Security for Richmond’s new mayor to cost less

The Richmond Police Department says it expects to spend at least 50 percent less on security for Mayor Dwight C. Jones than it did for Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, but officials weren't saying yesterday how much it will cost.

Cuts to the executive-protection unit ordered by Jones will allow about $425,750 in personnel costs to be saved for other police programs, including school-resource officers, Police Chief Bryan T. Norwood announced yesterday.

But a news release gave no details to support the figure, and a police spokesman was unable to say with certainty whether the savings would be realized annually or over some other period.

Police officials rebuffed questions, including how much city taxpayers have been spending and will be spending on 24-hour protection for the mayor.

Asked to provide a breakdown of the costs, Norwood directed a reporter to file a request under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch e-mailed a request under the act yesterday afternoon. A response is required within five working days.

The security detail has had nine officers -- two supervisors and seven detectives, according to the Police Department. It has been reduced to one supervisor and one to three detectives, depending on security needs.

The unit was established in early 2005 by then-Police Chief Rodney Monroe after Wilder took office as the first elected mayor under a new form of government.

The scale and cost of the unit was defended by Monroe as necessary for Wilder -- Virginia's first and only African-American governor -- but it also was criticized by some as excessive. As of last spring, the city had spent $1.2 million cumulatively on mayoral protection, according to police records provided at the time to The Times-Dispatch.

"It just doesn't seem to me that it should cost that much," Jones said when he was running for mayor.

After his election in November, Jones said he was committed to scaling back but didn't elaborate on the savings he would seek. Yesterday's news release said Jones had ordered cuts of at least 50 percent.

"At the mayor's direction, we have worked with Richmond police to balance threat assessment with the deployment of resources," Jones' press secretary, Tammy Hawley, said in an e-mail.

"The mayor is pleased with the changes as presented today and with the fact that systems have been put in place so that we may have an ongoing clear picture regarding security-detail expenditures."

The security unit also includes a new sport utility vehicle that will be used for four years before being rotated to another police function, the news release said. Vehicles that have been rotated out of the security detail are reducing expenses on rental vehicles.

The news release included no information on the cost and type of the SUV, and it didn't say how many vehicles had been and now were assigned to the unit.

"I made a decision to acquire a new vehicle in anticipation of the need and to upgrade our fleet," Norwood said in the release.

"With that said, we have reduced the personnel and reduced the fleet that had been allocated to the previous administration. I feel that I have been able to reallocate personnel and fleet in a manner that will benefit the city and move my 2009 objectives forward."

Contact Will Jones at (804) 649-6911 or .

Staff writer Reed Williams contributed to this report.