A Morning with Matt

I had the pleasure and opportunity to spend the morning with Buckhannon's police chief Matt Gregory. I told him I was planning on running for city council, and as Paul Harvey would say, wanted to get the rest of the story. I shared my thoughts and what I have heard from other citizens during our meeting. We covered a whole suite of topics from officer salaries, equipment, retention, training, community relations down to how officers have to deal with nuisance calls. Matt provided copies of several reports and plans he developed for the department and took time to go over the material in depth. In no particular order, here is what I learned:

One citizen thought we had too many officers. Buckhannon employs 10 officers and this turns out to be a ratio of approximately 1 officer for every 700 citizens (Buckhannon's population is approximately 7000 including Wesleyan students). Just a little background to put this ratio in perspective. There are 60 class III cities in West Virginia. At Buckhannon's current ratio there are 43 cities with a lower ratio (more officers) and 17 with a higher ratio (fewer officers). Given this information it would appear our police staffing is appropriate for our population base.

Another topic we discussed and one close to my heart is the fact that citizens call on police to handle issues that should not involve police. For example: "My neighbors cat peed in my flowers." Officer do something. "My neighbor makes too much noise." Officer do something. "My son's girlfriend won't stop calling our house." Officer do something. While these examples are fictitious and for illustration only, the point here is that we, the citizens, need to take more responsibility for our own actions and be proactive to seek solutions with those that cause a minor irritation. There are certain times when police need to be involved if personal safety is a stake, but for many cases, we need to solve our own problems. Enough on this.

We spent considerable time discussing a topic high lighted in Buckhannon 2015 that deals with relationship between our police force and Wesleyan students. Matt explained that there is an easy yet formal process to report and document complaints, and that when received, he aggressively investigates them and formulates appropriate action. Matt acknowledges past issues with the Wesleyan student community but feels the relationship is improved.

The tension (real or perceived) between WVWC and our police force may stem form the grant supported program called B.A.S.I.C. As I understand it, the B.A.S.I.C. program is designed to target and reduce underage drinking. The program includes an Instruction phase where offenders hopefully will learn new Behaviors and be more Accountable for the Choices they make. There is also a community Service component. Matt supplied me with the January 2010 statistics from the B.A.S.I.C. program and the categories and numbers are eye opening. This program can have a positive impact on the youth of this community. Matt and I discussed how this program is applied at the college level when students are returning from downtown clubs or fraternity functions. I expressed my opinion that, at the college level, I would hope officers could demonstrate a level of discernment or mercy regarding targeting underage drinking. Matt believes that participation in the B.A.S.I.C. program includes an element of mercy as there is no arrest record and successfully completing the program. Matt indicated his approach to community policing is consistency and is reluctant to modify this approach. Consistency takes subjectivity out of most equations. While I didn't make this observation during my meeting with Matt, it occurs to me that any one of these students (most over 18 years old) staggering home from downtown, could be called into service to defend our country. Why not let them stagger home if they are not in danger nor causing a disturbance. I suspect this will be an issue for future discussion.

Again, my thanks to Matt for three hours of good conversation and exchange.