Piedmont Police Chief Offers Solutions and Public Safety Actions
At the February 4 City Council meeting, Piedmont’s new Police Chief, Rikki Goede, requested and received authorization for hiring up to four additional officers coordinated with “anticipated retirements and departures of existing police officers. ” Additional overtime will be a part of the Chief’s multi-pronged response to recent home invasions in Piedmont. New officers will begin their 4-6 month field training in March. The department is evaluating license plate readers and video surveillance services.
The Chief proposed the following:
- Immediately begin the process to hire ahead of known and probable vacancies within the Department, e.g. when retirements are anticipated. (See staff report.)
- Overtime authorization to ensure the minimum staffing at all times
- Increase the number of reserves (to five from the current two)
- Seek investigative assistance on the home-invasion robberies from three other local police agencies
- Authorize overtime for two officers to continue investigations on other open cases
- Consider offering a reward
Piedmont Town Hall meeting on crime issues Tuesday, February 12, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. in the Piedmont Veterans Memorial Building, next to City Hall. The public is invited to attend. There will be no broadcast available for the meeting.
The City will move forward on contracting with the Emergency Communications Network (ECN) – Code Red at a cost of approximately $6,320 per year to provide a multi-media emergency notification system that will supersede the City’s current E-Mail Alert Program. All residents will have the opportunity to join by providing their contact information directly to the Code Red database.
At the same time, the Piedmont Public Safety Committee will be clarifying its future role, duties and responsibilities and the City Council may expand its charge beyond providing a forum for residents to voice their public safety-related concerns and suggestions. (Read more: City Council Minutes January 22, 2013 – Report from the Chair of the Public Safety Committee; Correspondence was received from: Barry Barnes & Samantha Spielman; Charlotte & Michael Ero; Alan Kong; Piedmont Public Safety Committee Reports.)
The Piedmont Police Department has an active program for confidential tips to be submitted to the Police Department.
