This budget reaffirms our commitment to Tampa's citizens and visitors to provide the best possible law enforcement and fire rescue services. It also provides our public safety agencies with the personnel and equipment they need to do their jobs better.

Last year, the Tampa Police Department (TPD) was reorganized from two districts into three, with a focus on community policing. The reorganization has allowed for better overall management and more time to handle community concerns. We are dedicated to building a police station for District III in the East Tampa area and we are allocating resources to acquire the land and design the facility. These efforts are designed to support TPD’s community-oriented problem solving policing. The reorganization is producing positive results and should help to further reduce the total violent crime rate that went down 8.8% in 2003.

In FY05, TPD will deploy seven additional officers to patrol duties. A new School Resource Officer will be added, while six other police officers are being placed back on the streets. This will bring the total number of sworn police officers to 1,002 and gives Tampa a ratio of 3.15 police officers per one thousand residents, the highest ratio among major cities in Florida.

Tampa Fire Rescue’s firefighter safety programs and fire station renovation projects are being implemented to address Life Safety code concerns. Funds totaling $950,000 are designated in this budget to correct station working/living environment issues as part of a multi-year plan. This year we will again add seven new firefighter positions as part of an ongoing program to increase fire engine staffing levels to 4 firefighters per engine.

During FY05 a new firefighter recruit/scholarship program will also be implemented to provide additional quality candidates. Heart monitors in EMS vehicles will be upgraded to improve monitoring of patient cardiac responses and we will upgrade two fire engines from basic life support (BLS) to advanced life support (ALS) capabilities, improving the level of emergency service we provide.