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Chief's Message |
| Annual report of the Washington Police Department as printed in the 2008 Town Report- |
Annual Report of the Washington Police
Department
495-3294 police@washingtonnh.org www.washingtonnh.org/Police.html
The Washington Police Department has found itself addressing some very serious issues during 2008 in the form of incidents and crimes that we have never had to address on a regular basis before.
We started off the winter with a burglary spree where some local residents were the hub of a group who was breaking into summer homes and stealing copper and wire to support their drug habits. Also missing during that time was 2 snowmobiles, a trailer and an ATV. We are as frustrated as the residents are in not being able to promptly solve and arrest the suspects. While we are confident that we have identified the people involved, we need to meet certain legal and constitutional requirements. Those are difficult to achieve in cases like this, but we are still, and will continue to, work on it.
While this report is being written in late November/early December, the final statistics numbers cannot be reported. There will be a statistics report following my report. However, I can report that in two of three main indices (Calls for Service & Traffic Collisions) are up. The only area we are down is traffic stops. This reflects the less time we have to run radar as we are answering more calls, and writing more reports.
At the beginning of the year we added John Corrigan to the staff as a part-time officer. He attended the Academy the first 12 weeks of the year, did a 3-month field-training program, and started patrolling on his own in June. He has been a huge asset to the town, being readily available to take calls, cover off duty call time and being available when needed. John deserves a note of credit from the town, for his Academy training. He chose, as a cost saving measure, to absorb the cost of his travel to Concord for the program. He made three round trips a week, and never put in for mileage on his personal truck or requested reimbursement. I appreciate that spirit of dedication and community.
During the year I continued to make as much use as I could for grant funding and loan opportunities. Through these programs were able to obtain a $4500 base radio and antenna for the police station, at no cost. We share the Radar/Display trailer with the Towns of Goshen and Windsor. The trailer cost $15,000 which cost the town only $3500 due to the sharing and a grant from the NH Highway Safety Agency. I am sure that most have you have seen the Town’s ATV for the emergency service responders, a $8,500 machine that was loaned to us for no cost by CanAm and Jim’s Marine of Newport. We were able to provide an additional $3500 of traffic enforcement time at no cost to the town through a grant from the NH Highway Safety Agency. In our off time, we also worked some outside details for other agencies. It should be noted that there was no cost to the town for us to do that. In fact the pay rate is lower than the billing rate, so all costs for having the officer work are covered, and the town makes a bit of a profit beyond that.
We were fortunate to receive a very generous donation from a New York state resident with a seasonal home in Merriwoode. John and Angela Parente have donated annually to the police department allowing us to get equipment we would not have been able to purchase through the municipal budget. This year they doubled their usual donation. With that gift we were able to add to our service capabilities by adding a GPS unit and cold-water rescue suit to our inventory. By the time you get this Ofcs. Puchtler & Corrigan will have become certified as Ice Rescue Technicians. I suspect we will be the only police department in the state, and perhaps all of New England in which 100% of the sworn officers and the Animal Control officer are all certified Ice Rescue Technicians. John and Angela, thank you so very much.
Further Ofc. Smith earned his Emergency Medical Technician license. In addition to our traditional police services, the members of the police department are Firefighters (2), EMTs (2), Deputy Fire Wardens or Issuing Agents (3). We carry a lot of equipment and maintain a high skill level to be a true public safety agency for you.
Our 2008 expenses show a large increase in the cruiser maintenance budget. The cruiser is well maintained by Don Turner, who gives us great service at minimal cost. We ran into a fuel problem at the Town gas pump when an accidental partial delivery of diesel was put in to the gasoline. This caused damage to the engine that was expensive to repair. We have since been running fine.
We have done our best to change operations and practices to make us as efficient as we could to the Town. Our timer controlled, electric light outside the door was converted to a solar powered motion light. The cruiser is shut off when running radar or sitting in a driveway. When we leave for the day/night the heat is turned as low as we can, and the computers are shut down. We are looking for ways to save money on all fronts.
The commitment to our community has remained strong. With our generous donors the Student of the Month program has continued. Another 24 students getting to got to go out to lunch with a police officer during the last school year. I was invited to speak (and in many cases eat) at 5 different neighborhood association annual meetings over the summer. I enjoyed the chance to hear your concerns and answer your questions. We put the Smartboard in several neighborhoods around town and conducted a large number of vacant house checks. I am very excited that for the first time since the DARE program was initiated in the Washington Elementary School, a Washington Police Officer will be teaching the class. Ofc. Puchtler will be teaching to the 5th grade class instead of contracting with another agency to borrow a DARE instructor.
I am very proud of your police department and feel very honored to be leading such a fine group. You should all be proud to have Officers Brian Moser, Aaron Smith, Timothy Puchtler and John Corrigan, Animal Control Officer Cindy Turner and self (but appropriately) titled Office Goddess Michelle Dagesse as your police department. Add to them our unofficial staff members: Chris Scruton who maintains our computers and peripheries; and Don Turner, fleet manager, and you understand why I proudly say that small does not mean unprofessional! 2008 marked my 25th year as a police officer, and no other officer in the state is a fortunate as I am to be here in Washington!
I usually put a number of thanks in my report at this point, but I don’t want to make this seemingly routine. I’ll leave that I offer thank yous to all who deserve them. Most especially the spouses and children of my staff. You put up with a great deal of inconvenience and that is not unappreciated.
Feel free at anytime to contact me with any questions, problems, suggestions or requests for ride-alongs. I wish you all a safe, happy, healthy, wealthy and productive 2009.
Respectfully,
Steven I. Marshall
Chief of Police