Police Chief Reports 13 Positions Open

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Category: News

Created on Monday, 14 October 2024 14:34

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By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    The Sitka Police Department is looking to fill four jailer positions, four dispatcher positions and five patrol officer positions, Police Chief Robert Baty told the Assembly at last Tuesday’s regular meeting.
    But the chief said there is some hope for success on the horizon with a “vigorous recruiting program” that focuses on officers from other police departments.
“Because of the applications I’ve been seeing, I’ve shifted to focus this particular recruiting campaign toward lateral police officers,” he told the Assembly at the regular meeting.

By “lateral,” he meant officers being hired from other police departments. This shortens the length of training time needed before an officer can take on full duties here, and Baty said he’s already starting to see applications coming in from trained police officers from around the country.\    “Seeing those numbers initially has kind of inspired me to try to focus on just lateral so we can get people who can hit the ground – if not running – at least jogging,” Baty said.
    He reported the department’s recruiting website had 50 visitors, and of those 27 took the next step of actually applying. The city is making an additional push to recruit and hire trained officers by December 1, which means they can start the “lateral academy” at the Alaska Public Safety Academy here by December 3, and work independently by the end of the year, the police chief explained.
    The department currently has 11 sworn officers, including temp officers with one-year commitments, which “provides us with breathing room.”
    “We’re continually recruiting to fill positions,” Baty said.
    Filling the jail and dispatcher positions has been a challenge, the chief said. Both positions require extensive training and the recruiting pool in Sitka is “extremely limited,” he said.
Right now the department has one applicant for dispatcher and one for jailer, while there are four openings for each position.
    Baty said the dispatcher position has the potential of being an “interesting and satisfying” job, since “every day is    different.”
    “It’s actually about a three-month process in which a person gets progressive duties to the point where they’re able to take a call and dispatch and handle emergency calls without any interaction from someone else,” the chief said.
    On other issues, Baty reported to the Assembly that the police department is nearing the end of a project to scan and archive reports from the last 40 years.
    He also reported that since Jan. 1 this year the department has received 10,661 calls for service. Of those, 459 reports were generated, which means further action was needed as the result of those calls.
    In addition to making his report, Baty was involved in the main business at Tuesday’s meeting, which dealt with management of the Sitka animal shelter and volunteer access to the shelter.