Pendleton Police Department continues to grow
By Terry Murry on Wednesday, August 5th, 2026 in Columbia Basin News Columbia Basin Top Stories
PENDLETON – The days of severe staffing shortages appear to be over for the time being at the Pendleton Police Department. Lt. Tyler Reddington says there are three new officers in the system.
“One of them has just completed the academy and he’s in the field training process,” he said. “We have one who just started the academy, and then we have a new employee that will be starting Aug. 17 with us. I’m excited about all three.”
Reddington pointed out that there are always retirements and resignations to deal with, but having more officers with boots on the ground is really paying off for public safety. He said that even though there were major events in July, there was not a significant increase in calls for service.
Since January, the department has had 15,698 calls for service and 16 percent occurred last month. While that’s an increase over previous months, it is a small one, he said. Another interesting statistic is that of all the calls for service, 52 percent of them were officer initiated.
“Officers are getting out there and seeing things and acting on things a lot more than they’re being reactive,” he said.
PPD photo of Lt. Tyler Reddington
