NPD chief delivers last report to Public Safety Advisory Commission
In his last report to the Public Safety Advisory Commission, PSAC for short, Nome Police Chief Mike Heintzelman told the panel on Monday night that the police department is in better shape than he found it five years ago when he became chief, but it still has to master some challenges, particularly related to hiring and retention. Overall, he said, the health of the agency is good, with a “very good working crew” on staff. However, one of the things slowing down the accreditation process — NPD is pursuing accreditation through the Oregon Accreditation Alliance — is the short-staffed dispatch center. One of the reasons for the continued hiring challenges are the low pay, housing shortages and the high cost of living in Nome. He described the process of training police officers if a hire is “off the street” which entails lengthy background checks, sending the person to the police academy for 17 weeks, followed by a couple of months of field training. “And after all that, I don’t know if he’s going to work out, or if he’s not cut out for it,” Heintzelman said. On the other hand, he said, by hiring officers that were officers in other locations, “sometimes they bring good habits, sometimes they bring bad habits” and may not work out as well.
Heintzelman recapped his five years in Nome and said when he came on the job there was an overabundance of unresolved sexual assault cases and a very young and inexperienced police force. He brought in Scott Weaver, who worked off the backlog of these cases in an efficient and professional manner. Now, Heintzelman is confident that with the experienced police on staff, Nome is well positioned.
The only thing, he said he failed to do was to recruit police officers from Nome or the region. As the City is looking to pick Heintzelman’s successor, the PSAC is asked to weigh in. City Manager Glenn Steckman, attended the PSAC meeting telephonically and said that so far they received 15 applications for the job and once the extended application period closes on Oct. 20, the PSAC is asked to review the applications in an executive session and decide who would advance to the interview stage.
Heintzelman said he’s confident that the panel helps pick the right candidate and that he “would hate to see all the progress that we’ve made” diminished. He agreed with PSAC chair Carol Piscoya that the right candidate would need to undergo cultural training and share a community policing attitude. With 24 more days left as the chief of NPD, he said he enjoyed his time here. “I’ve just been very happy, I couldn’t have asked for a better time that I’ve had up here working,” he said.
The next scheduled PSAC meeting will be on December 3, 2023.