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Police chief outlines phased facility plan, staffing changes and county dispatch proposal
Summary
Chief Whitehill presented a police facilities master plan, staffing proposals and a draft interagency dispatch agreement; he also described an equipment inventory and recent cooperative drug enforcement activity with Lane County.
Police Chief Whitehill briefed the Junction City council on a facilities master plan, staffing proposals and several operational items at the May 27 work session.
"This is kind of just a hodgepodge of things that we're working on," Whitehill said, introducing the packet of updates that included a phased approach for remodel work, a five-year strategic project plan and an organizational chart that proposes a part-time detective and other adjustments.
Whitehill said designers and architects proposed completing the police remodel in smaller phases with individual work items priced at roughly $50,000 to $60,000 rather than a single large remodel. He also described one vacancy the department is recruiting for (a police service technician) and said the county's hiring rules could affect internal applicants.
The chief presented a draft interagency agreement with the county to provide full-time dispatching for the city. "The quote was a hundred and $46,000 a year," Whitehill said about the draft contract; he also said the county would finance approximately $75,000 in equipment upgrades that the city would repay over time. Whitehill said the agreement is not finalized and that the county would take nonemergency daytime calls during office hours and would assume after-hours dispatching.
Whitehill outlined an equipment-replacement plan that inventories firearms, vests and vehicles and proposes trade-in or conversion strategies for some shotguns. He described the liability and training costs associated with maintaining older weapons and previewed a plan to trade in certain items to purchase less-lethal or updated equipment.
The chief also highlighted recent cooperative enforcement. "We had a big major bust in Junction City this weekend," he said, and credited partnerships with Lane County deputies, a drug canine and a drug detective for an arrest involving drugs and a firearm.
What happens next: staff said they will bring the interagency dispatch agreement back for further review and that equipment and staffing changes will follow normal personnel and procurement processes.
