BUCYRUS, OH (CRAWFORD COUNTY NOW)—During Tuesday’s regular meeting of the Bucyrus City Council, Police Chief Neil Assenheimer presented the facts regarding the budget challenges faced by the police department. Assenheimer told the council that his department has remained conservative in its budget expenditures. Assenheimer outlined he is understaffed, and his officers are using six cruisers from 2014 that are wearing out.
Faced with the prospect of the police department being the target of the city’s budget woes, Assenheimer made several things very clear.
After outlining the crime statistics for the last year as part of his annual report to council, Assenheimer reported that the police responded to an increased number of calls but has managed to keep the crime rates low in the city despite working at 81% of the allotted staffing.
Assenheimer highlighted the continued decrease in staff in recent years. After the fire department increases were approved by council,
Assenheimer was told he could not replace an officer he lost due to attrition. Assenheimer told the city that with the loss of officers and dispatchers and the prospects of losing more, the city is wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars in training costs and field training. “In 2024, if things aren’t corrected, they’re (officers/dispatchers)going to leave because they don’t see a future working for the city. They pay attention to what goes on in Council meetings, and they are well aware of the city’s financial picture.” Assenheimer said.
Every officer who was hired between 2010 and 2020 has left the department. He expressed his concerns that, given the past conditions and current financial issues, no one would want to work for the city. At this time, there are six officers eligible to retire. Assenheimer said when he’s forced to make them work overtime and the night shift, they might be enticed to retire costing the city even more money. If that happened, the city could go as low as eight officers on staff, leaving them at just 36% of the staffing required.
“The Bucyrus Police Department is delivering on its commitment to the community. Lower crime rates still prevail even though most shifts are at a minimum of manpower on at least one shift per day. The cost of law enforcement in general has gone up, and if our citizens are not willing to pay for the police services, they should not expect them. Residents instead should expect to be content with an increase in crime.
They should prepare to be content with an increase in burglary, mugging, and drugs. If they don’t want to be supportive of a fire and EMS department, they should be content to wait for an ambulance or expect their house burn down if it catches on fire.” Assenheimer said.
In January alone, the Bucyrus Police Department responded to 801 calls for an average of 25.8 calls per day. Of those calls, 232 reports were generated, which averages 7.4 reports per day.
He told the council the department is busy; his staff is working with minimal manpower on one shift or another every day.
Assenheimer made it clear to the council that he would NOT send his officers on call without backup. He will cut hours of coverage before he compromises the safety of his officers.
“I will not work them into the ground for a city that doesn’t want to pay for them.” Assenheimer said.
Assenheimer told council if the police department doesn’t receive the support it needs from the city, they shouldn’t expect him to come back and answer for the increase in crime to come.
“Are you, as the city council, going to do the right thing? You have a decision to make, and the decision is exclusively yours. Are you going to do what is required to fund the police department and the fire department or not? If you fail to take action on the options that you have, you will forfeit any rights you have to complain.
You own the decisions you make and the consequences. The consequences won’t be on me or the fire chief.” Assenheimer said.
City Council President Kurt Fankhauser said he understood that the situation within the city must weigh on him and his employees daily.
“I have tried with this council to get them to do something regarding this and we saw the results of that last Wednesday night. I think there are people on this council who think we just sit here on our hands and do nothing and wait on the state to come in and it’s just going to get taken care of by someone else. That is not what is going to happen. If this department starts taking cuts because the money is not there, that’s on the seven legislative members of this Council that could do something to change it. So I would hope that when your constituents start calling you because the police department has lost staffing and crime rates start to go up that you can think back to this day right now.
I’m calling you all out on this! Do something about this.” Fankhauser said.
Councilwoman Carolyn Shireman asked Fankhauser where the money to pay the police was going to come from if the city didn’t have it. Fankhauser suggested she talk to the finance committee. He also pointed out that several council members had not even talked with or asked questions of the Auditor.
“I’ll tell you right now Carolyn, the city is not going to be able to declare bankruptcy and make the money problem go away. Galion was $8 million in the hole and they had to pay all of it back.” Fankhauser said.
Councilwoman Aaron Sharrock told Fankhauser he was being rude to Shireman.
Fankhauser told the council that he believed suspending the out-of-town tax credit might be the only thing to save the safety forces at this time. He refused to engage further on the topic.
Councilwoman Aaron Sharrock reminded Fankhauser that revoking the tax credit isn’t the solution because not all that money would go to the general fund. The money would be divided between various departments.
The Council remains undecided on what the next steps should be.
Committee meetings will held Thursday evening where this and other topics will be discussed.
Crawford County Now will continue to cover this devoting story.