Police chief outlines five‑year strategic plan, highlights AEDs, body cams and staffing goals

Chief of Police (speaker 10) presented the department's five‑year strategic business plan and answered council questions about staffing, equipment and budget priorities. He said the FY2026 total shown was $857,495 and that one‑time capital requests in the packet totaled about $436,626; he also reported plans to unfreeze positions and replace and update equipment where necessary.

The chief emphasized public‑safety benefits of deploying Stryker AED devices and modernizing in‑car and body camera systems, describing the latter as a large‑scale, multi‑year project. "It's a $2,000,000 project to do body cameras and car cameras at one time," he said, adding the city intends to phase the work over five or six years to spread cost. Council members asked about patrol levels (chief said generally five officers and a supervisor on shift vs. an authorized strength of eight plus supervisor) and how unfilled positions and vehicle retirements are being handled; the chief described temporary reallocation of surplus vehicles and plans to request recurring budget changes to restore positions.

Members praised the plan's readability and asked staff to provide reports and performance metrics going forward. No formal action was taken on the plan at the meeting beyond the discussion and questions; the chief offered to provide detailed reports and to email patrol‑by‑neighborhood unit counts to council.