Chief Walser, C/M Rob Criswell and SPD Training for U.S.2 Sultan Truck Weighing station

Councilmember Rob Criswell [Criswell expressed concerns that the City has paid for Sultan police officer training and requested who authorized the expense. Tolson requested that Chief Walser respond.]
Chief Walser I'm curious as to what kind of training the City wants its police officers to have? The reason behind it is, in reviewing the growth that is occurring in East County, and the fact that Cadman prevailed in their appeal [for an expansion of their Gold Bar plant] and has continued to open up their gravel pit east of Gold Bar, which has placed roughly 300 truck trips for per through the city of Sultan and all the attendant issues involved with that, I thought it would be prudent to train an officer to do weights and vehicle inspections. And in researching that, I found out that the City when a truck is cited and weighed by a certified officer, the city will get 80% of fines back for that citation. In some cases that runs into thousands of dollars for overweight trucks. The second thing is that the officers are certified to do vehicle safety inspections for NHTA National Highway Transportation Association, for which they have paid the city $25 per inspection, in addition to whatever citations they make. It also allows the police officers to gain access to loads and illegal loads, other issues that we do not now do. And Scott Berg, the officer who was just here, has been certified and is working on [unintelligible] vehicle enforcement. And as I said, the class that he attended was funded by the state. And we are working on an agreement right now to gain access to the scale house right here at the city limits to utilize the state's facility for this purpose. And Berg is going to be cross-training with one of their weight people, troopers, in the very near future, probably next week or the week after, for a short period of time so he can become fully familiar with their procedures. That's the specialized training that I sent him to. I also intend to send officers to other types of training to upgrade our capability to handle criminal events in the city. And that has not been the case in the past. I've sent officers to homicide investigation school. I'm sending two to blood splatter and spray school, [unintelligible] classes. I have to keep - in order to have a professional police department that is able to handle all the crimes that come before us, we have to train. And it's ongoing all the time. That's a fact of life. The other side of it is the liability issues that come with not training an officer are enormous. And I imagine [unintelligible] that basic training, I'm not sure what that really is or how to respond to that. But my position as chief is trying to give the citizens of this city the best trained, best-equipped police department that their budget can afford.
Criswell I'm not saying this is a bad thing, Fred. I'm just wondering - we discussed that at quite length in council, if I remember correctly… And if you're so - if you wadn't (sic) afraid you was gonna be told no, you would've brought it up and you probably would've got a yes on it anyway. But we do these things - And I didn't want to bring this up in front of the council. But this is the way it is. You do these things, and then we hear about them after the fact. If you bring them up and say, This is what I'm thinking about doing, great, you'd probably get all the blessings in the world, but you don't do that.
Tolson Well, Rob, to address that, this was brought up to myself that [train whistle blew; obliterating some words] was something that was [unintelligible]. That they were looking at as a free option for training with that. And I don't recall - [unintelligible] my taking in opposition -
Criswell No sir. That's the [unintelligible] we just had a couple months ago. [unintelligible].
Tolson The issue of that, in light of that, with the budget freeze that we are still under, presented as a free opportunity with regards to training, I was -
Criswell That's fine. What I'm saying is, why can't we tell - or anybody - tell the council what's going on so we've not blindsided by these questions out on the street?
Tolson Well, let's back up a little bit here. Were you blindsided by this question?
Criswell Yes, I was.
Tolson by whom?
Criswell Well, that's a private….citizen and I, I can't reveal.
Tolson Are you sure it was a private citizen and not a public official at an accident scene?
Criswell I'm absolutely sure. [unintelligible] because I talked to him about it and he's the one [unintelligible]. I actually asked about the first one.
Tolson I think this issue could be brought up in another timeframe at another time, but I believe that, uh…we may need to move on with this.
Criswell That's fine. I [unintelligible] --
Chief Walser Mr. Mayor, I could say this was brought up by me two months ago I mentioned Scott Berg by name and what he was doing and the fact that he was going to [unintelligible]. I'm unaware and surprised at - if I'm surprising the council, I certainly need to know that, because I try to keep you, Mr. Mayor, and the council updated on where they're going, what they're doing, what the training is, [unintelligible]. If it costs "X" number of dollars, I have to go through you anyway. And this was free training. As was the training in [unintelligible] Alabama that I sent an officer to.
Derek Boyd Well, there's no, there's no free training, Fred. I mean, we [unintelligible] --
Chief Walser You pay them a salary. I'm talking about spending for the class.
Boyd [unintelligible] pay the overtime to cover that shift on the street. And it is costing.
Chief WalserWell, as a matter of fact, the sergeant and I cover their shifts, so we're not paying the overtime for that. I'm not trying to play games with this council or create surprises or anything else. I'm trying to create a professional, well-trained police department. That's all. That's the only agenda at work here.
Criswell I wanted to do this in executive session, but I was advised [unintelligible].
Tolson Would you like to set an appointment and meet with me?
Criswell Not really.
Tolson Well, I would like to get this thing -
Criswell If I have anything to say, I want the whole council on it.
Tolson Well, that's, that's fine as well. But I would like to get this hashed out, because there seems to be an ongoing issue that, that needs to be resolved.