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Balch Springs police and fire update: recruits, traffic counters, drug takeback and safety trainings
Summary
Fire and police chiefs reported completed promotions, incoming recruits, traffic-safety efforts using automated counters, a 34-pound drug takeback and an overtime reduction of just over 50% since March.
Fire and police officials updated council on staffing and public-safety initiatives. The fire representative described completed promotions, staging changes to protect new apparatus during highway responses, upcoming pool-safety classes for summer and a requested workshop to coordinate emergency management onboarding for new council members.
Billy Walton, assistant chief of police, said the department has two recruits currently in training and expects an additional officer to graduate from the academy in July. “We collected 34 pounds that were taken to the DA's office in Dallas for destruction,” Walton said of the department’s biannual drug takeback, and he described placement of traffic counters on residential streets to capture volumes and average speeds to guide enforcement and calming measures.
Walton also told council the department has reduced overtime by just over 50% since roughly March while maintaining service levels, a change he attributed to internal workload adjustments and coordination with code enforcement. The public-safety reports included praise for the marshal’s office and community-care-team partnerships addressing unsheltered individuals.
