By BECKY THOMAS
Staff Reporter
The Cheney Police Department saw an increase in crime last month as it continues to deal with staffing and budget issues.
According to the department's Monthly Accountability Review for April, crime rose nearly 60 percent, from 43 incidents in March to 72 in April.
Cmdr. Rick Campbell said the increase didn't concern him, because the first three months of 2011 were unusually quiet.
“This is getting back to a normal realm,” he said, adding that crime was down 15 percent overall over this time last year.
Campbell said he expected activity to increase through June before slowing down for the summer as college students leave town. He was more troubled by numbers in the police and IT budgets, both of which are over where they should be with a quarter of the year elapsed.
Forty percent of the police department budget was spent by the end of April, with 25 percent of the year elapsed. General overtime has been part of the cause of the depleted budget, Campbell said, since a couple officers are still out on leave and the new sergeant, Rick Beghtol, has not yet completed his training. The department is also over-budget on building maintenance (35 percent) and fuel (37 percent). On top of that, a recent budget amendment the department requested to balance out the budget was not granted by City Council. However, Campbell said he expected an amendment to come later this year.
The Information Technology department, organized within the police department, is having a worse time, with 52 percent of its budget spent by the end of April. Campbell said the department is handling many unexpected projects, including installing a new phone system for the city, redoing some fiber infrastructure and handling issues with the upcoming launch of the city's new website. He said the new phone system necessitated the fiber work.
“There's no way to anticipate that until you get into it,” he said.
Despite the issues, Campbell said the budgets would balance by the end of the year.
Aside from the money issues, Campbell said the department has been looking at the causes for reduced traffic contacts and citations this year. Traffic citations were up slightly in April, with 37 over 29 in March, but the year-to-date total is about a third of 2010 citations.
“What's keeping the officers off the streets?” Campbell said. “We don't know yet, but we're looking at it.”
Becky Thomas can be reached at becky@cheneyfreepress.com.
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