Jackson police, firefighters operate in tight quarters

A public safety sales tax on the April 3 ballot in Jackson would allow for increased staffing and updated equipment -- both necessary to smooth operations, officials say.

A new building for the police department would cost about $7 million and be paid for by reserve funds from the city of Jackson, said Mayor Dwain Hahs, but for operations and staffing costs, the public safety sales tax is necessary.

By paying for the building all at once, Hahs told the Southeast Missourian in January, the city will save about $2.5 million in interest.

The building, set for completion in about 2021, would occupy the parking lot behind the current building, and would house only the police force.

That would leave the current building, at 525 S. Hope St., as the fire station, and the building next door would remain as office space.

The police force has 31 employees, Humphreys said, and they're understaffed in a building too small to accommodate the people they already have.

Right now, police chief James Humphreys said, only two patrolmen are on duty at a given time. That cuts into response time where minutes, even seconds, can be crucial, he said.

Hiring another three to four patrol officers would mean three officers on patrol at all times, which is appropriate for a city Jackson's size, Hahs said.

The public-safety sales tax would also allow another school resource officer to be hired, bringing that force to four total, Humphreys said.

The outdated, undersized building now serving as both police and fire station, was built in 1981, when Jackson's population was approximately 7,800 residents.

The population recently broke 15,000, said Hahs.

The biggest concern with the present building is the sally port, Humphreys said.

That's the outdoor area of the inmate entrance, and, Humphreys said, it's not as secure as it should be.

"It needs to be indoors," he said, and instead, it's an open-air space surrounded by a chain-link fence.

This space is open to the weather and not an easily secured area.

And the entrance leads into a hallway passing without separation through the civilian work spaces occupied by Rachel Coleman, the chief's administrative assistant, and the dispatch center.

"There was nowhere else to put her," Humphreys said of Coleman's work space, and she agreed.

The nearby closet was too small.

The break room needed to be a break room.

And the space where Coleman sits is far from secure. She has to lock up her files and her equipment, as inmates are escorted directly past her desk.

"It's a security issue," Humphreys said.

And the dispatch center is so crammed full of equipment, no more than two dispatch workers can be on duty at the same time, Humphreys said.

It's a similar story elsewhere in the building.

The two detectives on staff have to share one office.

There's only one interview room. If a witness and suspect both have to be interviewed, or if there are two or more suspects, the interviewing officer and interviewee have to go into the break room or into the records room in the basement.

"There's hardly any privacy," Humphreys said.

The records room isn't big enough to hold all of the records that need to be easily accessible, Humphreys said, and when records have to be fetched from City Hall or elsewhere, customer service drops off.

The dispatch officer room was a storage room, and the police officers remodeled the room themselves.

Still, that meant everything stored in the former storage room had to go somewhere, so the hallway now houses most of what was in that room.

Humphreys said it's not safe.

Water issues in the room housing servers, CPUs and the HVAC unit could have led to a lot of problems, Humphreys said, and while those issues have been addressed, it's still not a good situation.

The new building would solve these problems, and would make good use of taxpayer money by coordinating with the sheriff's department on a new, consolidated dispatch center and an inmate-housing agreement.

By having the city and county's dispatch centers combined, Humphreys said, more than $1 million will be saved on equipment and staffing, and the center will be on an upper floor of the sheriff's department -- considerably more secure than an open hallway used to transport inmates.

To run a police force effectively, it's more costly now than ever before, Humphreys said. Between the body cameras, cameras on tasers and guns, in the patrol vehicles and on body armor, "it all adds up," he said.

That's what the public safety sales tax would go to, he said: increased, updated equipment and adding three to four patrol officers.

On the fire department's side, there isn't enough room to have separate bunk quarters for male and female firefighters, and, said Chief Jason Mouser, "it's not conducive to hire men and women."

Mouser said the plan is, once the police station moves to the new building, administrative offices would all move to the department's building next door at 503 S. Hope St., and increase the department's efficiency.

The fire department doesn't have a full-time, dedicated training officer, Mouser said.

Mouser said the fire department responds to several water or ice rescue calls, and confined space rescues, and those require continual training -- to instill the right responses, and to keep those responses fresh.

A training officer would help ensure all three shifts of firefighters would be trained to the same level, Mouser said.

As it stands, the training is solid, but there is room for improvement, Mouser said.

The revenue generated by the public-safety sales tax could go only toward providing staff and equipment, Humphreys said.

The ballot measure was passed by the Board of Aldermen in January, and will appear on the April 3 ballot.

"I think we've been prudent with the sales tax in Jackson, and this will keep us at as low a rate as feasible to continue to operate our city and keep things safe," Hahs said in January.

The addition of one-half cent would bring Jackson's base sales tax to 7.725 percent, as low as or lower than neighboring cities, according to a city information sheet.

The police and fire departments will hold an open house from 9 a.m. until noon Saturday.

In a news release, Humphreys said, "Seeing it for yourself is really the best way to understand what we're facing on a daily basis."

Activities at the fire station will include a meet and greet with the police department's K-9 officer, Beny, and fire trucks on display.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630

Pertinent address:

525 S. Hope St., Jackson, Mo.

503 S. Hope St., Jackson, Mo.