GLASGOW, Ky. (WBKO) – Keeping the community safe is the Glasgow Police Department’s number one priority, but recently Chief Guy Howie has found it’s more difficult as the demand on policing increases.

During a meeting of Glasgow City Council on 14 October, proposed the addition of two officers to the staff.

“It is necessary because of our increased call volume and the resulting decrease in our ability to be proactive in our law enforcement efforts and our investigations,” he told the board during the meeting. “When shifts are short and calls start to back up, attention to detail and attention to investigations suffer. This is not a level of service I expect for our citizens.”

This approved change will bring staffing from 35 to 37 officers. During the meeting, Howie noted that of the 35 they have now, some of them are in training, one is deployed overseas for a year, one is on medical leave and one has been reassigned to the drug task force.

According to the chief, that puts a strain on the number of officers he assigns to each shift. With the two new officers, they can aim to have five officers and a sergeant on a shift.

Howie also said he normally wouldn’t ask for a budget amendment this time of year, which is why he needed council approval to put this in the police department’s budget.

“We’ve done it mid-year because of the workload we’re seeing and the overtime we have to use to cover shifts to give the people of Glasgow the protection they need,” he said.

According to Howie, the last payroll’s overtime totaled about $12,000, and the number of calls for service increased by nearly 10,000 from 2022 to 2023. He said drug overdoses have increased especially in the past year and that “try to attack” the fentanyl. and the problem of methamphetamine while going about their other day-to-day operations.

“We have a lot more requests for service, especially in areas involving drug activity, mental health issues, theft, shoplifting, things like that,” Howie said. “Our violent crime calls are not going up as much as those property crimes.”

The cost for both officers for a full year is $168,000. As he continues to hire, Howie is also completing a workforce study to figure out if he might need even more officers.

“We’re going to do the study based on our calls for service and the number of officers that are required to handle those calls for service, the amount of time they spend on a call and how much time we want them to do proactive policing. .”

Glasgow Police are currently recruiting. They hope to have it on board by mid-November. Depending on their experience, they will either start training at the police academy or start working fairly soon after.

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