Gluckstadt Police Department shaping up
GLUCKSTADT — Police Chief Wendell Watts has hired a polygraph examiner and reports the new police department is coming together well.
During Tuesday meeting of the Mayor and Board of Alderman, Watts got their approval to hire Wayne Brown as the city’s polygraph examiner.
“During the meeting we got the board’s approval to work on part of our hiring process which was bringing on a polygraph examiner for the applicants,” Watts said.
“During a law enforcement application process, that is one of the steps to go through. During the hiring process you’ll go through an application phase, drug screening, polygraph (tool used after a background check to see if anything was missed), and the interview phase.”
Watts also discussed plans for the police uniform design, which he said is dark blue with pending patch designs.
“We also received quotes for body cameras and in-car camera systems,” Watts said. “We put in a request to the Madison County Board of Supervisors for approval of their vehicle surplus and will start receiving vehicles from them after their board meeting on April 18.”
He said the design for the police cars has not been chosen yet, but he and the board are on the final planning process of that along with the uniform design.
He said that over the last couple of weeks, he and the board have conducted interviews for police department positions and have several candidates to bring onto the police department.
“We’re looking to fill the positions of assistant chief, sergeants, and police officers,” Watts said. “We’ve gone through eight candidates for one position, and we’re going through numerous applicants for the other positions. We’re looking to decide those positions by the next meeting in May.”
Watts said there is no update currently on the police department location.
“We’ll eventually have a need for a municipal court system, evidence room, and more,” he said. “We’ll be looking over the next year for a definitive location. It has not been set in stone yet. We’re looking right now to have ten officers altogether including myself, which will be a great start for Gluckstadt. That’ll give us 24/7 coverage for now. We’re hitting the ground running and going fast, and we’re looking out for what’s in the best interest of Gluckstadt citizens.”
Alderman Lisa Williams said she is very pleased with the activity and information Watts shared with the board.
“Chief Watts has gathered and provided many documents for consideration with a lot of details so that the board can review that and make good decisions to help him with building the Gluckstadt Police Department,” Williams said.
“These are steps that must occur for us to provide that service to our citizens in the community. I appreciate his time, effort, and correspondence he has shared with the board. Chief Watts was selected in a unanimous vote by the board, and I have full confidence in him that he will make and recommend the best choices for the city.”
In other matters, the board:
• Approved the city’s first two site plans: Old Jackson Road commercial park, with five commercial buildings (two of them are 10,000 square feet, other three are less than 10,000 square feet), and a Calhoun Station Parkway retail shopping center that will bring more business.
• Approved rollout of “Gluckstadt on the Go” app within the next couple of weeks.
• Adopted the resolution to support annual Madison County Law Enforcement Appreciation Week from May 11 – May 17.
• Provided the general budget report for the end of March 2022.
• Reported total revenue YTD as about $2.5 million with expenses of about $388,000.