The City of Reno has entered into a contract with the Center for Public Safety Management (CPSM) to audit the Reno Police Department.
CPSM is a company that provides public safety analysis services for the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), of which the City of Reno is a member. CPSM provides training and research for the association’s members and represents ICMA in its dealings with the federal government and other public safety professional associations.
The review of the Reno Police Department includes a “data-driven forensic analysis to identify actual workload” to zero in on what is driving overtime, workloads and service demands and recommend appropriate staffing levels. It will also examine RPD’s organizational structure and its culture and will recommend a management plan to ensure accountability, efficiency and improved performance.
In 2019, the City of Reno paid CPSM to provide a similar analysis of the Reno Fire Department.
The analysis of RPD is costing the city at least $70,000. The city is paying this initial bill in three installments: 40% upon contract signing, 40% with delivery of the draft police data analysis, and the remaining 20% with delivery of the final report. The price could go up more if the city wants additional support or in-person presentation of the findings.
According to the proposal, “CPSM will assign staff for such meetings at a cost of $2,500 per day/per person plus travel expenses.”
In addition to data assessments, subject matter experts will visit RPD to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats within the department.
The agreement for the analysis was signed in late January. It’s unknown as yet when the results of it will be concluded and released to the public. The RPD creates its own annual report covering many of the same subjects, including community satisfaction with policing. The report covering 2020 is expected to be released sometime later this year.
The RPD has come under greater scrutiny and faced increased criticism from the public over the last year, with public rallies held decrying police killings of civilians, ticketing homeless people and mistreating people experiencing homelessness.
In January, the city told This Is Reno that complaints against RPD officers were “confidential personnel documents.”
RPD reversed course and provided heavily redacted complaints against officers only after This Is Reno had to retain legal counsel to counteract multiple denials of public records made by RPD and the Reno City Attorney’s Office.
