Salem Police Chief Sean Reynolds told the Salem City Council during a planning session this week this is not the time to be thinking about pulling their officer out of the Southeastern Illinois Drug Task Force.
He says the City of Salem and the entire region is currently battling a major methamphetamine problem.
“I attend quarterly meetings and we go over statistics that local drug task force agents are dealing with. Roughly 80-90% of cases they are working on are Meth-related in our 10 county area we are working. It is a huge issue. There are still issues with heroin and fentanyl and things like that but we are seeing a lot of meth-related cases in our area.”
Reynolds feels the city is getting good value for their officer in the task force.
“We have an agent but then we have access to all these other agents that can come from other areas that are free to us. They are free to use for surveillance if we do a criminal drug detail to do interviews and things like that so it’s a cost-saving measure to the citizens too to have these extra police officers in their community.”
Reynolds says about 40-percent of the salary and benefits of the task force officer is paid in a $28,080 yearly grant. The task force also supplies a vehicle with the city only responsible for gas and insurance, surveillance and camera equipment, and sometimes hundreds of dollars in money to buy drugs.
Reynolds expressing some frustration with some of the council wanting to consider ending the participation. He also questioned if assigning personnel once the budget was set was a city council decision or one he had the authority to make as police chief.
The discussion came as the council discussed a lot of unfunded mandates and changes that will be required as part of the state Police Reform Bill. Reynolds noted the city not only faces the cost of adding body cams but a $30,000 cost to store all the video data. He also feels they will need a person to handle Freedom of Information Act requests and the redacting of video before it is released.
At the same time, Reynolds reported the department is getting busier with an increase of 600 calls or ten percent this year over last year.
Reynolds suggested at some point the city needs to look at adding a sixth dispatcher and an IT person who could not only serve the police department but the entire city. He says they also face a number of retirements of top personnel in the next few years.
Reynolds emphasized early retirements would be the result of the new state legislation. He says the department members are very pleased with the support from the city government.
