police costs

[bolo]

It’s been almost two months since city police chief began placing
orders online for police equipment, and with no place to store it once
it finally gets here, the new city police department consisting of
Arntz and deputies Brandon and Francesca Brashear, is anxious for the
city to find them a place to work from.
“Patrolling hasn’t really started yet,” said Arntz.“We don’t have
badges, uniforms, ticket books, or anything. We only have one radio,
so that’s why we all three stayed together at the Little Big Horn Days
events.”
The chief and his deputies were on hand for most of the events
throughout the past two weeks such as the street dance and fireworks,
working as a reserve unit for the Big Horn County Sheriff’s
Department.
With a team that’s ready to get started but no place to put them, the
city is working to find a place to house the three police officers who
already have an assemble-it-yourself temporary holding cell and three
police vehicles.“We can’t just keep working out of the mayor’s
office,” said Arntz.“We know they will give us somewhere to go, but we
don’t know where yet.”
One location being considered for the home of the police department
and possibly the city judge is the old senior citizen’s center that is
now vacant.“It’s an odd building,” said Arntz.“It’s long and narrow,
but it’s plenty big and it will work if they will give it to us.”
If the old senior center is chosen, the city will have to decide what
to do when it comes to constructing offices, Americans With
Disabilities Act standardized bathrooms, updated electrical, cooling,
and heating systems, a secure evidence room, and a place to bolt the
temporary holding cell.“We called in an architect who gave us an
estimate,” said Arntz,“but it was more than the city was willing to
spend. We couldn’t have known that until we had someone look at it.”
Another location that was mentioned by Mayor Kim Hammond was the new
fire hall.“We’re exploring a few locations. With federal grants that
could be acquired at the beginning of the year, we could add on to the
fire hall, but that would take several months. As for the Ping
building, we would need about three to four months for renovation,
then that same amount of time for construction, which would be
expensive,” said Hammond.
According to the mayor, costs are on par with the police department
being frugal with their expenditures.“So far we have spent about
$240,000 for personnel, vehicles, and equipment but that’s good. Some
people think we didn’t need some things like the four wheelers but
that’s a valuable necessity, it’s almost like an extra officer, and if
gas prices go back up, it would be cost effective to patrol with
them.”
Having worked together in the past, the team seems optimistic that
they will be able to police even with a short staff.“We had a small
staff in the past where there was a drug problem and the task force
was overworked. We didn’t care though, we just did it ourselves.
storybush.com We’re not afraid to get involved instead of pushing it
off on someone else,” said Brashear.
As for the response of the community, it has been a positive one for
the new police team.“There have been a lot of positive comments made,”
said Hammond.
“People are concerned about DUIs, people loitering on the streets, and
there is a problem with the curfew for kids being enforced,” said
Brashear. Arntz agreed saying,“Kids are out all night long. There is
also tobacco and drugs around the schools and vandalism and domestic
violence are also two huge issues around here.”
“The thing to remember,” said Brashear,“is we’re not the city’s police
department, we’re the people’s police department. We’re here for them,
and they aren’t going to want us to be understaffed.”