I want to update you briefly on two other important areas of performance: crime solving and staffing.
Preliminary figures indicate that over the past year, our clearance rates improved in every crime category. For homicides, the UCR clearance rate last year was 61 percent. For forcible rapes, the clearance rate was 74 percent. Not only have our clearance rates risen, they are also generally higher than the clearance rates for comparably sized cities. I am certainly not yet satisfied with our overall performance in criminal investigations, and crime solving remains one of our priorities for FY 2006. But I am pleased that our focus on investigative vigor and accountability is producing results, which we intend to build upon in the future.
I am also pleased to report continued progress on the issue of police staffing, which is a priority not only of the Department and the Council, but certainly the community as well. As you know, in May 2004, after extensive work with the community and the Council, I realigned the boundaries for the PSAs. In the 20 months since then, we have increased the number of members available for full duty in the PSAs substantially – with 170 more officers and 32 more sergeants in the PSAs. Just to be clear – these aren’t just additional members assigned to the PSAs; these are members who are working full duty in the neighborhoods. The key factors in this success have been reaching and maintaining our sworn strength, dramatically cutting the number of officers who are unavailable for full duty, and MPD’s civilianization effort.
During FY 2005, we were able to maintain our sworn strength at, or very near, our fully authorized and funded level of 3,800. We appreciate the support of the Council in getting us up to 3,800, and we have worked aggressively in our recruiting and retention efforts to maintain that level – and to maintain it with a high-quality, well-trained workforce.
Perhaps more importantly, we have been able to dramatically cut the number of officers who are unavailable for full duty because of extended sick leave or other factors. Two-and-a-half years ago, in September 2003, 13.5 percent of our sworn members were unavailable for full duty. By January 2006, that figure had been reduced to just over 7 percent. It is also significant to note that most of people in that group are members who are on limited duty; they are still able to perform a useful function for the Department, even if they are not yet ready to return to full duty as a police officer. Less than 2 percent of the total sworn workforce is currently unable to work at all. These improvements have been largely the result of new protocols to monitor and evaluate sick leave and limited duty status, as well as better management of these cases by our Office of Human Services.
Human Services is also overseeing our ongoing civilianization program. Since the fourth quarter of FY 05, we have hired 65 civilians to fill positions previously held by sworn members. Of the remaining 18 positions to fill in the first civilianization wave, applicants for 10 positions are in background investigations and eight positions are being advertised. Later this year, we anticipate that 12 sworn MPD members who are currently assigned to the Office of Unified Communications will be available for other assignments, provided the OUC is able to civilianize those positions as planned.
These and other improvements in staffing are helping us to put more resources where they are needed most – out in our neighborhoods, in direct support of community policing. Last year, I reported on the restructuring of our Police Service Areas (or PSAs). I am pleased to report this year that the new structure for community policing in DC continues to produce results. Staffing in the PSAs for officers and lieutenants has met, or even exceeded, original targets. And with recent promotions, we are adding more sergeants to the PSAs, thus enhancing the overall quality of supervision and leadership as well.
We also remain vigilant in monitoring the PSAs and flexible in how we organize and deploy our resources. Just this month, based on input from the community and police personnel, we divided the former PSA 502 in Northeast DC and created two PSAs there. Our concern was that the old PSA was too large and cut across too many communities to be as effective as we had originally hoped. We are confident that crime fighting and community policing will improve under this new structure in the Fifth District.
Other significant community policing efforts during the year included regular “Operation Fight Backs” and drug free zones. Operation Fight Back involves multiple government agencies and community groups coming together for a concerted attack on crime and disorder problems in a community for a given day. These operations not only serve to correct quality-of-life concerns in the community, but also help to generate public confidence in the police. Community outreach is an important responsibility for the Department. Over the past year, the MPD finalized our Senior Citizen Police Academy, and trained and graduated our first class of 35 senior volunteers. They are now supporting a variety of community policing initiatives in our Department. Our next class of 30 seniors begins training next month. In addition, we have expanded our use of community listservs, we continued to promote and support citizen patrols, and once again we had an award-winning performance on National Night Out against crime in August.
Community policing is the operating philosophy of the Metropolitan Police Department. And – as demonstrated by our continued reduction in crime and other performance improvements – our approach to community policing is producing tangible safety results in our communities.