The City of Eau Claire is asking voters to support an increase in taxes to help pay for more public safety workers.
The city’s police department says over the past 10 years, calls for service have gone up 68%. The department also reported that its officers worked 3,740 hours of overtime in 2021, an increase of 450% from 2018. The city wants to hire six more police officers, six firefighters/paramedics, two civilian community service officers, and one civilian worker to help with dispatch services.
Eau Claire Police Chief Matt Rokus says the lack of staff is affecting response times.
“We have not added officers in 25 years. Our population has gone up quite a bit since then,” said Chief Rokus. “From our fire department perspective, they actually have fewer firefighter-EMTs now than what we had in 2000.”