LINCOLN — Lincoln advocates will petition the Lincoln City Council, or voters in the council’s failure, to push back on Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and establish a minimum staffing level of sworn police officers in the capital city.
Retired Nebraska State Patrol Superintendent Tom Nesbitt and former Lincoln talk radio host Doug Fitzgerald are sponsoring a new petition drive in hopes to set a “strict, legally binding floor” of at least 450 full-time sworn police officers at all times. The campaign says this would be at least 80 officers more than Lincoln’s current police force.
This proposed minimum level could rise, too, with the proposal calling for Lincoln officials to staff at least 1.5 officers for every 1,000 Lincoln residents to account for population growth. The U.S. Census Bureau reported Lincoln had a population of just more than 291,000 in 2020.
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The ordinance language says this increased Lincoln Police Department force would “guarantee emergency response capabilities and public safety coverage.”
‘Real, mathematical benchmarks’
Nesbitt said the group met with the leaders and members of the Lincoln Police Union before submitting language this week to the Lincoln City Clerk’s Office to begin the petition process.
“They are extremely appreciative to see the community step up and back the blue, to force real, mathematical benchmarks,” Nesbitt said in a statement. “Our circulators will be asking a very simple question to the taxpayers of Lincoln: Do you back the blue? Is public safety a principle you believe the City of Lincoln should prioritize?”
Signature gathering is expected to begin in the coming days and will feature door-to-door canvassing and citywide “Days of Action,” the campaign said in a news release. Campaign leaders will also ask all local and state elected officials to endorse the measure.
Lincolnites would not be the first to be presented with a citizen-led minimum police staffing requirement. For instance, Dallas residents in 2024 narrowly approved a new city charter amendment to require officials to staff at least 4,000 cops, an increase of around 900.
A Lincoln city spokesperson said Lincoln officials would issue a response to the petition effort.
Timing could matter
The timing could matter as attention turns to November’s general election and, later, Lincoln’s municipal election in spring 2027, barring a separate petition effort this summer to change the timing of the election. Gaylor Baird, a Democrat, and four Lincoln City Council members, three of whom are Democrats, can seek reelection next year.
Nesbitt and Fitzgerald are part of Advocates For All Nebraskans, a new advocacy group that had been leading five statewide petitions seeking to change state law or the Nebraska Constitution around property taxes and key ways Nebraska conducts its elections.
Eric Underwood, a spokesperson for the nonprofit and former chair of the Nebraska Republican Party, confirmed first to the Nebraska Examiner this week that signature gathering had ended on the statewide petitions as advocates transitioned to the new local effort. Underwood had said the new effort is intended to be nonpartisan and bring Lincolnites together.
Lincoln has been represented by a Democratic mayor since 1999 and now has a 6-1 Democratic majority city council, while much of the rest of the state has remained red.
The proposed “Public Safety Staffing and Funding Mandate” is a direct response to Gaylor Baird’s $651 million two-year budget on Monday, which calls for four new police officer positions in the second year of the budget cycle.
“The proposed budget reflects a disciplined approach to maintaining the strong city services residents rely on every day, while continuing to invest in Lincoln’s future,” Gaylor Baird said in a Monday statement about her proposed budget. “My administration is investing in the priorities that matter most to you – public safety, critical infrastructure and community assets that support a high quality of life across our city.”
Advocates for All Nebraskans argues the mayor’s proposal “structurally underfunds the actual front-line personnel by millions of dollars” because Lincoln has an active police force that “languishes” under 370 officers, short of a “safe operational baseline.”
The campaign says Gaylor Baird’s proposed small bump in officers would mean the officer-to-resident ratio would actually shrink relative to Lincoln’s growth and would leave the capital city as an outlier in police force ratios among cities of the same size, as well as the Metropolitan City of Omaha, which the Nesbitt-Fitzgerald-Underwood team said is 1.85-to-1.
Proposed ordinance specifics
Advocates for All Nebraskans estimates the funding deficit between the current police force and 450 full-time officers is nearly $13 million a year. About 70% of Lincoln’s budget comes from property and sales tax revenue, with the new proposal intended to prioritize public safety funding above all other non-essential or “luxury” services.
Gaylor Baird’s proposal, which the Lincoln City Council will vote on in August, would increase Lincoln’s budget from almost $302 million this year to nearly $317 million in the first year and about $335 million in the second. LPD accounts for about 22-24% of spending each year.
“Public safety” remains a broad exception to restrictions on how much Lincoln officials can use property taxes to increase the city’s budget, too.
Lincoln officials would need to boost police staffing within the next two years or risk automatic penalties if the city falls out of compliance, should the ordinance take effect.
If the city falls out of compliance, the ordinance calls for a hiring freeze of any non-emergency civilian position, excluding the City Clerk’s Office or other “essential revenue-generating roles, and the authority for the Lincoln city treasurer to move around any non-essential discretionary funds to cover necessary expenses and bring the city back into compliance with police staffing.
Any Lincoln resident or taxpayer would also have the right to bring a civil suit to compel compliance with the measure.
Beginning six months after the ordinance takes effect, the Lincoln Mayor’s Office would need to submit a formal, comprehensive “public safety staffing compliance report” to the city council after each fiscal quarter, outlining the current number of active officers, officer-to-resident ratio and total amount of funds remaining in a new Public Safety Staffing Fund.
This fund, managed by the Lincoln city treasurer, would be prioritized above all other discretionary or non-essential city services to “exclusively” cover recruitment, training, equipment, salaries and benefits of all sworn police officers.
The proposed ordinance states that nothing in the language should be taken to “limit, alter, impair or otherwise modify” the legal collective bargaining rights of officers or their agents.
Petition requirements
The Lincoln City Charter gives Lincolnites the right to first petition the Lincoln City Council to enact an ordinance within 30 days or submit it to the people at the next election.
The city charter requires 5% of the number of registered voters at Lincoln’s May 2025 election for the measure to go to the Lincoln City Council. As a backup, if at least 15% of voters sign, the measure could automatically advance the measure to the next election if the council fails or refuses to act.
In May 2025, Lincoln had nearly 186,000 voters. That would mean 5% of voters is about 9,300, while 15% is about 28,000.
Underwood will assist with the petition drive and be a principal contact for the more focused effort. In a statement, he said the group’s objective has “never waivered” to advocate for all Nebraskans and go to the people “until lawmakers represent them.”
“Today, we are moving from the statewide arena to a singular, focused, local mission,” Underwood said in a statement. “The City of Lincoln prioritizing public safety makes Nebraska even better. The timing of the mayor’s budget presentation works perfectly in our favor because the hard numbers expose the real priorities of city hall.”
This story is provided by States Newsroom, a nonprofit state news network and Blox Digital content partner.
