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Riverton police report shows rise in property crimes; chief asks council for two officers
Summary
At a Riverton City Council meeting, the police chief reported an uptick in property crimes and jail bookings and asked the council to add two patrol officers to help manage workload. Council members discussed staffing, calls-per-day and alternatives including regional units and federal grant possibilities, but took no separate formal hiring vote.
Riverton City Council heard a police briefing in which the police chief said the city saw a rise in property crimes in April 2025 and requested two additional patrol officers to address increased workload.
The chief told the council that "April of 2025, we had 58 reports of property crimes," encompassing vehicle burglaries and thefts from property. He said jail bookings and physical arrests have also increased, and that the department is handling roughly 64 calls for service per day for the month in question. "Those calls could be for anything," the chief said, listing domestics, vehicle burglaries and assaults.
The nut of the discussion was workload and staffing: the chief outlined daily patrol staffing as five officers on day shift, five on afternoons and five on graveyard shifts during weekdays, with about 10 officers on duty on weekends. Councilmember McDougall summarized that the figures amount to "about roughly just over 4 calls a day per [on-duty] officer," and asked whether the two requested officers were intended to keep workload proportional. The chief said the new positions would "backfill patrol" and free officers to focus more on traffic complaints, enforcement and proactive patrols.
Council members raised budget and regional options in response. Councilmember McKay expressed concern about the police fund balance decreasing under the proposed budget and asked whether hiring could be phased ("maybe one this year and potentially one next year"). Councilmember Perugy (spelled in transcript as Perugy/Perucci) and others noted the department's participation in regional units (SWAT, Metro gang unit) and mutual-aid agreements; the chief said the city already assigns officers to the Metro gang unit and partners on a regional SWAT/major-accident team. The chief added that regional teams and mutual aid exist but that assigning a detective more direct support remains a local priority.
Funding alternatives were discussed. Staff referenced the federal COPS hiring grant as a potential partial source (the grant historically covered a portion of salary costs for new officers), but said distribution and funding levels were uncertain at the time of the meeting. Councilmembers split on pacing: some said the crime data justify immediate hires, while others urged caution because the police department's fund balance would shrink if new recurring positions were adopted immediately.
There was no separate, recorded council vote solely to hire officers during the meeting. Instead, members debated how staffing requests should be handled as part of the broader budget discussion; several members expressed support for adding the two officers as proposed in the budget materials. The chief said he would continue to press for the positions and staff would pursue any available grant funding.
Ending: Council members directed continued budget work on the staffing request and asked staff to track grant opportunities. The council did not take a standalone hiring vote during the meeting; any personnel additions will depend on the final budget adopted in subsequent meetings.
