Civilian Phoenix police assistants to start handling some patrol calls
Phoenix AZ Nov 25 2017 Beginning next week, the first responder to a minor Phoenix burglary or fender bender may not be a police officer.
There’s a good chance it could instead be a police assistant — a civilian employee hired to help shoulder non-emergency service calls for their sworn counterparts.
On Wednesday, Phoenix police graduated its first class of patrol-call police assistants in 15 years. The move resuscitates a program intended to lower response times and free up sworn officers for violent offenses and crimes in progress.
Phoenix police Chief Jeri Williams said the catalyst for the program was a staffing crisis that spiked response times and overtime pay. The department is struggling to rebuild its ranks after the recession, which prompted a six-year hiring freeze and shrunk the force by 600 officers.
“Sometimes you’ve got to think outside the box,” Williams said.
Department officials asked themselves whether it needed to be a sworn officer answering theft and burglary calls, taking evidence and directing traffic, Williams said.
AZCentral
