Mooresville PD looks for new hires

MOORESVILLE

Promotions and possible new hires were the topic of discussion at Thursday night’s meeting of the Mooresville Police Commission.

During the meeting, Mooresville Metropolitan Police Department Chief Richard Allen informed the board that 22 applicants took the agility test on Feb 2. Allen said that of the 22 applicants, 20 passed and went on to take the written test.

Allen told the board that the department took the top 10 applicants from the written test to continue in the process. He informed the board that one applicant failed to turn in an application and said that out of nine selected, the department believed it had four prospective applicants.

Allen also recommended officer David Schultz and Det. Brian Kays for promotion to the position of sergeant. The board unanimously approved the promotion following a motion to do so from commissioner Danny Lundy.

Allen informed the board that approved promotions would not take effect until March 23. He said that in order to work everything out with scheduling and transfers, it would be a short time before the promotions took effect.

Lundy inquired if Allen would bring a candidate to be promoted to detective before the board shortly. Allen informed Lundy and the board that detective was an appointed position, not a promotion, so board approval was not needed for that position.

Allen also said that it was likely that the department was going to be short a detective until the end of the year due to the shortage of manpower.

In other business

• Allen informed the commission that the Mooresville Redevelopment Commission had approved the Mooresville Town Council’s request for an additional $450,000 for the town’s new police station.

• Allen also informed the board that the department’s new portable and mobiles radios have been issued and installed, along with 10 in-car cameras that were being installed.

• Allen told that board that three of out of the departments five new cars were in service and on the street.

• Allen informed the board that two police cars had been damaged earlier in the month.

Allen explained that on Feb 9, a vehicle was taken from an officer while he was transporting a belligerent individual.

“He exited his vehicle to resecure the individual in the back seat and the individual took off in our police car,” said Allen.

Allen said that the next day, the second car was damaged on Ind. 42 when an officer tried to turn a corner and ran into grass, tearing the front bumper.

• Lundy inquired if the board needed to appoint board positions, such as president and secretary.

Braun explained the history of the police commission board and said that there were no positions because when the police commission was created, there were no positions laid out statutorily. Braun said that there should be a presiding officer for the board and explained that because the statute was silent, the board had total flexibility and was free to give whatever title it wanted to the presiding officer.

• Lundy also asked if it’d be possible for the department’s monthly statistics could be shared on the website so that people might be able to have easier access to them. Allen said that the department would look into doing so.

• At the meeting, Allen presented department statistics for the month of January to the commission.

Allen reported 222 incident reports, 69 arrest reports, 118 citations, 410 warnings and 2,322 computer-aided dispatch calls. Allen also said that in January, there were 27 accident reports, 25 instances of property damage, two personal injuries with no hit-and-runs or fatalities. According to Allen, there were 445 total 911 calls for January. Allen also stated that the department had reported 31 hours of comp time, 59 hours of overtime and 21,827 miles for mileage.

The next meeting of the Mooresville Police Commission will be at 6 p.m. March 22 at the Mooresville Police Station, 104 W. Main St.

~ By Anthony Woodside | Reporter | Published February 23, 2019 in The Mooresville Times