MOUNT VERNON — Heavy turnover took a toll on the Mount Vernon Police Department last year, but for the first time in many months, the department is fully staffed.
“We are fully up to staff on personnel at this point,” Police Chief Robert Morgan told city council on Monday night. “We hired the last officer … and he is currently in training. All of the other recent new hires are fully trained and working the road and are working out very well.
“That has relieved a great amount of the overtime we’ve had and the stress we had the latter part of last year with the schedule.”
One officer is on injury leave pending surgery, but he is doing light-duty administrative work and helping in the probation office until he can return.
A new program started in April is yielding results, that of a dedicated traffic officer. The idea is to target high-traffic periods where the most infractions, traffic complaints, and accidents have occurred.
“This individual has been assigned to work traffic specifically,” Morgan explained. “He has been very active.”
The officer is working on speed in school zones, trucks off state routes, and has had input into discussions about rerouting trucks around town. He also investigates car crashes.
In the 11 days the officer has worked, he has handled about 40 speed violations, 14 school zone violations, dealt with six trucks off state route, handled 10 OVI and 22 miscellaneous infractions, and investigated 12 accidents.
“We’re enthusiastic about this program. The other officers are enthusiastic about it because it relieves them to handle normal calls,” Morgan said.
The department also kick-started PAK United with pizza and a movie at the Woodward Opera House last month. The department’s K9 Nova is also a huge success with students in the schools.
Community Advocate
Morgan said the community advocate program has been extraordinarily busy since its inception in November.
“As of today, we have 1,166 cases that the community advocate has reviewed,” Morgan said. “Of those, he’s had 491 cases where he’s had active involvement. He has responded to the scene 226 times with the officers, and he’s had 117 total interventions.”
Additionally, Morgan said the advocate has had well over 1,000 phone calls, received advanced training in chemical dependency and critical incident intervention, and became part of the hostage negotiating group.
Morgan reported that the Mansfield Police Department is replicating Mount Vernon’s advocate program. Morgan is looking into grants to fund and possibly expand the program.
Drug offenses
In the first quarter of 2022, the MVPD has had 36 felony cases indicted, which is down from last year. Several cases are pending.
Morgan said state testing, which is free, is now taking around eight months compared to a previous two- to three-month turnaround. Testing in urgent cases is sent to the Mansfield crime lab; the city pays for those tests.
Thus far, the department has seized:
•180 grams meth
•1,800 grams marijuana
•19 grams fentanyl
•6 grams cocaine
•10 firearm forfeitures (8 last year)
“The fentanyl is on the rise; the meth is about 40 grams more than we seized last year at this time,” Morgan said.
Traffic Related
To date in 2022, the MVPD has had 4,710 calls for service, up 217 compared to this time last year. Other traffic-related incidents include:
•273 car accidents (up 8)
•679 arrests (up 237)
•1,168 officer reports total (up 118)
Morgan also reported he is pursuing three grants for equipment, personnel for the community and domestic violence advocate positions, and recruitment and retention programs.
