Staffing changes, Council votes for CSO return

Months after changes were made to ordinance enforcement, the Newcastle City Council determined they would again hire a community service officer, or CSO, on Oct. 21. In addition to adding a CSO, the council discussed the future of the drug dog and fired an officer.

Community service officer

“I am excited to get this position back as we have a lot of city ordinance complaints,” Derek Thompson, Newcastle Police Chief, told the News Letter Journal.

In January, Thompson had implemented a program in which police officers would address ordinance violations. Since then, Thompson has reported to the council that enforcement of the ordinance had fallen to the wayside because officers simply did not have the time to do both law enforcement and ordinance enforcement.

To help resolve the issue, the city will again employ a CSO to address city ordinances.

“This position will be a noncertified position, dedicated primarily to the enforcement of city ordinance violations,” Thompson told the News Letter Journal. “With that said, getting the position approved is only a small portion of the battle.”

Critical to fighting this battle, he said, will be finding the right individual to fill the position.

“City ordinance violations, believe it or not, are a pretty controversial issue amongst citizens. There are quite a few city ordinances that deal with regulation on private property. Some people believe it is their property and they have a right to do whatever they please within the boundaries of their property,” Thompson said. “While I can appreciate that position and belief, there must be some balance. What someone does on their own property can greatly affect their neighbors, so we have to be mindful of that.”

Advertisement for the position will begin soon, he noted.

Drug dog

According to Thompson, the department is exploring the idea of having Sgt. Nicholas Kaminski handle the department’s drug dog Buster.

“Oh, this dog has been an interesting journey,” Thompson said.

He explained that the department had tried to sell the dog after an untimely situation with the original handler.

“But (we) have ran into quite a few departments dealing with the same issues we are: lack of staffing, lack of funding, not the right time, etc.” Thompson said.

Because of the inability to sell at this time, the department is exploring Kaminski as handler, although, Thompson said, he does not live in Newcastle.

“This could be somewhat limiting as far as being able to respond to calls, but honestly not as limiting as you would think,” he said. “There are a lot of technicalities that go into running a dog. If officers are at the point where they suspect illicit activity, they can take a reasonable amount of time to get a dog there. The 50 minutes to an hour it would take Sgt. Kaminski to get here wouldn’t preclude officers from deploying the dog on contacts where they suspect illicit drug activity is at play.”

Thompson said that while there are a few more kinks to work out, hopefully, things will get moving with the dog in the next month or so.

Shortages

After the termination of Justin Breon on Oct. 21, the Newcastle Police Department has been down two officers, Thompson said. A full police department in the city is described as eight certified patrol officers.

Being short-staffed, he said, makes it difficult to ensure that shifts are covered. Other issues include guaranteeing officers can get needed training, take vacation time and have sick leave.

“We currently have one person in the hiring process. He is not certified, so it would take approximately seven months to get him from hire date to being on his own as an officer, pending the process went smoothly,” Thompson said.

Having enough officers is not solely a Newcastle problem, he noted.

“This is a problem nationwide. This profession isn’t as appealing to most as it used to be,” Thompson said. “The danger level has gone up, the liability has gone up, and public support has gone down.”

He noted, however, that the local community is still very supportive of law enforcement and first responders, in general.

“But with that being said, it has become rather difficult to recruit and retain quality officers,” Thompson said.

The department is actively hiring officers, he added.