Police Department Updates: July 2022

At the City Council’s Public Safety Subcommittee meeting on July 12, members of the Sanford Police Department updated Councilors Ayn Hanselmann, Jonathan Martell and Becky Brink with the latest happenings at the SPD.

Traffic Enforcement: Sanford’s new Traffic Officer is Rick Bucklin, a veteran member of the Police Department. Officer Bucklin said that since June 20, he has done 140 traffic stops and handled 8 accidents. He issued 18 summonses, mostly civil but also a few criminal. The rest of the Department is also pursuing traffic enforcement and has done 80 additional stops and responded to 32 accidents during this time period. City Manager Steve Buck asked if the Department could do some enforcement of vehicle noise violations and Officer Bucklin said he will look at that.

JAG Grant: Police Chief Craig Andersen said he is recommending the $18,297 in Justice Assistance Grant funding that Sanford received be spent for two speed alert signs with programmable message boards which can be easily moved to various locations around the City. The total cost for these is $13,348. He is recommending the remaining JAG funds be spent on recruitment. The proposal will be forwarded to the full City Council for consideration.

New Hires and Recruitment: Chief Andersen introduced (or re-introduced) Officer Matt Johns, who returned to the SPD after six months of retirement. Chief Andersen said recruitment is his number one priority for the 2022/23 fiscal year as the Department is still shorthanded and anticipating retirements next year. (There is no guarantee those officers will get bored after six months and return.) SPD has begun advertising on radio and will be attending job fairs as well. Detective Colleen Adams introduced the Mental Health Unit’s new intern, Gabrielle, a student at Southern New Hampshire University who previously worked as a dispatcher.

Realignment: Chief Andersen said he is working on a realignment plan for the SPD which will include a new command structure for the next 10 to 15 years. He said for officers to have the best ability to succeed it is important to have recurrent training, which will require a new command structure to sustain, rather than “one and done” courses. He will have a recommendation prepared for the first City Council meeting in August.

Fleet: Deputy Chief Eric Small described the SPD’s fleet of vehicles, which currently includes 11 patrol cars and five support service vehicles. The support vehicles are leased Kias which do not have lights and sirens. The leases are ending in a few months and he said they have to decide whether to buy out the leases or lease new ones. He will be meeting with the fleet manager from the dealership to get some numbers.

The patrol vehicles are all in good condition, but they need more of them. DC Small said now that the Mental Health Unit has become more of a response force, including responding to emergencies, they needed a patrol vehicle rather than a support vehicle, so they were given the Chief’s car. The Chief and DC Small are sharing one of the Kias. He is recommending the Department take two of the patrol vehicles that are nearing trade-in time, and repurpose them for the Chief and Deputy Chief, and buy two new cruisers to put in the patrol fleet. The funds have already been allocated in the Capital Improvements Plan.