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Public Safety Services <br />8. The economic and demographic changes in the community reflect a greater need for mental <br />health, indigent defense counsel and interpreter services. The Municipal Court is required by <br />State and Federal law to provide court-appointed defense attorneys to defendants when they are <br />facing potential jail time for a serious offense and cannot afford their own attorney. Interpreters <br />are provided by the Court for defendants who do not speak English. State-certified interpreters <br />are not always readily available and sometimes the Court must rely on less qualified interpreters <br />or a telephone interpretation service. The addition in FY06 of a Mental Health Court diversion <br />program has improved services to this population and reduced recidivism. <br />9. Developing a Strategy to Help the Homeless in Eugene, one of the Eugene City Council's <br />priority issues, is focused on identifying gaps in current services, promoting public awareness <br />and fostering collaboration with community stakeholders to improve the delivery of services to <br />homeless and at-risk populations in the city. Staff is gathering input from service providers and <br />a variety of community members to evaluate the effectiveness of current services and to identify <br />areas of most critical need. Resources may then be allocated toward areas of highest priority. <br />The strategy also encourages specific training for City employees and work groups that have <br />frequent interaction with homeless/at-risk persons. <br />10. The City's ability to contribute to the Human Services Commission (a jointly funded <br />collaboration among the City of Eugene, City of Springfield, and Lane County to provide <br />services to low-income, disabled, and homeless citizens) has been constrained due to a 9% <br />reduction of the federal Community Development Block Grant award. This grant award <br />supplements the City's annual General Fund contribution of approximately $1,000,000. Further <br />reductions of the CDBG award are anticipated in future fiscal years. <br />11. Following a comprehensive planning effort, the Police Department adopted a new strategic <br />plan in December 2005. The plan provides a framework to prioritize and address key issues and <br />will be used as the basis for the development of new systems in the future, as well as providing <br />the basis for future budget submissions. <br />12. Workload has increased as victims of misdemeanor crimes and low level violations come to <br />the Police Department to file reports. Due to changes in the criminal justice system, <br />misdemeanor crimes and other low-level violations are no longer prosecuted by the District <br />Attorney's Office. The City adopted new offenses into the City Code and has absorbed some of <br />this workload. However, since the District Attorney instituted the new guidelines for <br />prosecutions, the Police Department has seen an increase in these crimes of approximately 20-25 <br />percent. With continuing budgetary constraints and cuts to County services, future decreases in <br />the prosecution of local crimes maybe expected. <br />13. One of the significant recommendations of the ICMA-PEKE review, and one consistent with <br />the environmental scan associated with the new strategic plan, was to "fully implement <br />community policing." Presently, patrol staff struggle to respond to calls for service with little <br />time available for proactive, problem-solving activities. The desire and recommendation to <br />implement community policing implies sufficient staff for this purpose and any staffmg analysis <br />must consider the gap between desired service and capacity. Anew staffing study will be <br />conducted by a consultant in 2006 to inform future staffing decisions. <br />56 <br />