A proposal to reduce the number of St. Paul officers by five next year could result in people having to wait longer for help when they call 911, Police Chief Todd Axtell told the City Council during a Wednesday budget meeting.

Already, more than 5,000 times in a one-year period, St. Paul police couldn’t immediately respond to the most serious, in-progress crimes because they were busy on other calls, Axtell said.

Some council members told Axtell they need more information from the police department before making budget decisions.

Council President Amy Brendmoen and Council Member Mitra Jalali Nelson said they’re frustrated that a previously requested staffing study has not been completed.

“I just don’t think we can make these choices based on how we feel crime is vs. what it actually is, and how we feel staffing is vs. what it actually is,” said Nelson, who said she supports eliminating the five officer positions.

Former Ramsey County Sheriff Jack Serier, who is now a St. Paul police commander, is conducting a staffing study and it’s expected to be complete by year’s end, Axtell said.

But that will be after budget decisions are made for next year, Brendmoen said. The council expected to have the staffing study in advance of 2019 and 2020 budget planning, according to Brendmoen.

Former Mayor Chris Coleman earmarked $128,000 in 2018 for an outside study of the police department, though the department didn’t get the funds, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a department spokesman.

After Melvin Carter became mayor in 2018, the funding was used elsewhere, a spokeswoman for Carter said last year.

Axtell told the council last year that, although it wasn’t funded, he would get the staffing study done, Ernster said.

MORE SHOOTING VICTIMS THIS YEAR

On Wednesday, Axtell told the council that Carter’s 2020 budget proposal to reduce the department’s authorized strength from 635 to 630 officers would mean hiring five fewer officers for a police academy starting this fall. Currently, there are approximately 610 officers.

Council Member Jane Prince said she sees officers on the East Side already strained by the number of shootings and gun incidents.

“That does factor into my feeling that I just don’t see how we make cuts,” Prince said.

There have been 106 people wounded or killed by gunfire in St. Paul this year as of Tuesday afternoon, which is up from the same time last year, Axtell said.

Carter’s proposed budget includes about $4 million in spending reductions that will impact every city department. He also is asking for a 4.85 percent tax levy increase. The council will set the levy limit on Sept. 25 and adopt next year’s budget on Dec. 11.

RESPONDING TO 911 CALLS

Axtell also sounded the alarm about responding to 911 calls. As the city’s population has grown, so have 911 calls — they were up 23 percent in 2018 compared to 2014, Axtell said.

The 911 center prioritizes calls and they have policies about how quickly officers should be dispatched, based on the seriousness of the report, Axtell said.

For the most serious crimes, officers are supposed to be dispatched within 30 seconds, but that wasn’t possible 5,120 times in a one-year period because officers were already handling other calls, Axtell said.

In total, there were more than 16,000 instances when officers could not be dispatched within the time expectations, though officers still responded, Axtell said.

Brendmoen asked how long people were waiting for officers, beyond the times spelled out in policy.

“It could be 35 seconds or it could be 10 minutes … but that means people who need us the most at that given time are waiting longer, and that’s my concern,” Axtell said.

Nelson said her understanding is police response times are down across the board.

“There’s nuance to making budget decisions based on … 911 call time demand,” Nelson said.

She said she’s attended community meetings, where people were concerned and “were just told over and over again to call the police all the time, no matter what. And so if the message coming from SPPD — which is one that I understand from a place of wanting to build trust — but actually puts a lot of burden on our system.”