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Boaz police chief discusses personnel needs
Published December 24, 2009
The Boaz Police Department has fewer officers on patrol shifts today than in 2000 when Terry Davis was first appointed chief.
“We’re getting by with what we got, but I hate to just get by,” Davis said. “We’re short from when I took over. We used to run six on nights and five on days. Right now on night shift, I’ve got four and I’ve got three on two day shifts.
“But I’ll be back up to four on each shift. I’ve got two that start the academy on Jan. 10, so when they graduate I’ll be back to four on each shift.
“The mayor and council have funded me four officers on each shift. I’d like to have an extra person on each shift, so I’d like to have at least four more people. But the mayor and council’s been good to me. They’ve given us what they could afford to give us.”
Davis said he used to have three investigators, but now has two.
“I’d really like to get a third person in investigation because we’re averaging 200 reports a month and that’s a lot for two people to work on,” he said.
Davis said he needs more personnel for the Boaz City Jail, chiefly for liability reasons.
“I’d like to have more people for the jail because our jail is probably the biggest municipal jail in a five-county region,” he said. “We could house 70 people. Knock on wood, we’ve never had 70 people. What I’d love to do is have two jailers on each shift. So the ideal is to hire four more, but I’d settle for two.”
Proactive
Davis said his department has 33 full-time employees and one part-time officer.
Presently, the department has 23 full-time officers, including the two investigators, four jailers, four dispatchers, an animal control officer and a records clerk.
“I like to be proactive,” Davis said. “We can still be proactive to a certain point, but a lot of times we’re in reactive mode. You’re just going from call to call to call. You’re not able to really get out and do the things you want to do as far as crime prevention. We do it but we don’t get to do it as much as I think we need to.”
The Aug. 14 annexation of Mountainboro into the city limits also increased the Boaz police jurisdiction, Davis said.
“It’s added a little bit of stress on us,” Davis said. “Our jurisdiction is in Marshall, Etowah and DeKalb counties, so we’ve always worked with three sheriff’s offices and three DAs. We’re backing each other up all the time.”
Davis said Boaz is affected by the city’s close proximity to Kilpatrick, a community often cited by law enforcement as a hub for drug activity on Sand Mountain.
“We’re affected by the drug trade,” he said. “We don’t seem to be affected as much Albertville, but we’ve had some MS-13 (Latino gang members) in our jail. What goes in and out of Kilpatrick affects a three-county area.
“Are we winning the drug war? I don’t know. Are we losing it? I don’t know that either.”
Training and facilities
Davis indicated Boaz is vital to training officers in the region thanks to the Boaz Law Enforcement Training Facility next door to the police department. The former library building hosts professional development training for officers on a number of topics ranging from hostage negotiations to gangs.
“We’ve had close to 2,000 officers trained at that facility in two and a half to three years,” he said. “We had 125 at both gang schools this year. When you see that many patrol cars in the parking lot, it makes you feel good to know we’ve got a facility that brings folks in.
“Just about every police department in a five-county region has trained there.”
The center is chiefly funded by Boaz and the FBI with contributions from other cities, district attorneys in four counties, sheriff’s offices in three counties and even local businesses along the way.
“As you can see a lot of different people contributed to the center,” Davis said. “We have also allowed the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center to host classes and meetings here.
“I am proud of our training center, and we are going to keep holding, hosting and co-hosting with federal, state and local agencies in the future.”
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