He didn’t get those officers, but Police Chief Gary O. Smith said it’s not critical right now.
“Our resources are adequate for now,” Smith said, “but as that area continues to grow, obviously, our needs will grow. It will become an issue that we will eventually have to address. I don’t think we can continue to operate as we operate today with the same number of personnel.”
Smith said there are now three officers per shift and a sergeant dedicated to the west side, which is west of Interstate 35 and encompasses about 40 percent of the city’s total area.
“Typically in the newer parts of a city, in the developing parts, the types of crimes that you see occur are at first related to development,” he said. “You see job site thefts, traffic increases … and certainly there has been some significant increase in traffic activity on the west side of town.”
The city’s most recent fatality accident occurred on FM 317.
David Stein has lived on the west side for about a year and notices an increase in traffic.
“It does concern me that we only have three officers each shift on this side of town,” Stein said. “The area is huge. How can we expect officers so fast when they have to travel so far? I pay taxes just like everyone else. It has to be just a matter of time when those three officers are dealing with harder crimes and can’t get to me.”
As for traffic, he said, there are people who speed along FM 2305 all the time.
“They go from lane to lane - always seem to be in a hurry. Those are the people I want caught because they are a danger for everyone else.”
Stein said on a number of occasions he has been cut off while driving home.
“I have to watch what everyone else is doing on the road, which then distracts me.”
Police presence, he said, would curtail that problem.
Police response times right now on the west side are on Smith’s radar. In July police got to scenes on average in just more than nine minutes, compared to about 5.5 minutes in other parts of the city.
Despite that, Smith said, residents shouldn’t be too concerned.
“Concern for me is when we reach a level where I feel that we are beginning to default on our responsibilities as a department in responding to calls for service and patrolling the area with effect,” he said. “Right now I don’t think we are defaulting. I think we are OK.”
In fact, Smith said, the department is the healthiest it has been since he’s been chief, in part because City Manager David Blackburn authorized the department to over hire up to three positions to decrease the time it takes to get an officer up to speed when someone quits or retires.
There is also a task force that was formed to target zones where crime is high. The unit means officers don’t have to be pulled from regular patrol when there is an increase in crime in other areas.
“If there is an increase of burglaries in an area, they are the people I turn to to find a solution. They work directly with the community,” Smith said.
What the police department did get in the budget for the coming year was a fulltime custodian and a parking enforcement officer position that was transferred from Municipal Court.
“The budget is a challenge every year, it is the least fun thing we do,” Smith said.
Repeated attempts to contact city officials about the budget failed.
