Lakeland PD needs to hire 31 new Police Officers

Lakeland Police Chief Ruben Garcia said the LPD has not hired new “operational” officers since 2017 despite being undermanned because it had unfilled vacancies.

“We could not ask for more on the plate” until all positions were staffed, which they now are. “Lakeland led the state in recruiting police officers” and is now fully staffed at the 254 officers it is budgeted for.

Including school resource officers, LPD has 2.17 officers per 1,000 residents, Garcia said. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement recommends 2.59 officers per 1,000 residents, he said.

Garcia said by FDLE’s calculations, Lakeland has “a 35 officer per-capita deficit.”

By U.S. Department of Justice standards, LPD is short 26 police officers and, according to police resources consultant Timothy Freesmeyer, the city should have 29 more officers, he said.

“Costs of services have increased, as you might expect,” Garcia said, noting most 911 calls require at least two units to respond with officers increasingly locked into emergency response “obligated time” with little “unobligated time” for “the good stuff we do compare to the mandatory stuff.”

“The population is growing but (LPD’s staffing) remains the same” as it was five years ago, he said. “We see the same rooftops everybody else sees going up” in the southwest and northeast Lakeland. “We certainly see those two quadrants of town as the biggest impact on manpower moving forward.”

LPD presented commissioners with three options spanning the next three years. 

ONLY ONE Garcia said he favors, the city would hire 19 officers, including 12 for patrol, one for traffic, one detective, one homeless liaison, one school resource officer, two neighborhood liaisons, one sergeant for LPD’s field training program, and one lieutenant for the neighborhood liaison program in 2023.

This plan would cost an estimated $3.68 million in next year’s budget and about $2.285 million a year in recurring expenses.