The three municipal police departments in the Golden Triangle could use a little extra manpower.
The police force sizes are adequate in Columbus, Starkville and West Point, but each police chief told The Dispatch last week that they would like to add about five more officers in the short term, with long-range plans for further growth.
Columbus
Tony Carleton, the chief in Columbus, said his department has right at 60 sworn officers to work the city. That is up six from May, when the department had 54. He would like to add five more in the immediate future. Over the next few years, he’d like to see CPD grow to 70 officers to serve the city, which the Census Bureau estimates has 23,200 residents.
Officials have indicated some difficulties in bringing in new officers in the past. Carleton said that is not for a lack of interest, but several factors come into play for trying to get new officers in.
“We want to make sure we get the right person for the job,” he said. “Sometimes it is a struggle to find the right quality of person that we’re looking for. It’s important to find someone who’s got the community in the mind of how they want to police. It’s certainly a challenge for us, as well as others, to find that quality officer to bring in.”
Still, Carleton said CPD will expand its outreach efforts to job fairs and similar avenues in an attempt to broaden the pool of potential candidates.
Carleton said he’d like to have five new officers hired and sworn in by the beginning of 2016. He said it’s harder to say when CPD will be ready to start looking to grow beyond that.
“That’s something we’re working on the council with,” he said. “I certainly don’t want to hit them hard all at one time to achieve that, because it’s costly. But we’re putting it into a plan and working with them.”
The starting pay for a police officer in Columbus is $34,650.
Carleton said CPD’s primary focus is on filling out the patrol unit.
“Obviously that’s the backbone of the department, and we want to make sure they’re filled as much as we can,” he said.
He said the criminal investigation division and narcotics unit also need more officers. He added that fleshing out patrol’s ranks could allow the CPD to promote from within to fill gaps in other divisions.
In the interim, there are 5 new officers with the department that are working through various stages of training. Carleton said three are waiting to attend to police academy and two are currently going through the Field Training Officer Program.
CPD’s numbers are adequate for day-to-day operation, though Carleton said the department can feel some strain when festivals or major events come to town.
Starkville
Starkville Police Department faces a unique challenge, compared to its Golden Triangle counterparts.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimated Starkville’s population at just less than 25,000. But, as Starkville Police Chief Frank Nichols points out, the SPD has many more people to deal with than that, thanks to Mississippi State University.
Starkville Police Department currently has 55 sworn officers. He said he’d like to get the department up to 60 soon and added that, based on a guideline by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, a city of Starkville’s size should have about 65 officers.
Mississippi State University’s 20,000 students — many of whom live in Starkville but aren’t officially counted as residents — present a need for more.
“I would preferably like to be up around 70 officers,” he said. “But I can honestly say that this administration has been working to get additional officers.”
The starting pay for a police officer in Starkville is $32,532.
Nichols said the board of aldermen allocated him funding to hire two additional officers. A Department of Homeland Security grant will allow him to hire three more officers, which would bring SPD to 60 sworn officers.
Seeking new officers brings its own challenges, Nichols said.
“We always have 10-15 people apply,” he said. “By the time you do background checks and the physical fitness test and written examination, of course that number dwindles down. We usually end up interviewing five to eight people for every opening we have.”
For the moment, Nichols said he feels SPD’s numbers are sufficient, but things can be strenuous for the department. He said the department’s call rate is higher than Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Department and MSU Police Department combined. While those calls aren’t always major emergencies, the sheer volume can present a challenge.
Beyond that, Nichols said events like Bulldog Bash or the Cotton District Arts Festival can put a strain on the department, as do MSU football games, when Starkville’s population can more than triple.
“The weekend of the LSU game, everybody in this department from the assistant chief down worked either on shift or on some kind of detail,” Nichols said. “We needed everybody for that game. That’s with Highway Patrol, MSU PD and the Sheriff’s Department helping with traffic, but they don’t answer our calls. Our call ratio doubles during those games.”
SPD recently brought on three non-paid part-time sworn officers — one of which is Starkville Fire Chief Charles Yarbrough — to help with traffic for events such as football games.
To deal with the strain, Nichols said SPD administration encourages officers to take vacations during the summer downtime from May to August while students are away.
Despite the challenges his department faces, Nichols commended his officers for the work they do.
“Even though we’re shorthanded, our crime rate is still fairly low,” Nichols said. “They work extra hours to ensure that. They go above and beyond for the call of duty, and definitely should be commended.”
West Point
To hear West Point Police Chief Tim Brinkley tell it, community resources are the biggest challenge facing his department, which serves a city of approximately 11,000.
The West Point Police Department took a budget cut this fiscal year.
“I have a good relationship with my board — I always have,” Brinkley said. “The challenge we have is not a relationship problem, it’s a resource problem. That’s not just for the police department, but for the community.
“Generally the police department is one of the biggest budgets,” he said. “That’s why for a lot of communities, when they look for places to cut, it just makes sense that you cut where the biggest budget is.”
West Point PD has 30 sworn officers. Brinkley said he’d like to have an additional six, to bring the total to 36.
“Can I do without six more?” Brinkley said. “We have to. But I could use an extra man on every shift, plus two more detectives.”
For the moment, that funding won’t be available from the city, but Brinkley said the department can look to other avenues.
He said the department can seek out grants that could provide funding for additional officers. But he noted that those grants can be very competitive as departments across the country seek funding sources.
Brinkley said adding to the department isn’t so simple as just hiring a new officer. He said there are other costs for equipment, such as body cameras and patrol cars, and training costs that have to be considered as well.
Still, he said he feels West Point PD’s numbers are adequate in some areas, and lacking in others. He said he sorely needs additional detectives, especially as criminals develop more sophisticated methods.
The size of the department also means everyone has to do a little bit of everything.
“In small departments, you don’t have a break out where everybody can focus on just one thing,” he said. “If I could let my assistant chief just do administrative functions and no investigative functions — just supervise investigations — I’d be that much further up the road. My lieutenants, they do patrol functions, but it’s mostly in supervisory positions.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.