Less administration, more cops on the street.
That’s the goal of a restructuring planned for 2015 within the Shawano Police Department, which will eliminate a vacant captain’s position and add a detective next year under a plan approved this week by the Police and Fire Commission.
The department is opting not to refill the captain’s post vacated by the retirement of Jeff Heffernon last month, according to Police Chief Mark Kohl, who said the vacancy provided an opportunity to add another patrol officer instead.
That will bring the department’s patrol officers up to 15, one of whom will be a newly created detective lieutenant.
The department previously did not have a detective’s position. The new post will be taken by an existing patrol officer who will be promoted.
With Heffernon’s retirement and the election of Officer Adam Bieber as Shawano County Sheriff, the department is looking to fill three vacancies next next year.
Kohl said the restructuring will allow for more efficiency and get officers “out on the street faster.”
The plan is to have the additional officer available during the “core hours” of 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., Kohl said, when the calls are more likely to be emergency situations.
The detective’s post won’t be filled until there’s a new patrol officer hired to fill that vacancy, which the department is hoping will happen by July.
Kohl said patrol officers will be given additional supervisory training that will allow them to make some of the decisions they currently rely on higher-ups to make.
He said lowering the chain of command and pushing some decision-making abilities down to patrol officers would allow for more efficiency and a faster response on the street.
“They will be empowered to do more,” Kohl said. “There will be less micro-managing and more accountability.”
Though the new detective’s post will require some additional specialized training, the new designation is mostly intended to free up that officer to focus on investigations that are currently interrupted by other duties.
Kohl said an officer investigating a burglary, for example, could be called out to respond to a traffic crash under the current structure, delaying the investigation.
The department created an eligibility list of candidates for patrol officers to fill a vacancy earlier this year, but will start from scratch in its search for new officers.
Kohl said the department is hoping to find qualified minority officers, particularly Native American, who can provide a better representation of the cultural makeup of the community.
The department also plans to boost the duties of clerical supervisor Laura Woldt, who will be supervising community service officers and overseeing day-to-day office and clerical operations starting in January. She will also serve as a confidential secretary.
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