FY2021 Iowa City Police Department Budget Summary
The City of Iowa City’s proposed and adopted budgets are posted annually at www.icgov.org/budget and include budget summaries and narrative for each department.
ICPD Department-Wide Budget Summary
Department-Wide Expenditure & Revenue Summary
Based on the Fiscal Year 2021 revised budget, the Police Department is 87.85% funded by property tax support. The remaining revenue sources are broken out in the chart below:
Police Department employee wages and benefits expenses account for 86.52% ($13,555,633) of total department expenditures, with the bulk of this budget funding sworn officers (85.00 FTE). Additionally, the FY2021 police budget includes funding for 24.26 civilian police employees.
A summary of personnel expenses by division and breakdown of supplies & services expenses are included in the division sections below.
Expenditure Budget by Division
*Animal Services expenses are budgeted under the Support & Services division.
ICPD Division Expenditure Budget Summaries
Police Administration
The Police Administration division is supported by 2.00 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) employees which includes the Police Chief and an Administrative Coordinator.
The Services expenditures increased by 16.4% in fiscal year 2021 primarily due to the addition of $50,000 for a space needs study.
Support Services
Support Services provides support and services such as records retention and dissemination, customer service, property and evidence management, training and accreditation efforts, community outreach, and animal services.
The Police Department’s Support Services division is supported by 29.26 FTE, including Animal Services (6.26 FTE), Community Service Officers (8.00 FTE), a Community Outreach Assistant (1.00 FTE), a Computer Systems Analysis (1.00 FTE), Records Technicians (4.00 FTE), and sworn officers (8.00 FTE).
The increase in FY 2020 for Services is due to $250,000 that was allocated for deer population management.
A major focus of the Support Services division has been the fulfillment of the 2020 Strategic Plan Goal “Enhance Community Engagement and Intergovernmental relations, Foster Healthy Neighborhoods throughout the City & Advance Social Justice and Racial Equity.”
Recent efforts aimed at this goal include the closing of the southside substation, completion of two grants ($750,000) obtained to empower victims, reduce chronic homelessness, and reduce gender bias in investigations, and a conscious effort to increase foot patrol and build relationships through non-enforcement interactions with the community.
Additionally, in calendar year 2019, the ICPD has documented participation in 394 community outreach events, 149 community presentations, 3 public education efforts on rights, and 119 community partnership events.
Field Operations
The Field Operations Division includes patrol and investigations. Patrol is the largest activity in the department and, in addition to traditional patrol units, includes canine units, bicycle officers, community service officers, a Crisis Negotiation Team, and special response and crime scene teams. The Investigations activity contributes to criminal investigations and works with the Johnson County Drug Task Force, Domestic Abuse, and a Street Crimes unit.
The Police Department’s Field Operations Division is supported by 78.00 FTE, which includes 1 captain, 4 lieutenants, 8 sergeants, 63 officers, and 2 Community Service Officers (CSOs).
Activity expenditures in the Field Operations division include patrol, investigations, criminal forfeitures, contracted patrol, and police grants (Johnson County Task Force, Stop Violence, and International Association of Chiefs of Police):
Recently, Field Operations has focused on increasing training and community relations among the largest division of Police Department employees. Efforts include beginning Threat Assessment training to increase community safety and reduce arrests, completing Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) and refresher training for all officers, and increasing patrol presence at community events and in neighborhoods for non-enforcement purposes.
Additionally, the unit was successful in working with community groups to enact a City Ordinance on Hate Crimes and implementing internal processes to track and fully investigate such activities (Ord. 17-4692).