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City adds public-safety positions; new police and fire chiefs outline priorities
Summary
City Manager and the new chiefs said the city added firefighters and police positions in the current budget and that new leadership will pursue recruitment, proactive enforcement and specialty-response capacity.
City leaders announced additions to public-safety staffing and introduced new police and fire chiefs who described priorities for recruitment, proactive enforcement and emergency-response capabilities.
City Manager Jared Atkinson said the current-year budget adds three firefighter positions in the fire marshal’s office (to provide 24-hour coverage), an additional division chief in Lubbock Fire Rescue, three new patrol positions at the Lubbock Police Department, four civilian public-safety officers and two new customer-service positions for a department described in the address as “Lubbock Bridal Services.” He also said equipment and fleet purchases include 48 pieces of vehicles or heavy equipment, 32 of them cash-funded replacements.
Why it matters: Staffing and equipment affect response capacity for fire, emergency medical services and policing across the city.
Key details - Police: Chief (identified in the address as Chief Herman) said recruiting is strong — he noted 419 people testing for police-recruit positions on an upcoming weekend — and said the department reported roughly 23,000 citizen-initiated calls for service and about 16,000 self-initiated actions last year. Chief Herman credited proactive enforcement and partner agencies for improving a murder clearance metric, saying the clearance rate reached 100% in the past year and that murders fell from 36 to 16 over a cited interval. - Fire and EMS: Fire Chief Richard Stewart said Lubbock Fire Rescue responded to about 27,000 calls last year, about 71% of which were EMS calls. He described specialty teams (high-angle rescue, hazardous-materials, dive and wildland teams) and noted the department’s ISO Class 1 rating.
Statements and attribution - Jared Atkinson (City Manager) provided budget and staffing additions. - Chief Herman (new police chief) described recruitment, enforcement strategy and crime statistics. - Richard Stewart (new fire chief) discussed EMS volume and specialty response teams.
Context and next steps Leaders said recruitment remains a top priority and that added civilian positions allow sworn officers to focus on law enforcement. No formal personnel actions were taken during the address.
Ending Public-safety staffing and equipment purchases were presented as measures to sustain response capacity amid city growth.
