Cheney police honored by care community residents

Residents at Cheney Care Center, Assisted Living and Sessions Village and Blackstone paid homage to Cheney police department employees last Friday as part of National Police Appreciation week.

"We at the Cheney Care community recognize and than these brave men and women who protect and serve our community to keep us safe day after day," activity director Kris Bahr said in prepared marks before several dozen residents and staff at the Care Center.

Care Center residents presented framed "Thank You awards" to each member of Cheney's department including officers, dispatchers and administrative staff. Assisted Living residents presented each employee a "police survival kit" consisting of various candies selected for a variety of situations law enforcement deal with during their duties.

"Lifesavers, because that's what you are, Paydays because we know it's not nearly enough," Bahr said. Also included were "Dum Dums," "Airheads" and "Smarties" as recognition of some of the people officers face.

Finally, Cheney staff were presented with fresh baked goods - including yes, donuts - by residents of Session Village and Blackstone Independent Living.

Receiving the items on behalf of the Cheney department were Sgt. Chad Eastep along with officers Dane Gilman and Matt Pumphrey. After the presentations, residents got the chance to ask each of them questions about their work, such as one for Gilman about how fast he has ever gone in his patrol vehicle.

"125 miles per hour," Gilman said.

"But he was going for coffee, I'm sure," Eastep quickly added.

Asked what was the most drastic change he has seen in his nearly three decades of service to the city, Pumphrey said it was the growth and change in the population. Those changes have led to more people coming to Cheney who do not live in the city, some to visit friends, other with different agendas, and police have had to address all of these situations - some of which are not pleasant.

"But there's really good people who come to visit us too, and they come for our events," Pumphrey added.

Asked by a resident what citizens can do to help officers, Eastep gave a simple answer: "If you see something odd or out of place, always call us."

The Cheney officer of 14 years gave an example of an individual who called saying they didn't want to bother officers, but noted there was a car parked in Golden Hills that had been there for a long time. Eastep said they checked it out, ran the plates and found out it had been stolen out of Spokane.

Upon encountering the occupants, they were discovered to be in possession of stolen property, drugs and were likely casing the area in preparation for home break-ins.

"We got all of that out of somebody making a phone call," Eastep said. "Always call us."

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].