OGDEN -- An ambitious plan aimed at reducing crime and helping folks feel safe when they visit Ogden's downtown business district was unveiled Tuesday during a City Council work session.
The proposal, an eight-year plan that calls for the hiring of 10 new police officers using federal grants and local tax dollars, is the first major initiative from the new administration of Mayor Matt Godfrey.Billed as the "Mayor's Crime Reduction Plan," the initiative is intended to respond to public concerns about crime and individual safety that surfaced during the mayoral election campaign last fall.
The proposal would put four full-time police officers in local schools, position two new officers in downtown Ogden to increase the police presence there, provide two more "narcotics community oriented policing" officers and hire two crime analysis specialists.
Police Chief Jon Greiner said it will take about eight months to get the new officers trained and ready for duty. Within a year after that, police hope to increase arrests of street-level drug dealers by 25 percent.
Godfrey also wants the department to reduce overall crime another 15 percent. Ogden police achieved an 11 percent decrease in the the rate of serious crime rates during 1999, and calls for service dropped by 5.4 percent.
Reducing overall crime another 15 percent is a tall order, the police chief conceded, but the department is committed to making the plan work.
"The new mayor wants us to continue with out community-oriented policing efforts," Greiner said, "and we've set some lofty goals to ensure Ogden is a safer place to live and to change the perception" that the city is unsafe.
Godfrey's initiative estimates "average annual ongoing costs for the first eight years would be approximately $285,000" in the form of a general fund allocation. Over eight years, the cost of adding the extra police officers would be about $2.28 million.
It also anticipated Ogden will be able to pick up about $2.5 million in federal grants money to help fund the high-tech equipment needed for the crime analysis officers.
Council Chairman John Wolfe said Wednesday that council members were receptive but cautious about the mayor's plan.
"It's a good plan," he said. "The tough problem, of course, is finding the money when we're trying to balance a budget that is already difficult.
"We're not going to raise taxes -- I can guarantee that -- and the mayor wants to cut taxes" while finding money for crime reduction, Wolfe added. "That causes me some concern."
Godfrey anticipates that after eight years, the city will no longer need to set aside a general fund appropriation for the crime reduction plan because the new Ogden Regional Business and Industrial Center should be generating enough revenue to cover the ongoing public safety costs.
The mayor's cost projections do not include the cost of putting two full-time officers in Ogden and Ben Lomond high schools and half-time officers in the Ogden School District's four middle schools.
In addition to a $500,000 grant that would offset expenses for the first three years, the school district would have to come up with $1.49 million from its own coffers through the eight-year program period unless other federal grants are obtained.
The council won't act on the mayor's budget request until May or June when it meets to hammer out an overall city budget for fiscal 2001.