Hello Mayor and Council members. I apologize as this report is late this month. The police department continues to recruit. We recently lost another candidate to the background phase of the process and an additional candidate to another agency that was ahead of our process. As of now, we have one open position that needs to be filled ASAP and a second position that may be open before the month of October. We have one officer that has plans to move to another state, creating the second open position. It has been difficult to recruit folks in the last couple of years. We have opened the process back up and are now accepting applications. We exhausted our last list of possible candidates and are starting anew.

I continue to research the use and purchase of body cameras for our officers. Council and budget committee members approved additional funding for this project. The quote that was issued to our department has expired now and a new quote was received recently. That quote is a bit higher but not substantially. I have included our IT department in this process and now the issue is server space for storage of the additional digital media created by the use of the body camera. We have not reached a solution as of this time. The companies that sell this equipment all have a “cloud” option for storage of media but this comes at an annual cost, making this an ongoing expense that we just do not have funds for. I will keep all of you updated on this project.

As we get full swing into summer, officers are busy with calls for service that generally increase this time of year. Additionally, we have seen a decrease in planned events (protests) this year as opposed to last year. These are taking staff time and resources but not at the same level as the previous year. This is good news for our officers, who are working extra hours when these events happen and also good for our overtime budget.

That is all for now. I hope all of you are enjoying our beautiful summer sunshine. Chief Roberts.

Hello Mayor and Council members. Spring is finally here and we’ve had an unusually warm couple of months for our area. Personally, I love the sunshine and warmer temperatures but with that, comes talk of droughts and an early start to the wildfire season. On that note, we continue to work on the update of our Emergency Operations Manual and hope to have that finished in early fall at which time we will present to council for approval. With that said, we have an existing Emergency Operations Manual that is in use. Most of the updates that you will see at a later date are minor, ie updated names, agencies and contact information. The work is tedious at best but important. Lt. Sean Lundry and myself are doing the work on this project. Most cities in our county now have an Emergency Operations Manager at the very least. This is becoming more and more beneficial as time passes. As we’ve seen firsthand now with the wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic how fast things evolve in emergency situations. The need for an emergency operations manager is clear.

Our two new officers that were recently sworn in are doing very well. Officer Santos has begun his sixteen weeks of academy training and will be in Salem for all of the summer. He will begin his field training that will last anywhere from fourteen to sixteen weeks upon his return. Officer Sabella has completed the onboarding process and is now in field training. Officer Sabella had previously graduated from police academy therefore does not need to attend again. This is very beneficial to us as she will have completed training much sooner than if she had to attend the academy.

We had one last open position and the candidate as of last week was in the background investigation portion of the process. That candidate has failed a portion of the background investigation that prevents him from being employed here. This is disappointing but not unusual. I am in the process of rescinding his offer and we will move on to the next candidate from our hiring list.

The budget process has been completed. I wanted to thank all of you as well as all of the folks who volunteered their time for the budget committee. Many hours of meetings and some very good conversation and ideas were brought forward. Thanks to all of you for your service to our community.

Lastly, I am looking forward to our first in person council meeting. I excited to see things get back to more normal and hopefully we can continue to move forward to an end of this pandemic.

Thank you and I will see all of you soon. Chief Roberts

Hello Mayor and council members. I hope all of you had a good month and enjoyed some of the unseasonably good weather we have had.

Budget is in full swing right now and I’m looking forward to completing that process soon. I can finally say that the hiring process here at the police department is coming to an end for now. Officer Randall Santos has officially started here at the PD and Officer Kristan Sabella is set to start next week. Both Officer Santos and Officer Sabella will be before you for swearing in and oath of office at the May 17th council meeting. I’m looking forward to having you meet our new officers. The final position to be filled was offered this week and the candidate accepted that offer. This would be the final open position. The candidate will begin the background investigation in the coming weeks. I’m hoping all goes well with the rest of the process so we will be fully staffed once again and can concentrate on other matters.

Late last year, we set up some resiliency training for all staff here at the PD. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have had to cancel that training two separate times now. We finally have a solid date in May when we will be able to offer this crucial training for all of our staff. The Oregon Trail School District has graciously offered space at the Sandy High School for this six hour training session so we can adequately space all of our people. We have a very respected speaker in this field that will be putting on this training and I’m excited to give all our staff some extra tools during this very difficult time that all of us have endured.

