As police departments around the nation struggle to maintain a full complement of officers, innovative solutions are being sought to ensure service.
For the Tooele City Police Department, a possible solution has come in the form of two community service officers. Police Chief Ron Kirby created the civilian positions to assist with community functions, such as parades, and some calls for service.
“The chief came up with the community service officer to assist us in areas to alleviate a little of the patrol side and alleviate some of the administrative support side,” said Tooele City Police Sgt. Jeremy Hansen.
Kirby pitched the idea to Tooele City Mayor Debbie Winn and the City Council, which agreed to the fund the part-time positions. The two community service officers, Faalili Finai and Cami Andersen, will average about 20 to 29 hours per week.
In addition to community functions, the community service officers can also assist on VIN inspections, found property, graffiti, parking enforcement, and assist with traffic control and at crime scenes.
Andersen and Finai, who started about a month ago, have been in training so far and Hansen said they’ve tried to introduce them to all the different aspects of law enforcement.
“(We’re) trying to immerse them into this culture, the big picture and grand scheme of what we do, because everybody when they think of the police department, they only think of patrol,” Hansen said. “Patrol is only one part of the mission of the police department. It goes much beyond that.”
Hansen said the police department wanted applicants with different skill sets for the two community service officer positions. While Finai has experience with driving large vehicles, Andersen runs her own business. So they’ll assist in different responsibilities such as Finai moving the speed radar trailer and Andersen managing the city’s crossing guards.
So far, the experience has lived up to Finai and Andersen’s expectations.
“Everybody is extremely professional and friendly,” Andersen said. “I think that’s probably my favorite part of it, is the people that work here. They’re really, really good people.”
“(I’m) looking forward to learning more and seeing what’s coming up for us,” Finai added.
Both community service officers were motivated to apply for the jobs for the opportunity to assist their fellow Tooele City residents and an interest in law enforcement.
“For a long, long time, I’ve wanted to do stuff with the police department and law enforcement,” Finai said. “And the main thing is, I love to do things with the community.”
“I like to help the community and I really enjoy what law enforcement does,” Andersen said. “So it was an easy choice.”
Hansen said both community service officers should be out of training and taking calls on their own in the next couple weeks. Once fully involved, they will assist officers as the department gets its latest two sworn officer recruits through training and beyond.
“They can do things that alleviate the patrol guys so the patrol guys can concentrate on the more serious crime,” Hansen said.