Funds for the force From the cover
The overview
In the budget
Removed items City Council removed several items from the budget to set a lower tax rate, such as:
A large portion of this year’s budget will fund items related to public safety, including:
Priorities in the 2024-25 budget are hiring new police officers, funding a crime victim specialist, adding paramedics and purchasing flock safety cameras, City Manager Sharon Citino said. “I’m happy to see that the new officers were included in the budget,” Police Chief Onesimo Lopez said. “This shows that the City Council as a body is responsive to citizen concerns and is committed to public safety in Bellaire.” Mayor Gus Pappas said Bellaire will likely need to raise taxes to fund the items that were left off of the FY 2024-25 budget, which included capital improvement projects and hiring city personnel. A city must get voter approval for its tax rate if revenue raised from existing property would increase by more than 3.5% from the previous year. “In the current climate, ... we have to make a lot of tough trade-offs,” Pappas said. “It’s very difficult to operate inside the 3.5% revenue cap in the environment we are in. If we can’t get what we need inside the voter-approval rate, then we will need to go to the voters to raise taxes in the future.”
New ambulance: $364,000
Feld Park lighting and netting: $270,000
Updated 10-year parks master plan: $150,000
Four marked patrol cars: $353,000
Deputy city clerk: $86,000
Three new police officers: $318,000
New fire marshal: $70,000
Crime victim specialist: $23,000
Risk manager, safety and training specialist: $58,000
Four flock safety cameras: $14,600
Gear for officers: $10,800
Consultant for economic development: $50,000
SOURCE: CITY OF BELLAIRE/COMMUNITY IMPACT
Police, fire response over the years
Zooming in
Key
Calls for service
Average response time
answering calls for service. Lopez said his officers are in the 70%-80% range. That time is expected to drop between 50%-60% with the new hires, Lopez said. This will allow officers more time for proactive policing such as traffic stops and active patrol, he said. Four stationary flock cameras will also assist with traffic and crime enforcement, Lopez said. The devices are used to read license plates and capture images of vehicles, according to the Flock Safety website, the manufacturer of the cameras. Emergency medical services will also see a boost in personnel with a handful of part-time paramedics added in the budget to staff a second primary ambulance. Bellaire Fire Chief Deacon Tittel said, for the past 3-5 years, the fire department has seen an increase in call volume and has had to receive aid from neighboring cities. With the additional paramedics and second ambulance, he said the fire department will be able to reduce the use of mutual aid and provide better service for residents. Paramedics will be used primarily during peak hours Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tittel said the goal is to start recruiting in Sep- tember with a potential start date in early 2025.
City Council wanted to focus on public health and safety, City Manager Sharon Citino said. “Creating the budget is about being fiscally responsible and we were able to do that this year,” she said. “Policing and medical services... are the main priorities for the city right now.” Chief Lopez said Bellaire residents have been calling for additional police visibility in the com- munity for the past few years believing there to be a rise in crime in the city. While he said he doesn’t believe there has been a surge in crime, according to the police depart- ment’s year-in-review reports, there has been an uptick in calls for service since 2019. Response times have also increased. The average response time in 2021 was two and a half minutes, according to police reports. In mid-2023, it grew to between four and five minutes, where it has remained since. Lopez said he would like to see that average response time reduced to two and a half minutes with the arrival of the new hires. Additional personnel could also help lessen the amount of time officers are responding to calls. According to a police staffing report by the Inter- national City and County Management Association for Public Safety Management in 2021, officers should not spend more than 60% of their time
2019
32,168
4 minutes 27 seconds
2020
30,007
3 minutes 14 seconds
2021
29,094
2 minutes 28 seconds
2022
31,764
4 minutes 53 seconds
2023
38,043
5 minutes 06 seconds
2024*
25,537
4 minutes 55 seconds
*DATA IS AS OF 3 P.M. AUG. 21
SOURCES: CITY OF BELLAIRE, BELLAIRE POLICE DEPARTMENT/COMMUNITY IMPACT NOTE: CALLS FOR SERVICE AND RESPONSE TIMES REFLECT DATA FROM BOTH THE POLICE AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS.
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