Riley County Law Board meeting June 15. (screenshot)

The Riley County Law Board Monday gave final approval to its 2021 budget, with no cost of living adjustments or merits for members of the Riley County Police Department.

Law Board member and current Riley County Attorney Barry Wilkerson says he’s frustrated with the situation the Law Board found itself in due to the COVID-19 pandemic and issued a statement prior to the board’s action Monday.

“I do apologize that we can’t make raises work this year, but I want you to know that you are appreciated. I hope other people in this community recognize that there are a lot of things that go on that they don’t see,” he said.

Wilkerson says as police have come under scrutiny nationally in wake of officer shootings of minorities, there are those in RCPD who often go unnoticed for their work both on and off the clock.

“We don’t hear about Rick Deutsch, who a year ago got up in the middle of the night to help a young man who had been sexually assaulted. He (the victim) didn’t know who else to text, so he texted Rick Deutsch who was not on duty, was not on the clock, but who got out of bed in the middle of the night, and did this on more than one occasion to help out this individual,” he said.

Wilkerson says there are other examples of good behavior officers do behind the scenes that usually goes unnoticed by the general public.

RCPD’s 2021 budget authority amounts to $21.9 million and includes a .65 percent decrease in the mill levy, the taxing obligation of Manhattan and Riley County toward the budget.

In other business Monday, the Law Board approved a new policy at the request of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (also known as CALEA).

Recently RCPD received its re-accreditation and with that came the sixth edition changes which includes the documentation of training for RCPD’s Public Information Officer.

“They just needed listed in policy that we have specific training for our PIO, so we created a policy covering that. We’ve done training like that before, they just wanted a specific policy,” he said.

Doing so helps RCPD maintain its accreditation in future years and the policies are continually updated as necessary. Major changes in policy must come for a vote by the Law Board. In this case, the vote was unanimous.

The vote came on the heels also of RCPD’s current PIO Hali Rowland announcing her resignation from the department later this month. Rowland tells KMAN her husband, a member of the U.S. Army has been re-stationed at Fort Campbell on the Kentucky-Tennessee border. As a result, Rowland’s last day with RCPD is June 26.

The Law Board Monday was also updated on the ongoing firing range development south of Manhattan.

Capt. Josh Kyle informed the board that the Riley County Commission is inching closer to easement agreements with adjacent property owners. The project is estimated at around $1.43 million for the range design build, in addition to a $500,000 new structure to be housed on the site. Construction could delay when RCPD is able to move into the new firing range, but Kyle says they still must be able to train officers regardless of the construction timeline.

“By state mandates we have to train, we have to fire the qualification course once a year. Everyone has done that so we’re good until June 30, 2021,” he said.

Kyle estimates it could be late fall or early winter before RCPD is ready to move in to the new firing range. He explains what will happen if construction is delayed for any reason.

“We do have some contingencies in place should the facilities not be available by June 30, 2021, but I’ll just put it this way, they’re all unpleasant,” he said.

Those contingencies involve busing large numbers of officers and then paying for them to each fire at a qualification course. Those officers also wouldn’t receiving RCPD’s preferred firearms proficiency training.

The lease on RCPD’s current range expires at the end of June.

 

The post Law Board approves 2021 budget; PIO training policy appeared first on News Radio KMAN.

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