PEORIA — Six unarmed community service officers employed by the Peoria Police Department will be deployed in downtown in a move the City Council applauded for safety reasons.
The officers, who will be hired at annual salaries of $48,568, will work in two shifts downtown from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. at night, creating a “highly visible” force that Police Chief Brad Dixon says will help fill gaps in downtown policing, allowing full-time officers more time to respond to high-priority calls.
On Tuesday night, the City Council unanimously approved hiring the six officers for downtown, signing off on using $508,000 from the city’s general fund to do so.
Peoria Mayor Rita Ali would’ve liked to see the community officer program be even larger than six officers, saying 10 would’ve been her preference.
“Our downtown is a strategic priority, we have more people living in the downtown than ever before and that’s only going to increase with some of our housing projects,” Ali said. “We need a downtown that is more walkable and we are fighting with a perception with a downtown that is not safe, we know better than that, but we do need to do everything we can to make it safer and I think this is a great strategy in terms of putting uniformed individuals who are not just citizens out there to help but these are trained officers.”
The city has long fought a battle against a perception that Downtown Peoria is unsafe, a perception that is not necessarily backed up by actual crime data. However, Tuesday night’s vote shows the city and the Police Department do feel that perception of downtown safety matters.
Controlling the prevalence of pop-up parties downtown, some of which have turned violent on occasion, was a priority of previous Police Chief Eric Echevarria, who approved a new downtown patrol of officers for the area in 2023.
Cost of new Downtown Peoria policing program
Hiring six community service officers, who will not have firearms and likely not have handcuffs, will cost about half as much as it would cost to hire six regular officers, City Manager Patrick Urich told the council.
The community service officers will be paid $48,568 a year, with their total compensation package being just above $72,000 annually when overtime, retirement and benefits are factored in. In contrast, it would cost the city about $168,000 per officer annually to employ six regular officers in such a role.
These community service officers will go through medical and deescalation trainings like regular officers do but will not go through the same type of investigative trainings regular uniformed officers receive. They will assist in directing traffic downtown, patrolling the area during Civic Center events and also monitoring the parking garages downtown, which Dixon said have been a point of concern.
City councilman Alex Carmona, whose 2nd District covers Downtown Peoria, said the downtown business owners and residents he has talked to about the proposal are supportive of the measure and have been “very concerned” with safety.
Councilman John Kelly questioned the timing of the community officer shifts, which will end at 10 p.m., asking if it would be more appropriate for them to work something more akin to a 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. type shift.
Dixon told Kelly he did not want the community officers to be working the downtown bar scene hours, around 2 a.m. for example, when officers need to respond to things like fights downtown. He also said one of the reasons the officers will begin at 6 a.m. in the first shift is to check the downtown parking garages as early as possible.
The Greater Peoria Leadership Council, which penned a letter of support for this idea, will give the city $72,000 to train the community service officers, Urich said.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria approves plan for a safer downtown. Here’s what to know
Reporting by JJ Bullock, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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By JJ Bullock, Peoria Journal Star | USA TODAY Network
