-Messenger file photo
Three Fort Dodge police officers are shown working at this Aug. 24 crash at 15th Street and Fifth Avenue South. A fourth officer not in the photo was also on the scene. Currently, there are at most seven officers on a patrol shift. This crash was an example of how a major incident can quickly require almost all of the on-duty officers. An additional officer would be added to each patrol shift if the franchise fee is approved.

Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series examining the proposed franchise fees.

For a decade or more, the Fort Dodge Police Department has had an authorized strength of 40 officers.

Those officers respond to about 31,000 calls for help every year.

About 4 percent of those calls are for violent incidents like homicides, shootings, stabbings, domestic violence and assault.

Putting more officers on the streets has long been considered a viable strategy for dealing with all of that.

A new plan called the Case for Eight would add eight more officers to the department in a move that advocates say will lead to safer streets and a stronger community.

City voters will decide on Tuesday if new utility franchise fees should be implemented to pay for the Case for Eight.

Here’s how the Police Department would utilize eight more officers.

More officers on patrol

One more officer would be added to each of the four patrol shifts.

Those shifts would then have eight people assigned to them, including a lieutenant, a sergeant, and six patrol officers.

Having more people on a shift will make it possible to do more proactive policing instead of having officers just go from call to call, according to Police Chief Dennis Quinn. For example, with eight people on duty, an officer could concentrate on speed enforcement, he said.

Without the pressure of racing from call to call, officers could spend more time meeting with the public, he added.

“We will get some community interaction that isn’t possible when going from call to call,” Quinn said.

Community Action Team

Adding eight officers will also enable the creation of a three-member Community Action Team.

Quinn described the team as a “hybrid between patrol and detective.”

“They are going to be very driven by whatever the community needs,” he added.

For example, if a lot of burglaries were reported in a specific neighborhood, the team could spend a lot of time in that area.

Investigations

Adding eight officers will enable the creation of one more investigator position, which Quinn described as a general crimes detective. This will enable the department to do more investigations.