HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026 Budget Police Public Questions (Answered)Filed in Clerk's Office
SOUTH BEND POLICE DEPARTMENT 2025 BUDGET
Bianca Tirado
Questions from Sue Kesim: City Clerk, South Bend, IN
1. What is the cost of ONE Shooting? Other Cities have figured this out. I will attach a breakdown
sheet to fill in. There are way too many variables to give a finite/definitive answer. E.g. multiple
or single victim(s)? Homicide or surviving? Medical interventions (medics, doctors, nurses,
staff, bills and expenses). Court case or plea deal? Jury or bench trial? How many
responding officers and duration? In-depth investigation by detectives and how many and for
how long? Prosecutor review/time/case-prep/presentation? Defense attorney? I could go on
(as I have publicly and with Miss Sue, and noting she's done a pretty good job of ballparking
the monetary costs, but that's a vanilla guestimate). There are also psychological costs to
victims, surviving families, first responders and community, and also economic costs from
those incidents.
2. 102,000 calls — What is the breakdown on TYPE of call? Shooting? Domestic Dispute? Robbery?
Nuisance? Mental Health? Etc. And what is the cost of these calls? Obviously, a Swat call is way
more expensive than a nuisance call. Knowing this as a community we know where to focus efforts.
I'm unclear as to what is being requested. There are over 70 variations of dispatch
types/entries, NIBRS classifications are well over double that. Our SBPD Transparency Hub
provides CFS, our daily log (updated every 7 hours and 45 minutes), maps depicting the
hundred block of the calls, part one crimes, and much -much more.
3. How can hours be rearranged so there is not so much overtime? We've done two (2)
reorganizations and restructures including prime/necessity hours (like how we negated
several hours for our Records and Front Desk personnel), and we continually (on a weekly
command staff basis) review premium deployment levels and locations. Unfortunately we
can't control what or when (time) any given call comes in or what resources are needed for
any of the 102K calls a year.
4. What are the costs by department? Detectives? K9? Ballistics? Real Time Crime Center? Swat?
B Squad? Etc. All of the aforementioned (other than RTCC analysts) are sworn officers and fall
under the CBA/Council Ordinance(s) for pay. All specialty units have a stipend. Their "costs"
also have too many variables (time notified, time spent, how many, etc...none of which we're
able to predict or control).
5. I noticed a lot of DOJ (Dept of Justice) Grants. Perhaps focus on those to help offset the State
Fund loss and possible declining Property Tax Revenue. We've used state and federal grants
more than any other police administration in our history. However, other than "COPS"
funding (well in the past), no federal or state grant can fund police salaries (nor weapons,
even defensive).
6. Are officers getting all the PTSD Counseling they need? Is there a Mental Health Budget? These
guys see a lot of bad things on this job. Absolutely. And we have the most robust and dedicated
department and team involved in this. In 2006 I was one of the co-founders of our wellness
program after being trained and certified myself, at the state level and through the FBI. This
was disbanded when Teachman became chief. I immediately resurrected our program upon
becoming chief in 2015. Our wellness and peer -to -peer teams have excelled year after year
due to their dedication and devotion to its success. This/these in conjunction with the COSB
employee assistance program, and a great relationship and use of local and Indianapolis
facilities and personnel. Lastly, there is no PD mental health budget (training comes out of
the training budget account 220) nor would I put a dollar amount -making this finite. The peer
to peer is daily and anything above/beyond or outside of that is funded through the COSB-to
which in my 10-year tenure as chief, we have never had any issues with regarding services or
treatment.
7. Is SBPD still storing r@pe kits for SJC? Yes. We store them (SBPD jurisdiction cases) for
SVU/FVU/Prosecutor as well as every other type of evidence including DNA.
8. Will there be a need to raise the Public Safety LOIT funds? That's beyond my bailiwick.
9. Does the City give funds to the Police Athletic Club that helps kids after school? If so, how much?
Admin/Finance would have the exact amount. But we (PAL) also receives grant money and
donations on top of our budget and expenses.
10. GVI (Gun Violence Intervention) hasn't had a call in for 2 years. What are they actually doing?
Isaac Hunt used to give action numbers like other cities (Baltimore, Philly) Yes, I know they got
moved under VPA, but their job is to reduce the SBPD workload and make the community safer. We
are having a call -in, in Tess than a month. What we've continually been doing are mini call-
in's, custom notifications, South Bend customs, and re-entry conversations. The SBPD has
continued to fulfill its promise and obligation regarding group/gang violence, and we'll
continue to. You may have to ask other entities if they are, have, or will continue to do the
same. As well, under the Mayor's guidance/directives, there have been some revisions
regarding social and other services/providers, recidivism matrices, and few other changes in
order to streamline the entire GVI/GVRS process and strategy.