The Vancouver City Council unanimously agreed Monday night to ask voters in November to approve a levy lid lift to fund more than 100 new Vancouver police officers and staff.
“Public safety has consistently been a top issue for the community,” Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle said in a statement from the city. “This measure refers the first of a series of police services funding measures to meet the growing and changing demand for public safety services in Vancouver.”
The levy lid lift — Proposition 4 — was proposed by a community group tasked with addressing safety issues and increasing the Vancouver Police Department’s capacity to investigate crimes. The committee sought to add as many as 80 sworn officers, along with 36 non-sworn employees to work in units such as records and evidence. The funds could also go toward technology, vehicles, a traffic enforcement camera program, and expanding the Homeless Assistance & Resources Team.
The ballot measure asks voters to lift the city’s property tax levy of $2.09 per $1,000 of assessed value by 41 cents beginning in 2025. The lift would be permanent and would increase by 5 percent annually for six years, according to the city.
The city estimates the owner of a $500,000 house would pay an additional $205 in property taxes in 2025 and $585 in 2030.
The committee also proposed other tax increases that would fund the agency, including an excess facilities bond levy in 2026 for $70 million to $100 million and a public safety sales tax increase of one-tenth of 1 percent that would go on the ballot in 2028. The city council has not voted on those measures, but considered the larger plan at workshops earlier this month.
At the July 8 workshop, Police Chief Jeff Mori highlighted Clark County’s per capita staffing rate of 0.86 officers per 1,000 residents, which he said is among the lowest in the state, with Washington having some of the lowest staffing rates in the country.
He said that while the total number of calls the department receives has increased, they’ve also become more complex, requiring more officers for a typical call. A shortage of detectives also means more than 3,000 cases per year are not being investigated.
Mori also told the council that community members he talks to seem to share a feeling of a lack of safety.
“Statistics are one thing,” Mori said. “These, in the property crime realm, I don’t particularly trust. Because the question that I’ve always asked people is, do you feel safer today than a year ago, a year and a half ago, and generally what people say is ‘no.’”
Mori said he wants to implement technology to make the department more efficient. However, that requires people to operate and oversee programs. The chief said the agency plans to test an artificial intelligence program that would listen through an officer’s body camera and help draft an initial report.
“I feel like our community is starting to get brittle,” Mori said. “I think when we add these other officers, we bring a healthy balance to, at least, what Vancouver can bring to the table for community safety and wellbeing.”
Councilor Sarah Fox said July 8 that she sees the need for the staffing boost.
“If we really want a safer city, then we do need more officers. We do need more resources. And as a council member, the only thing I can do is tell everyone the story, share what we’ve done so far and ask the community if they agree with us,” Fox said. “And my hope is that they will agree with us.”
