City Police Lose Out on Grant; Additional Officer Spot on Hold

By Brandi Makuski

Stevens Point police say adding an additional drug investigator to its force will have to wait, at least for now.

City leaders approved adding a new position to the SPPD in September, contingent on the department winning a grant to help offset the estimated $84,000 expense for wages and benefits. But the COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) grant, funded through the Dept. of Justice, didn’t come through.

According to Police Chief Martin Skibba, the grant was designed for specialized positions, which does include drug officers but also focuses on law enforcement positions related to mental health and sensitive crimes.

While the SPPD did meet the requirements of the grant, he said, other departments had a greater need.

“There were many other agencies that were also turned down,” Skibba said. “We recognize at the federal, state and local levels there are only so many dollars…unfortunately, this means we have to rely more on the local dollars, so we need development and expansion within our community to fund the services we provide, along with those of other departments.”

Skibba said adding the additional drug officer is “long overdue” for the city, pointing out that several positions were eliminated from the department in 2010, part of a citywide staff reduction following the Great Recession of 2008. While two positions were re-added in 2012, it still leaves the department shorter than it would like to be in the face of a growing problem with illegal drugs.

“The grant will be out there again next year, and we plan on applying every year we ask the city for additional manpower,” Skibba said.

The plan is to now ask the Police and Fire Commission to change its current timeline in requesting additional officers. The original plan, Skibba said, was to add the drug officer in 2018, followed by two additional officers in 2019 and two more in 2020.

Skibba said he plans to have the discussion placed on the PFC agenda “in February or March”.

Mayor Mike Wiza said if it so desired, the City Council could propose a budget amendment to fund the position for 2018, but wasn’t immediately clear where those funds would come from.