City Council Hears Recommendations For El Paso Police Dept.

Keeping El Paso safe on a budget.

City leaders hired a consulting firm to study how the police department is using your tax dollars and how it can be more efficient with them.

The review was put together by MGT of America, a private consulting group in Austin. The results were presented to El Paso City Council during Wednesday’s budget hearing.

The study found most officers on patrol in El Paso spend the majority of their time being dispatched from call to call.

The reviewers called this “reactive policing.”

The study said right now, El Paso officers only spend about 1.5% of their time doing “proactive policing.”

If the city wants officers to spend 20% of their time proactively patrolling, the study said the department would need to add 99 new recruits.

In a recent interview, El Paso City Manager Joyce Wilson said an academy of 50 new cadets is already scheduled to begin this month.

Another academy of 25 officers is slated for March of next year, she said.

The study also made mention of software that can help dispatch officers a little more efficiently.

One of the reviewers told city council that software should not be overlooked.

“The department had patrol optimization software,” he said. “They don’t have it anymore because they did not renew the license on it.”

It is now up to city council and police officials to decide what they will do with the recommendations.

Representatives are expected to vote on a final city budget in August.