Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Police Department

TO:	Tom Markus, City Manager
FROM:	Tarik Khatib, Chief of Police
CC:	Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager
	Casey Toomay, Assistant City Manager
	Brandon McGuire, Assistant to the City Manager
DATE:	May 17, 2016
RE:	Fireworks Enforcement Options

Background

On May 10, 2016, an overview of the Lawrence Police Department’s fireworks enforcement protocols was presented the Lawrence City Commission. The City Commission asked staff to present additional information in regards to enforcement options and the related personnel costs. This document is a follow-up to the Memorandum, Fireworks Enforcement, dated April 7, 2016.

Personnel Costs

The base hourly rate of pay for a police officer is $20.76 (starting) to $35.74 (top of scale). The average officer is currently being compensated at a rate of $30 per hour. This figure will be utilized for the purpose of this analysis.

Staffing additional officers beyond those that are regularly scheduled to work to conduct a special fireworks enforcement initiative would be compensated at the overtime rate, or $45 ($30/h x 1.5) per hour. Those that would do so on the 4^th of July, which is a City Holiday, would be compensated at $75 ($45/h overtime rate, plus the regular holiday premium pay of $30/h) per hour.

Staffing

The Department does not have the personnel resources to deploy additional officers throughout the entire period of time that fireworks would likely be used. I believe the most effective utilization of additional personnel would be to deploy them in a graduated approach over a specific time period on July 2, 3, and 4^th. Below is one suggestion:

July 2

Number of Officers	Rate of Pay	Hours Worked	Total
2	$90 ($45 X 2)	8	$720

July 3

Number of Officers	Rate of Pay	Hours Worked	Total
4	$180 ($45 X 4)	8	$1,440

July 4

Number of Officers	Rate of Pay	Hours Worked	Total
4	$300 ($75 X 4)	8	$2,400

The funds to staff the positions is not insignificant, however, it is not the limiting factor. The limiting factor is the availability of officers to work. Many have plans over the holidays as others do. Cancelling days off and changing work schedules absent an emergency or larger reason to so do would be disruptive. Therefore, the Department would need to rely on those willing to volunteer to work the extra duties before making it mandatory. In addition, the Department provides officers to be present during the public displays and crowds gathered in the downtown/river levee area on the 4^th of July.

Enforcement Process

When an offender can be identified by the officer, options include a warning, a warning with a confiscation of items, or a citation with a confiscation of items. Due to documentation and destruction of the fireworks, a typical confiscation or confiscation with a citation requires at least 30 minutes of the officer’s time. Absent being taken off task due to a higher priority incident, an officer dedicating their time solely to fireworks enforcement could be expected to handle two incidents an hour that result in confiscation of fireworks or confiscation of fireworks and the issuance of a citation. If the offender is a juvenile, this may take significantly longer due to the fact a criminal citation cannot be issued to a juvenile. It is important to not too closely associate a number of tickets that could/should be issued per hour by each officer so as to not create a “quota” and negatively impact the ability of the officer to use discretion in each situation.

A caveat to any expectation of enforcement actions taken by officers (whether regularly scheduled to work or on an overtime duty status) is the fact that at any given moment an incident could occur that would cause the officers to be re-tasked elsewhere. These include fights, domestic disturbances, and other higher priority calls. Not including self-initiated calls, July, 2015, had the second highest monthly number (3,969) of Calls for Service (CFS). Similarly, July 4, 2015 had the highest number of non-self-initiated CFS (213, including the fireworks related ones) in any day of that year. The time period is expected to already be very busy.

Enforcement Impact

It remains unclear if additional enforcement would impact fireworks use. In 2014, the Department made a concerted effort to issue more citations for violation of the fireworks ordinance. The following year saw the most (261) fireworks related CFS in the eight year measurement period.

Recommendation

Subject to the availability of officers on a volunteer basis, the Lawrence Police Department will make a more concerted effort to enforce the fireworks ban. These additional personnel should still retain the discretion to either confiscate or confiscate and issue a citation when handling calls and interacting with citizens. It is also recommended that several years of statistics should be tracked going forward based on the same amount or additional recourses assigned each year. In this manner, we may be able to better determine whether increased enforcement is effective.