As we have started the new year, there are new challenges in the upcoming months for the police department. Staffing issues mostly with officer injuries continue to plague the department. As stated before, Officer Herrera is now out with injury so the returning Officer Wetherbee was placed in Officer Herrera’s patrol shift. I was looking forward to being able to fill our weekend swing shift, a patrol slot that has been open since the middle of last year. The shift is currently being staffed with overtime and or a Sergeant when they are on duty. This has had a significant impact on my overtime budget but it cannot be helped at this time. Officer Herrera is doing well and will mostly likely be back in about two weeks but only for light duty.
In records department news, I am currently having an audit done by an outside contractor. I felt this was necessary to ensure proper records keeping in compliance with department policies and state and federal law. Proper records procedure is crucial to our mission here at the Sandy Police Department. I will review the report from the auditor when it is complete and inform council and the appropriate personnel of any changes that may take place as a result of that audit.
At the time of this writing, I am unsure what is going to happen with the Estacada Police Services contract. As you now know, the city of Estacada gave official notice of their intent to not renew the current contract for police services. I have began working with finance on my budget to prepare for this. It is unknown at this time whether Sandy PD will continue to provide police services for the city of Estacada after September of this year.
Even with all this activity, I am optimistic about this new year. We have had many challenges before and working together, have always found a way to solve whatever we are faced with.
In 2017, officers handled a total of 16,069 calls for service. That translates to 1,339 calls per month and an average of 43 calls per day. As you can see, your officers were very busy in our growing community.