April 14--AMERICUS -- The Americus City Police Chief's recommendations for two new K9 officers and take-home vehicles were rolled out at the City Council committees meeting Thursday.
Chief Mark Gerbino proposes allowing officers who live outside the City limits to take their patrol vehicle home, as the officers who live inside the City limits are allowed to do.
Gerbino said the department is currently down by eight officers.
"The department lost four before I got here and we've lost four since due to lack of benefits," he said.
Gerbino came to Americus as interim chief in August and was appointed chief in November.
Giving the advantages of take-home vehicles, the chief listed better attendance and less sick time, quicker response time, high visibility, lower maintenance and operating costs and more a sense of ownership.
Rather than have the taxpayer pick up the tab for extra gasoline consumption on take-home vehicles, Gerbino offered an alternative: each officer would pay in each month, depending on how far out they live. In-city officers would also contribute.
He said allowing in-town officers the perk of taking home their patrol vehicle and not allowing out of town officers to do the same results in "problems in morale."
Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo Johnson commented that it's hard to tell officers to pay for anything during the current economic times.
Gerbino said he had canvassed his staff and has a consensus that they would be willing to help pay for the gas.
He said this arrangement would have oversight by the professional standards officer who would audit the numbers on mileage.
"This arrangement would have accountability and management," he said. "We have to make sure they don't use the vehicles off duty."
City Administrator Charlotte Cotton commented that she would rather the officers pay some of the cost and the City pay the rest than the officers to not pay and the City not be able to afford the added expense.
Johnson suggested waiting six months before taking any action on this.
Gerbino advised that the department is already losing officers to Lee County, the Georgia State Patrol and other police departments.
"Poor management contributed to the problem in monitoring. Please consider this before closing it down for six months," the chief said. "You had no management before."
"We have no foundation for this other than Chief Gerbino," Johnson said. "We haven't seen a result that this will save us money or not."
City Chief Financial Officer Suzanne Freeman said she would bring all the expenditures for the police department to Monday's agenda setting meeting for further discussion.
Gerbino also had a proposal regarding the police department's K9 program.
Since the former K9 officer (dog) was retired because it was "aggressive and could not be trained," according to the police chief, he would like to get two new dogs and have them trained for use.
Gerbino explained that there is evidence that drug traffickers are not taking the normal routes of travel such as Interstates 95, 75 and 10 but are taking other highways, such as 19, instead, coming right through Americus.
The chief said the dogs could act as another link to the community as well. He said the canines could be taken into the schools for children to relate to, reminding Council that these would be blood hounds or Labradors and not the typical police dogs such as German shepherds.
Rolling out his plan, the chief estimated it would cost about $19,900, However, he said the Chatham County Sheriff's Office has offered to lodge the handlers for four weeks of K9 training free of charge and lend a lieutenant to accompany the handlers to Florida to find the best trained dogs. The trip would cost about $600 for three days.
Gerbino said all this comes to a total of $22,100. He said the department cleared over $9,000 by cleaning up the property area and auctioning off gambling equipment. He also said with strict monitoring of overtime hours, he could transfer another $9,000 from the overtime budget to K9.
"A dog's service can last 12 years," he said. "These are community-building and single-purpose drug dogs. Seizure is not the motivation."
This will be further discussed Monday.
Speaking on the status of Neighborhood Watch, the chief said they are now able to accommodate the program being "decentralized and taken back to the neighborhoods."
Gerbino, acting with the Sumter Area Ministerial Association, is seeking citizens volunteering to allow kids to play basketball in their driveways or in church parking lots.
He wants the community to find ways to get kids out of the streets playing basketball with mobile goals, and provide them with safe spaces in which to play.
Monday's agenda setting meeting starts at 4:30 p.m. in the third-floor meeting room of the Municipal Building. The meeting is open to the public.
Copyright 2012 - Americus Times-Recorder, Ga.
