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ll7 To: Mayor and City Council From: Myron Galchutt, Chief of Police Date: April 18,1983 Subject: Approval - Reserve Police Officers Unit Recommended Action: The purpose of this memo is to recommend to the City Council and provide the necessary background information for justification and creation of a Reserve Police Officers Unit. The RPO Unit would consist of sixteen (16) sworn officers. Each officer would be required to volunteer twenty (20) hours of service to the San Marcos Police Department each month. This would provide the citizens of San Marcos with an additional three hundred and twenty (320) hours of police protection per month at no cost to the City. In addition to the sixteen Reserve Police Officers, there would be appointed two (2) Reserve Police Officer Chaplains. There would be no minimum voluntary time requirement for the two Chaplains, they would serve the Department as needed. Attached for your review is a draft of the proposed specifications and task assignments which would be assumed by the Reserve Police Officers. Justification: The creation of a Reserve Police Officers Unit addresses several needs within the Police Department which are discussed below. City Park Patrol - The Public Works Department currently has budgeted for fiscal year 1982-1983, under item 74-5110, $5,200 to be utilized for a Park Ranger position. This program was designed to use one off-duty police officer patrolling the park on Saturdays and Sundays for eight hours each of the two days. The officer is to be paid overtime pay. By using the Reserve Officers as Park Rangers, they could provide two-man foot patrols on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. These teams would work six (6) hour shifts. One team would work from noon to six p.m., and the other team from six p.m. to midnight. The Park Patrol Program would require 288 man hours per month from the Reserve Officers. Since the Reserve Police Officers Unit is required to volunteer a total of 320 hours per month, this program would cost the City nothing. While patrolling the parks, the officers would enforce such laws as alcohol and litter ordinances, and their presence would be a deterrent to motor vehicle burglaries, thefts, assaults, and rapes. At the present time, the Police Department has in its unclaimed property room several ten-speed bicycles. Two of these bicycles would be diverted to the Reserve Unit to be utilized by the Park Patrol Officers, providing them with additional mobility when the need arises. Downtown Foot Patrol - In the past few years, there has been an increase in tne number of establishments that serve alcoholic beverages in the downtown area. This has contributed to an increasing problem of drunkenness and