Pea Ridge Police needs increase

The needs of the Pea Ridge Police Department have increased along with the city’s population, Police Chief Ryan Walker said Tuesday at the City Council meeting.

“As the City Council, you guys should know what’s going on with us,” Walker told council members.

Walker said a police officer is much more than just a law enforcement officer. Quoting Paul Harvey, Walker said a police officer must be a minister, social worker, diplomat, tough guy and gentleman.

“I would add to that, an investigator, a therapist, a counselor and a friend,” Walker said. “It’s so much more than writing a ticket.”

“Everything we do is for the community, even if it is a traffic stop or an arrest,” he said. There were 4,994 calls for service from Jan. 1 to Oct. 1 this year, compared to 3,383 in 2014 and 5,164 in 2015.

In a survey of surrounding agencies, Walker said the average number of calls for service per officer in other agencies is 350 per officer. He said Pea Ridge officers handle an average of 750 calls per officer per year. He based his numbers on eight officers on patrol, admitting the department has 14 officers, but he subtracted the school resource

officers and the supervising officers. “That doesn’t include administration or CID… we’re all busy.”

“We have 114 percent more calls per officer,” he said.

“More calls per officer means less time spent on each call,” Walker said, adding that in order to maintain both regular law enforcement tasks, training and serving at public events, the department has accrued 753 hours of comp time so far for 2016. “This does not allow us to be proactive, but instead, we are becoming reactive.”

Walker plans to present his budget to city officials at a committee of the whole meeting at 2 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, along with all other department heads.