Agenda - Council - 02/25/1997 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

established between students and police officers through the DARE program in elementary school. It was also noted, however, that such a program would remove an additional officer from the street, which was seen as not worth the program expansion. Investigations As mentioned earlier, police officers in Ramsey do most of their own case followup. This is not the most efficient way to handle investigation, but it does build rapport with the community and develop well-rounded officers. Cases requiring more in-depth followup are referred to the department investigator. This work assignment is offered on the basis of seniority for periods of 18 months. Officers who have completed their rotation in investigations report that it is a very positive experience but that there are two problems. First, by the time the investigator learns how to do the job and has established contacts with other agencies, the rotation is over. Three year rotations might make more sense, they suggest. Second, there is more work than one investigator can handle, at least during the summer months, according to the officers. The investigator's work load is increasing. As Ramsey's population grows, the sheer number of calls is bound to increase, and it has. As the number of commercial businesses increases, so do crimes like writing bad checks, which are referred to the investigator. As officers are busier responding to calls, they have less time to do their own followup. There were several suggestions about how to expedite completion of paperwork to free up officer time for responding to calls. One was to have officers tape record reports and have a civilian employee transcribe them. (That is done on a limited basis now and has proven helpful.). The other suggestion is to add another person to investigations. If there are two full-time investigator positions, one could be permanent and one could continue to be rotating. Another idea, mentioned above, is to assign the DARE officer to investigations when school is not in session. When asked about priority, most officers responded that they would prefer to have another officer on the street before adding another officer to investigations. Traffic Each home and business added to the City contributes to the traffic and congestion. Traffic patrol needs to be balanced between City streets and Highways 47 and 10. Although technically, state highways and county roads are the patrol responsibility of other jurisdictions, they receive little attention from those jurisdictions. It is the Ramsey officers who must respond to accidents and it's in the City's best interest for them to spend some time trying to prevent accidents.