Nampa police staffing hasn't kept pace with growth. A safety levy could help close some of the gap

NAMPA, Idaho — Nampa voters will decide Nov. 3 whether to approve a permanent safety levy that would bring in $5 million a year for the city's police department.

Police Chief Joe Huff said the department has fallen behind the city's rapid growth and has been working with a shortage of officers for several years.

If it passes, the levy will add 24 police officer positions over four years. In the first two years, 8 patrol officers will be added each year. Then in the third and fourth years, 4 corporal positions will be added each year.

The measure will also allow the city to increase wages for officers and help pay for a police training facility.

Huff has worn the Nampa badge for decades.

"When I started back in 1993, we had six police officers assigned to a patrol shift. Today we have seven officers assigned to a patrol shift," Huff said. "We've added some swing shifts to there, but again, we also had roughly 30,000 people in the city of Nampa back then. Today, we have about 130,000."

Huff said staffing shortages have forced the department to limit which calls get an officer. Emergencies still get a response. Calls such as non-injury crashes or juveniles beyond their parents' control may have to wait, or callers may be asked to file a report online.

To keep patrol staffed, Huff said, he has pulled officers from specialty units. The department's traffic team has spent months rotating into patrol.

Huff said Nampa has lost 13 officers to other agencies in the last five years. He said that's largely due to pay, and neighboring agencies offering more pay or better benefits.

Huff said starting pay at some neighboring departments is $10 to $12 an hour higher, a difference of roughly $20,000 to $25,000 a year.

Approved by city council this summer, for FY2027, which begins Oct. 1, officers are receiving a 6.72% cost-of-living adjustment. But NPD said some neighboring agencies gave larger raises, pushing Nampa further behind.

The city has added police positions, but not as many as an independent police allocation study recommends, according to Huff. The 2024 study found Nampa needed 12 more officers right away and 15 more by 2029. Huff said the city's budget for FY 2027 included two new positions.

City leaders across the state point to House Bill 389, a 2021 state law meant to slow property tax growth. It limits how much revenue cities can collect from new construction, and city officials said that gap grows each year.

Huff said the law has left Nampa with $6.2 million on the table.

The city has also used foregone property taxes in each of the last two budgets. Foregone taxes are unused taxing authority from previous years, and the city took about $500,000 each time. That money helped fund police.

"The city has done what they can," Huff said. "They have no more wiggle room to take money."

Huff said if he can't add staff, he might have to shrink or reevaluate specialty units to put more officers on patrol.

"I'm going to have to make some decisions. Do I cut our school resource? Do I cut our narcotics divisions? Do I cut our traffic teams? Because I have to have those people, you know, that are taking patrol-type calls respond when somebody calls," he said.

He said he doesn't expect Nampa's growth to slow down anytime soon, especially as West Nampa develops and more traffic comes in from the Highway 16 expansion.

In addition to adding staff and raising wages, the levy looks ahead to the future of training for Nampa recruits.

Because the department can't hire everyone at once, police officials said, money not yet spent on salaries in the levy's early years would be set aside to help build a training facility. Nampa recruits now train mostly at Meridian's academy through a joint program. Huff said Nampa will soon outgrow that arrangement as both cities grow.

A resolution approved by the City Council estimates the levy would cost property owners about $28.93 a year for every $100,000 of taxable assessed value, based on current conditions.

Because the levy is permanent, it needs at least 60% of voters to pass.

"I'm not trying to sway anybody's vote one way or the other," he said. "Nobody likes to be taxed anymore, and it really comes down to what you know type of police department you want to have down the road. I'll work with anything."