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Kearney police outline community‑engagement officer and expanded live training
Summary
Police Chief Mark Thomas proposed a new community engagement officer to coordinate outreach and events and described a shift toward more live, squad‑based tactical training and future technology investments including AI tools for report writing.
Police Chief Mark Thomas described a vision to expand community policing and hands‑on training, urging the board to support new positions and investments.
Thomas proposed creating a community engagement officer responsible for working with banks, homeowners associations, schools and churches to educate organizations about criminal activity and safety responses, and to coordinate community programs such as "shop with a cop" and National Night Out. "The community engagement officer will be responsible for in educating these groups on criminal activity specifically related to their organizations," Thomas said. He said the officer would also handle most press releases during critical incidents to improve public communication.
On training, Thomas contrasted online modules with live exercises and proposed squad‑level tactical range days so officers train together under stress scenarios. He also listed possible future roles (dispatchers, cybercrime investigators, DWI enforcement officer, intelligence analyst) and suggested using software and artificial intelligence to convert body‑camera footage into report text: "You feed your your body camera language and into your report, and AI helps helps you, write this report," he said.
The chief said these investments exceed current budget allowances and that a dedicated funding source would be required to implement them at scale.
