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Position Rotation <br />When the department is staffed, we have a position in the Criminal Investigations Division <br />which rotates officers. This position was a 3 month rotation in which the officer performed <br />misdemeanor investigations and learned what was needed for investigations to move from the <br />initial report, which patrol officers do every day, to the follow up that takes place to get a case <br />presented to a prosecutor or otherwise resolved. Due to insufficient staffing, the department <br />has not been able to fill this rotating CID position. <br />If we have sufficient staffing, I have long planned on assigning patrol officers to assist our <br />narcotics investigators again for a short time to further acquaint them with basic investigations <br />and provide manpower for investigations. Again, this is possible if the patrol division is <br />sufficiently staffed. <br />We have two community oriented police officer positions which rotate, when we are staffed. <br />We have talked about forming a traffic unit. This unit would investigate all accidents while they <br />are on duty and concentrate on traffic law enforcement. There is a direct correlation regarding <br />traffic enforcement and lowering the incidents of vehicle crashes. <br />These four areas are something we can do with currently council approved staffing, as long as <br />we are fully manned. <br />am not in favor of rotating people into a full time detective slot because investing the amount <br />of training, time for experience to develop and his or her criminal community knowledge into <br />an officer and moving that officer back into patrol is an ineffective use of resources. In my forty <br />years of law enforcement experience, I have noted that not all patrol officers will excel in a <br />detective's position. <br />Narcotics Enforcement <br />Almost all of our crime can be traced back to the root cause of substance abuse, whether it be <br />legal or illicit. Drugs and other substances used to an excess are the scourge of our society and <br />the investigations of these particular crimes takes time. The more investigators you have <br />assigned to this problem, the more work they can do. Some drug dealing has become so brazen <br />that instead of taking the time to do a proper investigation, we simply walk up and knock on <br />the door and announce we are there to see if they are selling drugs. We make a lot of cases by <br />using this 'knock and talk' technique. <br />Having more officers would help in this area of our enforcement efforts, such as would a proper <br />canine unit. If we are to consider a canine unit for the department, we need to understand that <br />the officer and canine are a single unit to be used as a canine unit. We have tried three <br />different canine units in my time at the department. In each case, the officer /canine unit was <br />expected to handle calls for service as any other patrol unit until they were needed for a drug <br />search. This proved to be problematic and took away the effectiveness of the unit. This means <br />