CAMAS — What keeps Camas Police Chief Tina Jones awake at night? There are a few things, actually, but the “retirement cliff” facing the department is top of mind.
With 43 percent of the police department’s current sworn staff — 13 officers — eligible for retirement within the next five years, Jones wonders if her department can handle that much turnover.
“We are not prepared for mass retirements,” Jones said told the city council at its Monday meeting.
“There is a huge lead time, with background, hiring, training, getting through the academy … all of that adds up,” Jones said of hiring officers.
Jones, who succeeded longtime chief Mitch Lackey after his retirement, has led the department since July 2023.
The police department also has critical staffing shortages, especially when it comes to supervisory positions, Jones said.
The industry standard is two police officers per thousand residents, Jones said. City leaders said several years ago that they would like to have 1.5 officers per thousand, but Camas’ staffing levels have not kept pace with either of those goals.
To achieve its goal of 1.5 officers per thousand residents, the city would need to hire at least 10 more police officers.
“We have a really low crime rate, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have calls for service in our city,” Jones said, detailing some of the calls her officers and detectives have responded to in the past year. These include 24 calls that required the department’s automated external defibrillators; roughly 3,500 traffic stops in Camas in the first nine months of 2024, and 21 death investigations.
“This year has been rough,” Jones said, referring to the high number of death investigations her staff have taken on that included children. “Child death investigations, industrial accidents, suicides, overdoses … but we take every death investigation seriously, and our detectives do a phenomenal job.”
Jones said the department has not been able to meet response time goals for calls on the city’s westside.
“There are a lot of reasons for that,” Jones said. “It’s not because our team is not being diligent. We … have more area to cover, more traffic, more pedestrians. To get safely to a call takes time. This stresses my team out. It stresses me out. And I know it stresses the community out. When people call 911, they need us to be there.”
Jones said the department does not have enough supervisors.
There are times, especially in the middle of the night, when Camas police officers are working without a direct supervisor available, Jones said, adding “some days we have 14 hours in a day where we don’t have a supervisor.”
To remedy the department’s staffing challenges, Jones asked Camas Mayor Steve Hogan to include funding for two lieutenants, two patrol sergeants, one administrative supervisor and two police officers in his proposed 2025-26 budget.
“I know it’s a tight budget. And I appreciate the mayor’s focus on trying to achieve these positions we need,” she said.
Police funding proposition
In order to fund new police positions, Hogan plans to go to voters.
On Monday, the council voted to put a proposition on the Feb. 11 ballot that will ask Camas voters to approve a 4 percent utility tax on the city’s water, sewer, stormwater and solid waste utilities. The tax would raise $1 million a year to fund new police positions and associated vehicles and equipment.
“I’ve lived in this community a very long time, and the community has changed and policing has changed,” Councilor Marilyn Boerke said Monday. “I want to give my support for your request.”
Councilwoman Leslie Lewallen — who voted no on all of the mayor’s revenue requests Monday night — told Jones that, while she “totally support(s) law enforcement,” she was concerned about the creation of a new utility tax.
“I think public safety is the top concern for our community,” Lewallen said. “My concern … is that, unlike property taxes that are capped statutorily, that the utility tax will go up and up and up.”
Jones said she understood the concern, but noted that, “as cities grow, we have to find ways to invest in demands for services.”
