LANCASTER, Pa. (WHTM) – It’s been a struggle to fill all 145 officer positions that the city has prolonged for. Now, that number is being lowered to 128 officers.

The problem is the city only sits at 108 employed officers. The city used a consulting firm to conduct a staffing analysis to reach the new 128 number.

“They analyzed everything from call volume to what time of day these calls are taking place, all of our proactive policing efforts and everything like that has been taken into account,” Sgt. Todd Grager with Lancaster City Police said.

The change doesn’t mean there are less officers on the streets, and no police officers are losing their job.

Subtracting 17 positions can save the city money once the positions are filled according to Mayor Danene Sorace.

“It’s about $2.3 million for 17 police officers that would be reduced,” Sorace said. “We were not budgeting for all of those police officers because we’ve had so many retirements.”

Many city officers came in waves about 20-30 years ago.

“There’s been a lot of folks that were hired in the late 1990s, early 2000,” Sgt. Grager said. “They were hired in large groups like as many as 10-15 people were hired at one time and those folks are now able to retire.”

When asked if people can be hired in large groups today, Grager said not exactly.

“The officers that are patrolling the streets today are held to a different standard than officers years ago,” he said. “The increase in cameras, body-worn cameras, accountability, things that may have been a little bit more relaxed years ago, we don’t stand for any longer.”

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Sorace says the city will lean on data moving forward.

“All future decisions related to staffing will be driven by the data, by call volume, by what’s happening relative to crime in the city,” Sorace said.

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