Fire, police department make strides in combatting understaffing

By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
Glasgow’s fire and police departments remain understaffed but are making some progress toward filling the positions.
Fire chief William Rock II said at a Monday evening meeting of the Glasgow Common Council Public Safety Committee that he has five recruits that are in their second week of training that would be working on shift by early November, but one of those is expecting to turn around and leave for a one-year military deployment in December. Another firefighter just left for such a deployment, Rock told the committee.
“The whole department’s going on overtime, ‘cause you can see the people I’ve got off, but they’re holding up good and keeping good spirits,” Rock said. “I couldn’t ask for a better bunch.”
Councilman Patrick Gaunce asked him what his biggest challenge is.
“Right now it’s probably just the fear of my people burning out before I can get staff back again,” the chief said.
He said these staff shortages seem to go in cycles; when he was hired around 22 years ago, he was one of four recruits and they were working extra hours then, too, but he said five was the most he could recall there having been during his time on the department.
Councilman Freddie Norris, who chairs the panel, asked what he needed from the council.
“Of course you know I’ve got a truck coming in two years. I’ve ordered it out,” Rock said. “I’m asking for another one next year, because they’re two years out (in production). I don’t want to scare anybody. It’s going to be an engine.”
He said they have pretty good trucks now, but where they run into is needing better backups. He said they had that issue last year before the latest truck arrived.
He also noted that the fire department is finishing up its hydrant inspections for the year, and plans are in the works for a remodel of the exterior front of Station 2 at Cross Street in the coming weeks.
Police chief Guy Howie said he has four recruits that started Monday and are scheduled for academy training, with two going in December and the other two in February, but he still has four vacancies.
He also has one that is going on military deployment until next summer.
Howie said he also had hired a new animal control officer Monday who would be filling the position left vacant by someone who moved from that role to that of police officer.
The chief said he’s some COVID running through the department, with two out with it this week, and two each in the prior two weeks, but the situation is improving.
He said Mayor Henry Royse, who was also attending as a nonvoting member, had signed a contract with Flock Safety to add three more license-plate reader cameras, and they’re scheduled to be installed in mid-September. Three are already in place.
“We’re looking forward to getting those in,” Howie said.
The cameras are not intended for traffic-safety purposes like catching speeders and light-runners, but rather as “triggers” to flag when someone law enforcement is seeking is in the vicinity. They are networked into a system that is used by other agencies around the commonwealth.
Gaunce asked how the new Park Avenue substation that opened in July is working out.
“It’s working out really well,” Howie said. “As a matter of fact, we’re having to put a direct phone line in because we’ve had so many people go over there looking for somebody, or for an officer, that we’re putting a phone line in so all you do is go over there [and] if there isn’t an officer there, all you do is push a button and it’ll go straight to the dispatch center, and they’ll send an officer over.”
After a little further discussion, the chief added, “If it keeps going the way it’s going, we might change that from that four-month trial period and try to make it a permanent thing. Our calls for service in that area have dropped tremendously. Police calls for service have dropped tremendously.”
Gaunce asked him to provide a graph illustrating that decrease the next time he provides a report to the council, so people can “hear with their eyes.”
Royse said that Howie’s efforts toward getting improvements at a nearby apartment complex that had been a trouble spot were also helping the neighborhood.
The police chief said a lot of people had been evicted from those apartments because of some of the activities there, but he had learned that a lot of interior problems were not being repaired.
“That’s been moved up the chain as well, so we’ll happens there,” Howie said.
Norris brought out a letter that had been provided to him from an older person he knows that said it was from the National Police Association soliciting contributions, and it said “Glasgow City Council” in the area where a return address would be, but it did not provide a specific address in Glasgow.
Councilman James “Happy” Neal said it was obviously a scam, and Councilman Marlin Witcher chimed in and concurred.
Howie said GPD has no affiliation with that supposed fundraising effort and planned to have a press release distributed to inform the public of the issue.
According to its website, the National Police Association’s fundraising branch is in Stafford, Texas, at the address that was listed at the bottom of the letter.
“The National Police Association is a 501(C)3 non-profit organization …, founded to educate supporters of law enforcement in how to help police departments accomplish their goals. The National Police Association is supported solely through contributions of individuals and organizations. Donations are tax deductible,” the site says.
The letter received by the Glasgow resident states that certain organizations are setting out to end certain types of policing, that many local council members are pressuring their police chiefs to make cuts and that such things are a “recipe for disaster for our cities, for our neighborhoods, and for the safety of our families.”
It requests contributions to help them work against such circumstances.
The chief also announced a ribbon-cutting ceremony that was Tuesday morning for the maintenance garage/training facility that was completed a few months ago. The building across Pin Oak Lane from the headquarters building has three bays for vehicle maintenance and a training room.
Beverly Harbison, director of the Barren-Metcalfe Emergency Communications Center, typically attends the committee meeting as well to report on her department, but she was absent and told Glasgow News 1 at Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting that she’d had an unexpected, last-minute conflict to arise.