Supervisory staff here at the PD and a few select patrol officers have completed training with other agencies this last week focusing on crowd management. This has been a county wide effort to make sure we are all on the same page when deploying officers and staff to events we’ve had here in Sandy and all over the county. This also enables us to pull resources from surrounding agencies if the need arises. We are also working on a new ordinance regarding demonstrations that is almost complete. Of course it would not be up to me whether or not to adopt this new ordinance but I do believe it is a very useful tool to ensure public safety during these demonstrations. When finished, a copy will be provided to City Manager Wheeler and we can discuss next steps if necessary.

That is all for now. Have a great month everyone. Chief Roberts

Hello Mayor and council members. Finally seeing some sunshine here and there but it seems we just can’t kick the winter weather quite yet. Hopefully all of you are enjoying the few days of sun we are getting.

The police department continues to recruit for open positions. Offers were made to get us to full staff and then one of the candidates pulled out and took a job with another local agency. At this time, we have finalized one of the three open positions and have a start date for that candidate. I will be coming to council soon for the swearing in of that officer. We have a second candidate that is close to completing the process and I’m awaiting results for the psychological exam that was completed by the candidate last week. Were hoping this comes back positive and we can complete the process for her in the next couple of weeks. This would leave one position open and we are setting up an interview process for several candidates soon. It will take a couple of months to fill this final position if we get a qualified person from the interview process.

As all of you are aware, we had our first rally of the year on March 20th and another the following week. The last two weekends have not seen any events but we are preparing for a busy summer. Honestly, I was hoping this type of activity would slow down this year but all indications point to it getting even more busy than we saw last summer. I obviously do not condone these events but it is a major strain on my officers and our budget as well. We are working with other local agencies to update our training as it relates to these events and will be completing that training before the end of April. This is something that we started near the end of last year to make sure we could be more prepared. This will allow us to use other agency personnel if needed in an emergency and assure we are all trained equally and are using the same tactics to keep everyone safe.

Lastly, I was excited to be a part of the homeless task force discussion at our last council meeting. There are many folks who are very passionate about this issue. This will require much more work for all of us but it is nice to see some outside the box thinking and the many folks who are willing to put forth the effort to make an impact on this ongoing homelessness issue we continue to deal with in our community.

That is all for now. Hope all of you have a great month. Chief Roberts

Hello Mayor and Council members. The snow and ice storm this month kept us very busy for a period of time. I hope all of you managed it and were able to keep yourselves and your families safe and warm. Most of our time was spent responding to vehicle crashes, pulling out vehicles that were stuck in the roadway and debris management as well. We were able to come through with relatively little damage, aside from a tree falling on one of our patrol vehicles, but that sort of thing can be fixed. The main thing is we all made it through without any injuries or major damage.

The hiring process is still moving forward and there is nothing new to report from the last council report. We are still on track to be fully staffed after the three openings are filled, that is our goal.

The budget process is in full swing with all the department heads and I’m working on finishing this up as I write this. My brain is a bit scrambled from looking at all those numbers but I’m looking forward to budget meetings and getting our budget finished and approved.

We have been focused on employee wellness more than ever before. Currently, we are exploring different scheduling options for our patrol officers. We have been researching this topic for some time and my Lieutenant has just finished up a weeks training on the topic. The goal is to maximize coverage with the officers we have with a focus on health and wellness. For years, our officers and staff have worked a four day a week schedule. This consists of ten hour shifts for four days in a row. This may change in the near future as we discover better options that are scientifically proven to be more healthy and sustainable for employees who are mandated to shift work that includes nights, weekends and holidays. I will keep you posted as we continue to explore these options.

That is all for now. I hope all of you have a great month. Chief Roberts

Hello Mayor and Council members. I hope you all had a good holiday season. It’s been a busy winter so far. I’m happy to have been able to spend a little time, over zoom of course, to get to know our new council members a bit. I don’t know about you, but I am looking forward to in person meetings again sometime in the future. Just my own personal feeling on the matter.

The goal setting process for council has been really informative and much different that those in the past. I feel like the process this year is much more productive that it has been in the past. Not to say previous goals and sessions were bad, I just feel like this process has offered more input and an element of team building, which is always good.

