New Richland Police Chief Tony Martens did not respond in time to questions presented by the Star Eagle prior to the Thursday, Sept. 5 article detailing the proposed 2020 budget for the police department. The newspaper was printed when he replied.
Here are the questions presented by the Star Eagle and Officer Martens’ response:
• 1. Why has the Schooling part of the budget gone up so much?
“The state of Minnesota reimburses us for some costs regarding training of officers. This is due to the increase in mandated trainings from the state. The increase is directly related to the reimbursement that we receive from the state of Minnesota. You will see an almost equal amount on the revenue side as a reimbursement from the state. This includes firearms training, use of force, newly mandated training for dealing with mental health, etc. The amount of reimbursement has increase quite a bit from 2017 and is directly reflected in the budget increase.”
• 2. Why has the Records Access part of the budget gone up so much?
“Records access has gone up because of the new requirements regarding the adoption of FBI required crime statistics coding, etc. This has caused us to upgrade much of our equipment and technology to comply with those requests. Cost of software is continuing to increase and data storage and retention are also contributing factors.”
• 3. Exactly how many part-time police officers does New Richland have, and why are there so many more than there used to be?
“Currently the New Richland Police Department employs eight part-time officers, however one of the officers is out on military leave. It is very hard to find officers to cover vacation time, holidays and other hours, especially during the week. By having a larger pool it is much easier to find someone to work the shift instead of paying overtime to the full-time officers. The part-time salary is less than the overtime would be for the full-time officer. Additionally almost all of my part-time officers have an additional full-time job outside of the PD.”
• 4. Any progress on finding out who vandalized the church or who supplied the alcohol to minors during Farm & City Days?
“The church vandalization case is still active and ongoing. The department has interviewed people and is continuing to work on the case. Outside of that I cannot comment. The cases involving minors have been closed. No further investigation.”