DeKalb city officials look to expand police department’s community service support division

DeKALB – DeKalb city officials are looking at doubling the police department’s community support services division ahead of fiscal year 2021 discussions.

DeKalb City Manager Bill Nicklas said during a meeting of the city's Human Relations Commission Tuesday his office put together a provisional draft proposal that would entail designating 12 full time officers, including two crisis intervention officers and three school resource officers, and 15 part time workers, including a crime-free housing coordinator and three mental health workers devoted to community support services. There are currently three full time and 10 part time employees in similar roles, according to city documents.

Nicklas said the city previously had a social services branch that broke down to three school resource officers and three community service officers, who would do downtown parking patrol and would help people open cars and homes they were locked out of. But city staff wanted to do better than that in light of recent civil rights related events, he said.

“Rather than just take baby steps, I thought it was important for the community to take some longer steps,” Nicklas said.

The FY21 budget draft hasn’t yet been released in full, but Nicklas said he anticipates going over the drafted plan with City Council during the city’s Finance Advisory Committee meeting scheduled for Monday.

According to draft budget documents, the proposed department breakdown would include three branches – patrol, investigations and community support services. Two full time officers would transition from their prior role to the crisis intervention team, which would partner with the department's social worker team to coordinate responses to certain mental health service calls and help provide those who encounter police often with longer term social service.

The update comes after months of discussions with police, community meetings, marches and protests with significant calls for police reform following the death of 46-year-old Minneapolis man George Floyd.

City officials in July said police department restructuring would designate all operations under two categories – community services and violence prevention – and the city council also approved adding a licensed social worker from the Northwestern Medicine Ben Gordon Center to be stationed at the department to help respond to 911 calls.

Nicklas said the proposal is still a working document and increased expenses are expected if the police department reconfigurement plan is approved. He said the city isn't doing more beyond the proposed FY2021 budget draft this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic knocking the city flat financially.

"But I think it's a major committment in spite of that," Nicklas said.

Commission member Joe Gastiger said he believes the proposed changes are a commendable move forward for the city. He said he has heard from police officials that officers spend a lot of time with 'frequent fliers,' or those who have regular encounters with law enforcement, and over time end up building relationships.

“But our police officers are not social workers. … I’m sure they’re compassionate people, but they don’t have that kind of training and it takes an awful lot of their time and it takes them away from other places where other citizens might be in danger," Gastiger said. "So I think to rely upon professionally trained people to deal with people who are having a tough time is just an excellent first step.”

While the city has a good idea of what doesn't work in researching what other communities have done, Nicklas said, there's still some risk in changing how the city does things and figuring out what ultimately works.

“So there’s a lot to learn, I want to stress,” Nicklas said. “And we have to start at some point.”