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Police Chief Rob Botch: staffing gains, grants and proactive summer enforcement highlighted
Summary
Mount Pleasant Police Chief Rob Botch told the board the department is roughly fully staffed after recent hires, saw a 7.5% increase in calls since 2023, and used grants and donations to fund an incident command post, drones and training; the department was reaccredited for three years.
Police Chief Rob Botch briefed the Village of Mount Pleasant board on May 11 on the police department's organization, calls for service trends and equipment funded by grants and donations.
Chief Botch said the department has roughly 56 people on staff and flagged recent turnover: three officers left in 2025 and four were hired (including two laterals, Brad Leach and Ryan Reynolds). He said calls for service rose about 7.5% between 2023 and 2025 and that year-to-date calls in 2026 were already higher than the same point in 2025.
On crime statistics, Botch described mixed trends: burglaries ticked up slightly, robberies declined and motor-vehicle thefts remained roughly steady; he noted death investigations had increased but stressed there were no homicides. He also said proactive enforcement and new investigative work had raised reported counts for certain offenses.
The chief highlighted equipment and non-tax funding sources. He said SC Johnson donated $90,000 to purchase an incident command post and Spectrum contributed roughly $12,000 toward an outdoor drone; additional interior drones were funded by donations and asset-forfeiture funds. A $10,000 state training grant covered National Tactical Officers Association training for tactical-team operators. "We were reaccredited for another three years," Botch said, noting reaccreditation reflects compliance with law-enforcement best practices.
Chief Botch described the department's K-9s (Grizzly, Aspen and Kala) and a joint tactical team originally formed with neighboring jurisdictions; Kala is an electronics-detection dog used in some investigations, the chief said. He also previewed the PROTECT initiative, a summer proactive enforcement program running June 1–Aug. 31, and cited prior summer statistics (about 100–200 traffic stops, 13 felony arrests, 35 misdemeanor arrests, 15 municipal arrests, K-9 utilization 18 times, 39 narcotics seizures and three guns seized).
Board members praised training levels and the department's community visibility. The presentation did not produce formal action; trustees moved on to the consent agenda after asking a few clarifying questions.