We are still in the middle of the hiring process here at the police department. As of this writing, I have made three conditional offers to the top candidates. It was two before but unfortunately, I had to let Officer Lew Sytsma go. He resigned effective December 31, 2020. This was a very tough process for me as Lew had been here with our police department for close to ten years. But, it could not be helped and I know the right decision was made moving forward with our department. So, this opened up another position that we need to fill. Thankfully, the decision was made some time ago to keep the recruiting process open until positions were filled. Also leaving our department, under completely different circumstances, is Sgt. Luke Hodges. Sgt. Hodges is moving to another agency to continue his career. He started his law enforcement career with Sandy PD and has been an outstanding officer and employee. Sgt. Hodges has spent nearly ten years at the City of Sandy and he will be missed. I wish him the best as he transitions to the next phase of his career. This means we will need to promote one of our employees to Sergeant soon. We are completely refining our Sergeant testing process and will begin that process next month. I see no need to hire out for this position as I believe we have several very capable officers to fill this position. Lots of change coming to the police department and you will see some fresh faces soon. Never in my time here have we hired so many new folks, five total including the two officers that filled the positions via the public safety fee.

I am looking forward to our work session regarding homeless folks in our area. This is not yet scheduled or was going to be scheduled for February but I will need to push that back until some time in March. The reason for rescheduling is that I have contacted Bill Stewart with the Clackamas County DA’s office to attend the zoom workshop. He is not available until March. DDA Stewart has been involved with some new “outside the box” programs such as mobile court and shower to name a few. I believe he’ll have some encouraging information for us. This “outside the box” thinking is just what we need as we move forward to come up with viable solutions to the issues at hand. For years, this issue has been placed on the shoulders of law enforcement agencies and obviously, this has not worked. With the recent changes in law in our state and around the country, our ability to remove folks from certain public areas has been very limited. Not that our approach was working or solving the much deeper issues associated with homelessness, but law enforcement is not the answer to the issue at hand. I certainly believe we need to be part of the solution, but law “enforcement” is not fixing our issues or helping these folks get out of the situations that they are in.

That is all for now. Please feel free to contact me anytime if you have questions or would just like to chat. Chief Roberts

Hello council members and Mayor Pulliam. This has turned out to be a very different holiday season for all of us. I truly hope all of you get the opportunity to spend time with family and reflect not on the negative aspects of the past year, but the good that has come from the challenging and often difficult tasks we have all faced and continue to thrive.

I’d like to focus this report on the issue that has come up at recent meetings regarding the homeless population in and around our area. At the last council meeting, our city attorney and I explained some of the challenges we are having recently, including the case currently on appeal that originated with the City of Boise Idaho. Personally, I do not think the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision will be overturned. For the City of Sandy and all other municipalities that fall under the 9th Circuit, it is very challenging to manage the homeless population and camps set up on public property given the new restrictions on enforcement as a result of this decision. In addition to this, I believe the recent pandemic and the atmosphere in and around the Portland Metro Area has resulted in an increased number of homeless individuals in our area. I will discuss this further with City Manager Wheeler in the coming weeks. I think it best that we all talk about this issue perhaps in an upcoming work session early next year. I have significant concerns regarding this issue as it is taking up more of my officers time on patrol and now a majority of my code enforcement officers time.

Briefly in other news, our recruitment continues here at the PD and I have recently sent out two conditional offers of employment. These positions are for the open spot created by the retirement of one of my officers and an additional spot for an officer who will be transferring to another agency by years end. We are also developing a hiring list in anticipation of an additional opening.

Have a wonderful holiday season everyone. Chief Roberts.

Hello Mayor Pulliam and council members. Whew! Election 2020 is finally coming to an end. This has been the most stressful election season that I can remember. I have never seen an election generate this much participation, which is great that folks got out and let their voice be heard on election day. The police department, for the first time I can remember, was asked to provide security at ballot boxes at closing time. We did not have any problems here in Sandy.

Halloween during the COVID pandemic was certainly a bit different this year but that does not mean that the little ghosts and goblins didn’t get their share of candy. The police department participated in this years trick or treat trail held at the Sandy High School. We had a limit of 300 vehicles allowed and were at capacity. I must say the event went very well as families drove through the trail and got treats from the many businesses and volunteers that donated their time and resources so the families could get out and have some fun Halloween night.

The hiring process continues here at the PD with interview panels being held on November 9th and November 16th. I’m already hearing that we have some great candidates. Of course I won’t be meeting any of them until the selection process is a bit further along but It’s great to know we’ve had a high number of applications from qualified folks that are interested in being a part of our team. I’m hoping to be able to issue offer letters to the top candidates in the next two weeks and start the background investigations stage of the process soon after. I will keep all of you posted on this process as we move forward.

