Local animal lovers received some good news from the city council last week: Morgan Hill Police Department is going to hire a full-time animal control officer for the first time in nearly six years.
The five-member council March 15 unanimously approved this update to the city’s public safety master plan, as well as the re-establishment of MHPD’s “Street Crimes Team.”
Police Chief David Swing recommended the changes and addressed the master plan updates before the council.
The city’s animal control officer position was eliminated in 2011 as part of a larger budget cut due to declining revenues during the Great Recession. Since then, MHPD has continued to provide animal control services. However, these tasks have been performed by the city’s multi-service officers, who handle a variety of other responsibilities.
“The value of an animal services officers is, it will increase the capacity during daytime efforts, and free up the multi-service officers to take property crime reports and other functions, as those jobs were originally intended,” Swing said.
He added that filling the animal control officer position again will meet a “strong desire in our community to continue to have that expertise.”
Two Morgan Hill residents who currently volunteer to help and rescue local animals spoke in favor of Swing’s proposal March 15. Jennifer Lepow, co-founder and president of All Animal Rescue and Friends, said the city’s MSOs “can’t be available as much as needed.”
The All Animal Rescue group, which is run entirely by volunteers, helps in the capture of loose dogs, cats and other animals, and they assist residents with their animal-related issues “as much as we can,” Lepow said. But the group is not equipped or deputized to respond to some animal services tasks, such as performing welfare checks for neglected animals, compiling abuse reports, responding to dog bites and attack complaints, and issuing citations for theft of an animal, hoarding or other offenses.
“These issues do exist in Morgan Hill,” Lepow said. “The city needs a full-time animal control officer to be able to handle them.”
The animal control officer position will be added to the city’s current two-year budget this summer. Swing said the position will cost about $100,000 in personnel expenses, but there are no startup costs because MHPD already has a truck and other equipment necessary for the position.
Councilman Rene Spring said the addition is “money well spent.”
“I think there is a need,” Spring said. “For me, cats and dogs are residents too. They’re family members.”
Street crimes team returns
The council also approved the reassignment of a detective from the Drug Enforcement Administration task force to the city’s soon-to-be-reinstated Street Crimes Team. The detective was assigned to the federal drug task force in 2015, but Swing said having that officer working on local street crimes would help increase the department’s capacity and respond to crime spikes and trends, as well as seasonal offenses such as package thefts.
The officer and Street Crimes unit would also improve MHPD’s gang-related intelligence gathering and suppression, Swing added.
“The reinstatement of the Street Crimes Team would provide for increased deployment of two sworn officers during peak periods of weekend evenings or an additional 40 hours of directed enforcement coverage,” adds a staff report presented to the council by Swing.
By not participating in the DEA task force any longer, the city will lose out on about $60,000 in “annual recurring revenue” from seizures and forfeitures. However, that cost pales in comparison to hiring a new officer, which is time consuming and would run about $200,000 per year, Swing added.
The officer will be reassigned by April, and the Street Crimes Team will be at work by this summer, Swing said.
MHPD’s annual budget is about $15.6 million.
