Lede: Police Chief Earl Nelson told the Middletown City Council strategic work session that the department will realign patrol beats, add personnel and roll out new communications and records software in 2025 to increase visible patrols and reduce response times.

Nut graf: The presentation laid out specific boundary changes for multiple beats on the city’s east side, a staffing target of 88 authorized positions, expanded corrections responsibilities to free patrol officers for patrol work, and plans to adopt new dispatch and body‑camera redaction software. Chief Nelson framed the changes as efforts to shorten response times and increase traffic enforcement once new officers complete training.

Body: Chief Nelson described a multi-part plan the department expects to implement in stages this year. He said the city will complete a beat realignment that creates or shrinks beats so officers can patrol neighborhoods more frequently — specifically naming changes to Beats 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12 and adding new Beats 17, 18 and 19 — and argued the plan will improve coverage on the east side where service gaps have been reported.

Nelson described several technology and staffing moves the council has already supported or that are underway: the department will use a new dispatch/cad system to improve information sharing with other agencies, upgrade body‑camera redaction tools in police records to handle public records requests more efficiently, and the city has authorized an additional dispatcher position in communications. "New cast software... it is it's really needed," Nelson said in the presentation, describing the vendor transition and the ability to share incident information with partner agencies.

On staffing he said the department’s authorized strength is 88 positions and noted the council recently approved another dispatcher; he told council the department added six positions during the budgeting process and will use corrections staffing to perform transports and hospital stays that previously required pulling patrol officers off the street. "We are working with the state to be able to train our corrections officers to carry... allow us to keep those patrol officers on the street," Nelson said.

Investigations and special operations staffing were also addressed: Nelson said general‑assignment and special‑operations detectives carried over 600 assigned cases in 2024 and described plans to upgrade interview room recording systems and make them soundproof.

Quotes in context: "If it goes according to plan, we should be able to look and see all the, other agencies who report to Central Square and communicate with them and share information more easily," Chief Earl Nelson said, describing the new dispatch/CAD capability. On using corrections staff to reduce patrol interruptions, Nelson said the change will "keep officers on the street."

Ending: Nelson concluded by saying the department’s goal is to increase visible patrols and traffic enforcement once hires complete training in mid‑2025, and asked council for continued support while department leaders implement the beat changes and new technology.

Reporting note: The presentation included maps showing new beat boundaries and a staffing slide; council members asked about remote substations on the east side and response times during shift changes.