Chief: Police preparing for Tyson Blowback
By The Emporia Gazette (Contact)
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Last month, Gary Smith came from Northfield, Minn., to become Emporia’s new chief of police. Tuesday, Smith sat in on a chat to answer questions from The Gazette’s readers. Here is a transcript of the conversation.
Q What is the Emporia Animal Shelter going to do when they become inundated with owner-surrendered animals due to the Tyson layoffs and the terrible economy in Emporia? I know that the number of owner-relinquished animals has already risen significantly since the layoffs. Has the city put a backup plan into action to handle the excess load? If not — WHY NOT? I have heard that the previous solution to this crisis is simply to euthanize the owner-surrendered animals. This is unacceptable. I’d like to know what the emergency plan for this situation is.
A Our shelter director, Peggy Derrick, started developing a response plan shortly after we learned of the Tyson layoffs. Honestly, we can estimate the numbers based on other communities’ experiences but at this time we don’t know the full impact. We will continue to prepare for the largest anticipated influx. We do have an emergency plan in the event of a disaster that would bring in outside assistance. In this case, we can reach out to others for assistance and perhaps develop a “foster care” program where community volunteers would be willing to help give animals a temporary home until we can place them more long term.
Q I read in the paper that crime was expected to increase with the layoffs from Tyson. My question is, What kind of crime?
A Previous economic downturns have shown an increase in bad checks, shoplifting and property crimes as well as potential increases in domestic violence and personal assaultive behavior. Since the community is moving in a proactive manner to provide assistance to those impacted it would be my hope that the amount of increases would be small, if any. Emporia is fortunate to have many helping organizations to assist those in need. Our staff will assist in making referrals as needed and work in the process of identifying and getting those in need to the appropriate organizations.
Q What do you believe will be most challenging with regard to your department’s budget, and how do you plan to manage it?
A I’m fortunate to have many talented and creative individuals on our department who have worked hard over the past several years to maximize the value of resources available. Working on short and long term planning, involving members of the department to work toward the goals of the city and department will help to direct those dollars we have available to the best sources. With that said, however, we will need to develop a long range plan to replace aging equipment that is past the reliability stages and how we will deal with increasing demands for service while we see shrinking resources.
Q What is your position on consolidation of law enforcement services for Lyon county?
A I chose to move to Emporia knowing that the review of consolidation of law enforcement services was underway. It is healthy to review services for efficiency and effectiveness. If the process is designed to provide the best possible services to the communities and county then that is a good thing. The process itself will be beneficial at whatever level of consolidation might occur. Springstead, who has been selected to review the departments, has prior experience on the east coast. The challenge in this case that is different than east coast county law enforcement is the lack of a suburban and urban feel to the entire county. The difference in rural and city law enforcement is significant and will take careful and thoughtful consideration as we move through the process. As a public official, I will work within the policy developed by our elected officials as deemed by the voice of the electorate.
Q What are your plans for addressing gangs in Emporia? There is a lot of graffiti showing up, and organized property thefts by groups of kids who never seem to get caught.
A We just had two officers return from a state conference in Wichita. One of our officers was selected as the regional representative for this area for the state organization. This will enable us to better share information between law enforcement agencies. We continue to better our working relationship with the sheriff’s department, Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Kansas Highway Patrol and federal agencies such as the FBI, ATF and DEA. We will have training later this spring for our staff to better identify gang activity and how best to interdict it. We will also be providing educational opportunities to community members. Through community partnerships, we can successfully control any gang activity that is identified.
Q In the past we have had a real problem with dangerous dogs running in our neighborhood. When we were charged by the dogs and had them jumping into our fenced yard we were told at the non-emergency phone number that animal control was only available a few days a week during certain hours. I actually was told UNTIL a human was hurt the police would not get involved. Are there any plans to give more animal control support to the community?
A Currently, there are limited animal control services through our animal shelter. In the absence of an animal control officer working, our officers will respond, if available. Without knowing how long ago this happened or the full circumstances, I’m not really able to speak to this incident, however I do know that we have the ability to put the owner of an animal on notice if that dog has demonstrated a pattern of aggressiveness or danger. I know our officers will try to respond to any animal call if they can. The reality is that we must manage the officer call load. There are generally about five officers and one supervisor working in town at any time. In my short time here, I can tell you that our officers do stay busy with police calls for assistance. If there is a desire for increased staffing for animal services, it would require a review of the increased cost for staffing. We’ve looked at staffing schedules and outside funding through grants and private sources. We’ll continue to look at other ways to be more efficient and meet the many requests for assistance.
Q What, if anything, can be done to help the traffic situation out around the Wal-Mart area during the turnpike construction project? Before and after school you take your life in your hands just to drive in that area or walk across almost any parking lot because everyone is cutting across to try and find a faster way in out and around.
A I drive that route every morning and you are right, it is a challenge to navigate the intersection at 18th and Industrial. We do evaluate our traffic patterns and try to assign officers to enforce traffic to maximize our officers’ time. Part of the challenge in traffic enforcement in that area is the lack of space for officers to park and still respond without causing an accident. We are looking for outside funding that would pay for additional dollars to pay for two officer teams to work enforcement in that area. We will also work with our engineers and public works folks to monitor anything we can do to help with the congestion until the construction work is completed.
Q There’s a lack of Spanish-speaking officers in the department. Do you plan to address that deficit?
A A number of our officers, clerks and dispatchers are currently participating in a Spanish class. It is hopefully the start of future classes to allow officers to better communicate with our community members. We are also examining our hiring practices throughout the organization to hopefully try to recruit candidates who have multiple language skills.
Q How do you plan to improve the not-so-good relationship between the sheriff’s department and the police department? For far too long many useful resources have been wasted or not utilized due to stubborn administrations. It seems that this is mostly due to the administration at the sheriff’s department. Wouldn’t you agree that both agencies should work together in efforts to better serve the community, and if the sheriff’s department is not willing then perhaps someone else should step in there and try to make a change?
A Sheriff Eichorn reached out to me even arriving in Emporia. We meet at least once or twice a week and have developed a good working relationship. It’s my perception that a good amount of sharing of resources has been underway for several years. Both the sheriff and myself are committed to avoiding duplication in equipment and manpower. Our agencies back each other up on calls and assist with special events. As I mentioned previously, I’m a big supporter of working together to better serve our community. In talking to our staff I can assure you that that feeling is pervasive throughout the police department and the sheriff’s department.
Q Do you have plans for educating the public so we can learn to identify gangs? Are they mainly school aged kids?
A Yes, we will be providing opportunities for the public to discuss their concerns and we will also provide some educational opportunities. As to any specific group, my experience has been that gang activity can’t be categorized into any particular group or age group. It is very much dependent on the circumstances of recruitment, exposure to gangs in other communities, media glamorization of gang life and those who imitate gang activity in fashion and graffiti. We will continue to rely on community members to work with our officers and investigators to obtain good intel on gang activity. I’m committed to working with schools in prevention and education programs. I’m hoping we can find funding in the future to replace the school resource officer we lost several years ago due to cutbacks. I want to be able to expand our relationships with our youth and our officers to be proactive to keep our kids and youth away from gang activities.