Huntingburg Police chief seeking to expand department and change structure
The Huntingburg Board of Public Works approved a request from Police Chief Art Parks to remove a sergeant position within the department and create an Assistant Chief position.
The new position will have to be approved by the Common Council before any action can be taken but the plan calls for it to be another mayor-appointed position.
Parks stated the position would be a salaried position and not eligible for overtime. The job description would include more work with the technology the department uses for crime reporting. The greater reliance on the technology and the recent activation of the countywide Interact Cloud-based Crime Information system precludes the need for a dedicated officer.
The position would still be part of regular patrol with those additional duties. Parks told the board the money saved from the reduction in the sergeants pay in addition to the lowering the amount of overtime of the existing officers would help with the department’s budget. He stated the department has paid a lot of overtime since three officers retired or resigned earlier this year.
Parks also took the opportunity to request adding another officer position to next year’s budget. The board approved the request based on the FBI statistics Parks presented. According to their recommendations Huntingburg should have 12 officers including the chief. Currently the department has ten.
This will go before the council as well.
I'm scratching my head on this one. If the sergeant's position by title is eliminated but not the body by pay and a new position of Assist Chief is hired or promoted and a replacement is hired for a net increase of one officer from 10 to 11 plus a new officer from 11 to 12, how is that going to help the budget? If the sergeant's position is eliminated by body and pay which means they would go down from 10 to 9 officers, then an Assist Chief is hired to bring them back up to 10 plus a new officer to 11, how is that helping the budget? If the Assist Chief is salaried they should be available for additional limited hours but without extra pay as with overtime, but I can't believe this position is going to make up and work the extra hours that would normally be overtime. Reality. I'm a police supporter and all for public safety, but this all sounds like a bunch of hooey and a shell game to me. Maybe this needs to be explained in more detail as to where the need is and how the savings will work. I also wonder how many cities and towns in these difficult economic times have a full compliment of officers as recommended by the FBI?
Ima, I was in that meeting and I think you're confused. The chief asked to eliminate the sergeant's position, taking that money and putting it toward the assistant chief position, thus, still keeping the department at 10. The department won't go from 10 to 9. It remains at 10, they are just changing the rank structure. He then asked for an additional officer. That, if given, would take the department from 10 to 11. It's my understanding, from Mayor Spinner in that meeting, that there was a lengthy list of requirements that must be met yearly by the department and that is where the need for this assistant chief's position comes in to help with that.