On training the trainers

Three quarters of the way through 2015, statistics from the Cheney Police Department paint a picture of what has become, at least for now, the new normal — relatively low criminal activity, high dispatch call volumes and overtime exceeding budget.

With regards to the latter, it’s all about maintaining officer safety as requirements negotiated into the Police Guild’s contract with the city at the beginning of the year to always have at least two officers on duty during any shift are being met. That’s driven the department to exceed its allotted $26,000 general fund overtime budgeted amount by $64,246.08 — 347.1 percent of year to date expenditures in the fund.

But another fund running over budget could also provide safety for the general public in both the short and long term, along with potential savings. That is in the department’s officer training fund.

Specifically, training officers to become trainers.

Besides cutting down on the expenses of sending several officers to specific training, police Cmdr. Rick Campbell said training officers to do training accomplishes three things. It provides the department an in-house instructor, more frequent training opportunities as needs arise and broadens the number of people able to train others.

The most recent training has been in defensive tactics. While the need to use defensive tactics has probably declined a bit, Campbell said several incidents where officers were slightly injured brought the need to the department’s attention.

“The guys are having to deploy force so we’ve got to train them how to do it,” he said.

The department had previously sent Officer Dave Bailey to firearms school, but as his certification was set to expire and he wanted to change, Officer Chris Oakes requested to step into that role. Campbell said Bailey requested to replace firearms with defensive tactics to supplement Officer Chris English, and will work in conjunction with Oakes in cross training between when to use firearms, when to use defensive tactics and how to switch from one to the other.

To do that, while maintaining the shift requirements, involves training other officers in new duties. Together, those have caused the overtime-training fund to run over budget, which in 2015 is at 130.5 percent of the $5,000 set aside.

Besides officers trained in defensive tactics and firearms, Cheney has two other officers, sergeants Kelly Hembach and Chad Estep, who are trained in emergency vehicle operations. All three are high liability areas Campbell said the department is trying to build in-house resources with which to stay on top of current practices.

Through September, overall crime reports in the city are down from last year at the same time, with 412 incidents reported compared to 437. Seven of the 11 categories tracked are either at or below 2014 levels, some such as assaults (39 compared to 61) and burglary (32 compared to 50) significantly.

The latter includes about six cases that were solved in August with the apprehension of four individuals involved in several dozen burglary incidents in Cheney and Spokane, bringing Cheney’s investigation department’s year-to-date case clearance rate to 37.74 percent.

Two areas where activity has increased are drug offenses, 14 compared to 2 through September 2014, and thefts, 157 compared to 145. The former included several incidents where multiple juveniles were arrested for possession of marijuana, while the latter includes a number of vehicle prowls.

“And we’ve seen some increases in shoplifting,” Campbell added.

Misdemeanor arrests are down just under 17 percent while felony arrests are up from 34 to 41. Traffic citations are down almost 33 percent, with warnings, contacts and parking tickets also down, a product Campbell said of not only the new shift arrangements but also not having enough manpower to participate in periodic region and state wide emphasis campaigns.

“We just don’t have the bodies,” Campbell added.

Dispatch calls for service remain ahead of last year’s numbers, although the ratio has shifted more to Cheney calls and away from calls for Eastern Washington University police. Writing up no contact orders remains a high time priority for dispatchers, something Campbell said is a result of the department handling not only Cheney and EWU but also paperwork for the Airway Heights Police Department and the Kalispell Tribe Police Department.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].