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Helmers to lead CPD drug education program

Posted March 12, 2015 11:00 pm

By Pete Spitler The Herald Tribune

CHESTER -- The Chester Police, Fire and Public Safety Committee met in regular session on Thursday and Chester Police Chief Ryan Coffey discussed his department's implementation of a drug education program.

With the retirement of former Randolph County Sheriff Mike Hoelscher in December, the status of the county's D.A.R.E program was in limbo.

Both Chester Police Department and city officials have been discussing a replacement program at the city level, which Coffey said is yet to be officially named.

Coffey said Thursday that veteran CPD Officer Bobby Helmers will lead the drug education program, starting in mid-April.

"Officer Helmers has come up with some fantastic ideas," Coffey said. "Once the curriculum is in place, I don't think it will be much of a problem for us."

Coffey said the six-week program will begin exclusively with the three fifth grade classes at Chester Grade School and expand from there. The curriculum could also be expanded to include firearm safety.

"Whatever gets us into the schools, I'm all for it," Coffey said.

Coffey also presented a report on feral cats in the city and how to address the problem. Two options - spay or neuter the animals or euthanize them if they cannot be placed into homes - are currently being considered.

As part of the first option, the cats would be released back at the location they were caught.

"This is something I want input from the (city) council on because it is a new service," Coffey said.

Coffey said he is looking for direction from the city council as a "monthly investment" could be required to address the problem. The city council is scheduled to take up the issue during its meeting on Monday.

The committee later discussed using Animal Control volunteers to help combat the problem.

Coffey said 18 people have expressed interest in helping Animal Control Officer Elanna Bradley with basic duties around the shelter, but the committee had questions about liability.

All interested persons are adults and Coffey has asked Bradley to trim the list.

"I'm all for it as long as the city is for it," said Alderman Dan Geisen.

Coffey also provided an update on upcoming "use of force" training that would involve pre-planned scenarios at a location to be determined. The exercises would begin in the late evening and continue into the night.

"Night time takes things to a whole new level," he said.

The training would include three parts, according to Coffey. The first part would be a closed session, the second the media would be allowed to observe and the third may allow a media member to participate.

For the third session, the media member would be paired with a CPD officer during the scenario.

"We are examining possibly videotaping the scenarios through our in-car cameras," Coffey said. "We could then use that for analysis."

Active shooter training is currently scheduled to take place for St. John Lutheran School later this month, while St. Mary's Catholic Grade School will get its turn in April.

"When that is completed, all our grade school teachers will have been through this program," Coffey said.

Roundup

Chester EMA coordinator Charlie Bargman II said officials are continuing to experience issues with the city's emergency communication system.

"I kept blaming it on human error, but then the evening test page to Red Dot didn't work," he said, referring to the transmitter located under the water tower near Hillview Drive behind Red Dot Construction and Equipment Rental.

Bargman said a Frontier Communications crew came out to check the lines, but couldn't find a problem.

"The biggest issue for me is the storm sirens," he said. "We're not in dire need yet, but they're supposed to go out (Friday) and see what's wrong with the transmitter.

"I need a permanent fix to get us off this system."

In a Facebook message, Bargman said Friday he had not yet heard the results of that inspection.

Bargman also expressed thanks to Bethany Berner for her work in helping to develop the new ID badges for city employees.

"Much appreciation goes out to Bethany Berner for getting everybody's picture for their IDs," he said. "They will always be on file in case anybody loses one."

Executive Session

The committee met in executive session to discuss a chain of command for the CPD. No action was taken after the session.

"I can tell you that we discussed a chain of command, but I don't want to get into the details," Coffey said in a phone interview with the Herald Tribune on Friday. "It will be something that comes forward soon, probably sometime in April."

Coffey said the position of sergeant was removed several years ago and that stood as the department's chain of command.

"We're discussing the possibility of bringing a program back that would allow us to have a chain of command," Coffey said. "How that looks is too early to determine."

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