Chief outlines police staffing, tech upgrades and rising DUI enforcement in quarterly update

Chief Bo presented the police department’s first‑quarter report, describing the department’s shift to quarterly operational updates and walking council through staffing, technology, program changes and preliminary statistics for January–March. He said the department currently has five vacancies (including one funded by House Bill 2015 revenue), four officers in field training, and four officers out on leave (two duty‑related injuries and two on FMLA), representing roughly 10% of the force.

Chief Bo said the department upgraded equipment after receiving a donation from Fish and Wildlife that replaced tasers and related gear with an estimated equipment value of about $100,000 and five‑year warranties. The department purchased a mobile speed‑measurement trailer for construction zones, transferred false‑alarm management online to a contractor, and moved many investigative and discipline records into a Lexipole cloud platform to improve tracking and auditability. He said the Lexipole suite costs approximately $4,000 per module (roughly $16,000 for the full suite) and argued the digital recordkeeping pays for itself in efficiency and defensibility of records.

On crime and enforcement trends, Chief Bo said property crimes were down year‑over‑year while reported domestic violence incidents were up noticeably; he also said DUI enforcement has more than doubled in the first quarter. The investigations unit — four detectives and a sergeant with one vacancy — was assigned 119 cases and cleared 125; detectives manage roughly 13 active cases each. Automated traffic enforcement showed some undercounting early in the year while cameras were offline; Chief Bo said the cameras were effective and that about 90% of ticketed drivers are non‑residents.

Chief Bo described an expanded CARES contract (which now includes animal control) and described steps to create short‑term sheltering for animals to reduce patrol downtime. He briefed council on code enforcement: Officer Batterman handled 735 cases in a 12‑month snapshot and another code officer has about 143 open cases. The department’s co‑responder for mental‑health calls recorded 204 new contacts in the first quarter and 42 follow‑up reports.

Council members pressed on recruitment, response‑time reporting limitations due to different data systems, staffing details and whether additional code‑enforcement positions are warranted. Chief Bo acknowledged reporting inconsistencies across data sources and said staff are working to standardize searches and public reporting, and that some wet signatures and state legal requirements mean not all records will be solely digital. He said the department intends to maintain accreditation and continue implementing House Bill 2015 requirements.

The council requested follow‑up on certain metrics; Chief Bo said additional comparative reports (the annual statewide report) will be available in July and a fuller dataset in the third quarter.