An expanded mutual aid agreement has been drafted that will allow the Salem and Centralia Police Departments along with the Marion County Sheriff’s Department to offer assistance to each other.
The Salem City Council became the first to approve the agreement at its meeting this week. Salem Police Chief Kyle Ambuehl says this is an idea that has now become reality.
“Actually this process started a long time ago on a couple of night ships when Sgt. Cripps at the time and myself were discussing how we think things should be done and thought us working together would be a lot more valuable for the community. Chief Locke came over to Centralia, we all started talking, and now we are in a position we can do this so we wanted to make it happen.”
Sheriff Kevin Cripps explains one way the agreement will work.
“Right now we have usually if we have a homicide or major case, you have 2 detectives, maybe 3 at most. This gives us the capability to have 6-9 within about the same amount of time. Of course things can get done quicker and opens up a lot of possibilities in the future.”
Centralia Police Chief Chris Locke sees several other areas of cooperation.
“This opens a lot of opportunities for all of our communities and the county just by all of us cooperating and pooling our resources together. That could cover pooling investigators on major cases to come out and help each other. Canine support. Even community outreach and positively impacting the quality of life here.”
The departments say they will not sacrifice coverage in their own jurisdiction to offer the added assistance to each other.
The Centralia City Council will be asked to approve the agreement at its meeting next Monday night. It will go before the Marion County Board next Tuesday night.
