Understaffed and under budget

After a 12.37 percent increase in 2014, crime activity in Cheney resumed a downward trend last year, according to end-of-year figures released by the Police Department.

Uniformed Crime Report (UCR) data indicated a drop in nine of 11 offense categories tracked, including significant declines in assaults (30.26 percent), burglaries (33.33 percent) and domestic violence (12.80 percent). While motor vehicle thefts were up slightly from 16 to 17, the largest increase was in drug offenses — up 214.29 percent from seven to 22, most of which were juvenile arrests, Cheney Police Department Cmdr. Rick Campbell said.

The results make for an 8.68 percent overall decline in criminal reports in 2015.

Most areas of department functions declined last year, albeit for different reasons. While overtime remained high at 514.90 percent of the budgeted $26,000, and vehicle maintenance at 114.5 percent of its allotted $19,900, the department overall landed at 98 percent of its $2.69 million budget, generating a “savings” of $35,903.56.

“What that means is some other things didn’t happen,” Campbell said. “Purchases didn’t happen, training didn’t happen.”

To remedy some of these issues, Cheney voters approved raising the city’s property tax levy lid last November, with the over $400,000 in estimated annual income to be used for addressing public safety needs first. One of those is the Police Department’s need for another officer, something Campbell said could happen soon.

The department advertised for candidates in January, and after an interview process, has narrowed the search to one individual. Campbell said if the candidate passes background checks and is hired, they could begin work sooner than expected because it would be a lateral entry from another department, thereby shortening training requirements.

To pay for the officer, Campbell said the December budget savings, along with other funding, would be used until the first half of property tax receipts become available in May.

Also showing a sharp decline was the number of computer-aided calls for service to dispatch, down 10.5 percent from 2014, or 5,782 calls. The main reason for the decline is simple — the discontinuing in November of Eastern Washington University’s contract with the city for dispatch services.

Total calls for service in 2015 were 49,236, with Cheney’s portion at 31,679, a 1,172-call increase over 2014.

“We look to see that 49,000 number drop by 17,000 to 18,000,” Campbell in discussing the impacts of losing EWU, who decided to contract with Spokane County Sheriff’s Office for dispatch services.

Cheney dispatchers continue to spend a large amount of time processing paperwork generated by the city’s ACCESS system, which is still used by EWU as well as the Airway Heights, Kalispell Tribe of Indians and Liberty Lake police departments. According to year-end data, time spent on no contact orders was 84 percent above 2014 numbers, and 19 percent above on warrants.

Department dispatchers are spending 26 percent less time on data entry and 6 percent less time on probation issues.

Communications director Cathy Munoz said the department does very little with Liberty Lake, and so little with the Kalispell’s that their data is usually rolled into Airway Heights. While Cheney may be the larger city, Munoz said Airway Heights has a higher percentage of the no contact orders issued by the department. Of the 116 orders issued in 2015, 84 were from Airway Heights Municipal Court, a 72.41 percent increase over 2014 figures while 32 were from Cheney, a 27.58 percent jump.

“Airway Heights has a much higher amount than Cheney for warrants, too,” she added.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.