Last month I talked a bit about how important it is for the police, and the community they serve, to communicate with each other. Some of that has been going on. As a result of requests for information submitted to us, the Gustine Police Department began last week publishing weekly statistics so that you can start to get some idea of the activity level we encounter here. The numbers we’ll publish will run from Monday to Monday , and include the numbers of logged citizen contacts (whether these be calls for service or officer-initiated contacts), the numbers of arrests that are made (including both those that result in someone going to jail and those cited out for a later court appearance), and the numbers of calls that are of sufficient gravity for a report to be written. In some cases we can talk a bit about some of the items on which reports were taken, and in other cases the information is sensitive (as with juvenile involvement or on-going investigations).

We are planning to hold a Town Hall meeting on the evening of Thursday, Aug. 21, at 7 p.m. We have several things that we (and by we, I mean your city government) want to bring to the public forefront. We have not yet finalized the agenda, but among the topics of discussion I can almost guarantee you will find the budget (pretty dismal this year, and a statewide problem not limited to Gustine), the spread of gang activity throughout the Central Valley (and what we intend to do about it) and how I anticipate the adoption of the new Gustine administrative code will effect the community and the average citizen.

We’ll also spend some time discussing local community action (such as the revitalization of the Neighborhood Watch program and formation of a Citizen’s Volunteer Academy), and how we want to implement and support those programs. We’ll leave room on the schedule for a question and answer session, and we will be happy to entertain doing a presentation on any particular topic of general public interest if you notify us of your interest in the topic sufficiently in advance (say a week or so) for us to be able to do the necessary legwork to prepare.

And, of course, we want to introduce the members of the department to the public at large. There has been a substantial turnover in the officer staff at GPD over the past 18 months, and we have added a number of reserve officers.

I’ll close this column by answering a question that a lot of folks pose to both me and City Manager Margaret Silveira. People want to know why there always seem to be so many patrol cars parked outside the station on 6th Street. First off, let me assure you that if there are five cars parked outside, it does not mean there are five officers in the station.  We are a small department, and it is rare that we have more than two officers and a supervisor even on duty at the same time. Often there is only one officer on duty. We have to have enough cars, however, to account for overlapping shifts, specialized assignments (where a car is ready with certain kinds of equipment) and vehicles that are red-lined pending service or repair. Of course, in real emergencies or operations that require the whole department to be called in we end up using all the cars we have available, and wish we had more. Sixth Street is just where we park our fleet, such as it is.  I hope that clears up any confusion on the issue. If you have further questions, just call, and we’ll be happy to answer them.

Devon Stavrowsky is Gustine’s interim Chief of Police.

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