but it takes money and funding to do that, and right now, we are kind of in a budget meltdown and running out of money just to pay for existing staff,” he said. “If we are unable to grow the department, we probably can’t do the necessary crime prevention programs that I think help suppress the crime rate.”
The department released its 2008 crime statistics Tuesday, and they showed that property crimes went up 12% from 2007 while violent crimes decreased 6% over the same period.
“We are trying very hard to keep the streets safe because once you lose them ... you never get them back completely,” said Capt. Ray Edey of the Investigative Services Bureau. “We are working very hard in partnership with all the other city divisions, with the community and the schools, in trying to keep a lid on things and trying to sustain the quality of life in Glendale, and we are holding our own, but we have been losing some ground. That’s undeniable.”
Increased calls for service, higher population and fewer officers than other cities contributed to the crime increase, said Edey, who prepared the department’s report.
“I really think staffing has a lot to do with what we are seeing,” he said.
Glendale is a destination community and daytime population swells to about 500,000, so the number of officers that are on duty should be higher, Edey said.
