Baker City Police Chief responds to union concerns over 24-hour patrol cuts
By Joe Hathaway on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
BAKER CITY — Baker City Police Chief Ty Duby is responding to concerns from the police officers’ union over proposed cuts to 24-hour patrols in the town.
Chief Duby announced the plans to the city council earlier this month, citing staffing issues. The proposed plan would be to cut early morning patrols.
On Tuesday, November 21, Baker City police officer Mark Powell, who is president of the Baker City Police Association, the union that represents officers, sent this letter to Elkhorn Media Group about the proposed plan:
The Baker City Police Association and its members would like to express our support for 24-hour, 7-day-a-week, 365-days a year on-duty police coverage. We recognize the need for a quick response to our medium-sized city of 10,000 that we proudly serve. We feel this can only be accomplished with 24-hour service. We as an association do not support police schedules that do not provide 24-hour coverage and create undue delays in response to 911 calls for emergency help.
At the core mission statement for the Baker City Police Department, we recognize that we are here to promote the safety and welfare of our citizens, along with enriching their quality of life through the delivery of professional police services. The Baker City Police Association thanks and appreciates the overwhelming public support given to our officers daily and we wish to continue our strive for a Standard of Excellence. The association feels we need 24-hour service to meet and accomplish our mission.
In response to the union’s letter, Duby sent this statement to Elkhorn Media Group:
While I support 24/7 coverage for the community, I need to look at staffing levels, our commitments to our agency partners, what the District Attorney Office needs, crime patterns, etc.. Baker City PD has tried to maintain 24-hour coverage for years with bare minimum staffing. Some say just pull Detectives to cover vacancies. In today’s day and age, you simply have to have Detectives to combat major crime and investigate serious crimes. Is it more important to have a patrol car driving around at 4 am when there is very limited activity or trained detectives that have the training and resources and schedule to investigate serious crimes? When bad things happen at 4 am they happen whether a patrol car is driving around or not. For the most part patrol RESPONDS to crime. You just better hope when it does happen you have personnel who can take on the investigation.
The ideal model is an agency that has staffing for full patrol (24/7) as well as a detective unit. The agency needs to be fully staffed (17 Sworn as opposed to 15 sworn) and supported so when someone does leave the agency you can absorb that loss until you find a replacement.
Click here to read previous coverage of the proposed plan to end 24-hour-patrols.