The police department has been working on an active shooter training event recently. Because of the COVID 19 pandemic, we are having a hard time securing a location for the training event. I wanted to mention this because we are hoping to have the Mayor and council members attend the event as observers. This would be a great opportunity for members to observe how their police department will respond to an event of this nature. The event was originally scheduled for early December but has now been pushed back to sometime in early 2021. Again, I will keep all of you posted on our progress.

The holiday season is approaching. It is my hope that all of you get to spend some time with family and friends. Chief Roberts.

Hello council members and Mayor Pulliam. September certainly tested our resolve here at the police department. With the ongoing pandemic and an increase in call volume, we were already busy enough here. During the middle of all of this, the wildfires across our state spread very quickly and we were forced to change direction literally overnight. I was on my annual vacation and had to return early to help lead the police department through this unprecedented time. My team here at the PD went above and beyond during this trying time. Our focus quickly became life safety and the distribution of information to our citizens. We put all of our sworn personnel on mandatory twelve hour shifts and had two of our PIO’s staffed strictly to distribute information and give timely updates to our citizens mostly via social media. As the fires dissipated and teams of our wonderful firefighters were able to gain control of the firelines, we were able go back to normal operating hours. My folks were tired from the many hours worked, but never gave up on the mission. I cannot tell you how proud I am to have such a dedicated team of professionals.

After this incident was over, there were many lessons learned for us. We debriefed with officials, including City Manager Wheeler to discuss these items. During these debriefs, our goal is to talk about what went right and what went wrong. The idea is to learn from mistakes made and discuss ideas to become even better than before. I’d like to thank each and every one of you for your support, not just through the wildfire incident, but throughout this whole year.

On to other relevant news. We continue to search for a replacement for an officer who retired earlier this year. That position remains open and we have started another recruitment process in the last couple of weeks. This recruitment will be for that open position in addition to creating a hiring list for possible future vacancies. Unfortunately, I have two officers that have informed me of their intention to leave Sandy PD for other agencies. I have spoke with both of those officers and I will tell you, the reasons for leaving have nothing to do with them being happy at Sandy PD. One officer has family in another state and has applied in that area to be close to family members and the other is hoping to fulfill some lifelong goals and we simply do not offer the position he is hoping to achieve. These two officers are in the hiring process at other agencies so they have not given any notice as of yet but we have to be prepared if this does happen. These are two really great officers and I would hate to lose them but at the same time, I support them in any way I can.

I also would like to inform you that I have one officer on administrative leave. I cannot go into this any further at this time. When our investigation is complete, I will advise appropriate personnel. This has created yet another staffing shortage for the time being but we are working through this.

I hope all of you are enjoying the transition into fall. Have a great week and I will see all of you soon. Chief Roberts

Hello Council. I hope you all enjoyed the break in your schedules. I’m sure it was a welcome break for all of you as this year has been a busy one to say the least. I’d like to say thank you to all of you for your service to our wonderful community and the time you volunteer to make this the best place to live possible.

First, both of our new hires are doing well in the basic police academy. We get weakly updates from instructors at the academy. This includes test scores etc. We are of course in touch with both Officer Ling and Officer Boyes regularly. They are representing our agency and city very well and are near the top of their class so far. They are scheduled to graduate on November 20th so they still have a way to go before returning to the city to begin patrol duties.

We have been more busy than usual here at the police department with the civil unrest going on across the country. The City of Sandy has not been spared the protests. We have been fortunate in the fact that most all of our demonstrations and events have been peaceful and to date, only one incident has been forwarded to the Districts Attorney’s office for warrant application. This is the incident where a subjects tires were slashed during a flag wave event. Police were able to quickly identify the suspect. This suspect is not from the Sandy area. The police department has been heavily involved with the organizers of these events and with all the groups that have demonstrated. I know this has been a cause for concern for some citizens but it is crucial that we be involved. We are monitoring social media as well and are aware of certain folks that may be cause for concern. I mention this because I want council to know we are doing what we can to support everyone’s constitutional rights while making sure it is done in a peaceful manner. Tensions are high across the country, including Sandy. With that said, we’ve found that staying in touch and reaching out to these folks has been successful for us.

And Lastly, I want all of you to know that I’m available for any of you if you have questions regarding any of these issues. I am thankful for our councils support and am determined to keep you informed and in the loop with what we are working on at any given time. Once again, thank you for your service and continued support..Chief Roberts.