Police officers working overtime may become a common sight in the town of Signal Mountain.
At the Nov. 17 town meeting, residents voiced concerns to the newly installed Town Council about ongoing issues. Of major concern were the growing rash of burglaries in the town, speeding cars on Arden Way and the need for an officer at Signal Mountain Middle/High School - all of which will require a significant amount of police manpower to address.
The department's officers have already been working overtime to try to solve and prevent more burglaries from occurring, Town Manager Boyd Veal said in a follow-up interview after the meeting.
By a unanimous vote of the council, an SMPD officer will be placed back at the high school temporarily until the end of the school year. Veal is tasked with managing the officers' schedules in order to have one at the school building regularly, a responsibility that might rotate with available officers.
"They're trying to cover all the bases. ... It's been a struggle to cover all these bases as best we can," he said.
The 16-member department is now fully staffed, though one officer is on restricted - or limited - duty, said Veal.
While the council's decision to rotate officers at the school may tax the available manpower, it freed up $50,000, the amount formerly used to cover the cost of having a dedicated Youth and Community Relations Officer at SMMHS. That money will now be used to cover overtime pay for the department's officers.
"We have an absolute minimum staffing level of at least two officers working," said Veal. "Anytime we drop below that minimum, someone's going to have to work overtime."
During a typical shift, three patrol-level officers are on duty to patrol the town's 6.7 square miles and protect its approximately 7,500 residents. On top of answering calls and driving their normal patrols, the three officers direct traffic at the town's three schools, investigate burglaries and more, he said.
"Freeing up funds associated with that [Youth and Community Relations] position gives latitude to designating someone to be in the school and backfilling someone to fill patrol positions with overtime, or vice versa," Veal said. "Our goal is to have an officer over there [at SMMHS] on a regular basis very quickly."
Last spring, he and the former council discussed raising the salaries of the department's police officers in order to compete with other towns' police departments and therefore reduce the amount of police turnover on Signal.
Veal said he has researched preliminary information on where Signal Mountain stands as compared to other towns, but was waiting until the new council was installed, and now until a new police chief has been hired, before moving forward.
The interviews for the town's new police chief are ongoing, and Veal said he hopes the search process will be completed within a month.
Current acting Police Chief Scott Ogrodowczyk, who was put in place after Veal took over as town manager in late February, has decided that he does not want to pursue the position on a permanent basis, Veal reported.
"He did not feel it was the right time personally or professionally," said Veal.