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Chief Police force size necessary to keep town covered |
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By John Peters
Editor |
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| Littleton Police Chief Mike Suggs said Littleton town commissioner Alfred T. Cooke was not entirely accurate in some of his statements published in the July 18 edition of The Littleton Observer. Suggs, who commented on Cooke’s statements only after first being contacted by the Observer, said Cooke’s assertion the department has five full-time officers is incorrect. "We have four full-time officers and three part-time officers," the chief said. Cooke made his comments during an interview when he was announcing his candidacy for re-election to the town commission. "We have five policemen on that department now," said Cooke at the time. "We’ve never had that many. … Our whole tax base is going to that department." Suggs, who has been the chief since January 2006, said the department has expanded, but only at the request of town residents and with the approval of the town commission. "We now have 24 hour coverage (of the town), and we didn’t have that before," the chief said. "If we go back to three (officers), you can’t do that. …There are times that it’s left open." He further explained that the four full-time officers are barely enough to have someone on duty at all times. "There are 168 hours in a week," he said. "That has each officer working 42 hours a week, or 168 a month." Federal guidelines, he added, suggest law enforcement officers not work more than 168 hours in a month to stay sharp. He said the part-time officers allows the police department to, at times, have two officers on duty at the same time; allow for vacation time of fulltime officers without leaving the town with no officer on duty, and help fill in other gaps when town officers are otherwise engaged. Even with all that, he said the town has a smaller force than similar localities in the region. Norlina, for instance, has six fulltime officers and several part-time. Warrenton has five fulltime and several part time officers. "We’re trying to keep everybody happy," with the present staffing and scheduling, he said. "In all honestly, I think the majority of people in town now are pretty happy with the way things are. We have somebody out here all night, and every day, and sometimes there are two of us, which makes things nice. "The town is growing. As it grows, we (the department) have to grow. We don’t want it to grow ahead of us, and get out of hand. It’s easier to put on an extra officer from time to time, than to let it outgrow us and suddenly have to put on two or three, we don’t want to get caught shorthand." |
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| Jul 25, 2007 | ||
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