Police seeking input for strategy planning

By Jean Reid Norman

Monday, July 27, 2009 | 1:50 a.m.

The Boulder City Police Department is looking for a little back talk these days.

The department is in the middle of a strategic planning process, Deputy Chief John Chase said, and is asking residents to fill out a questionnaire to tell police how they’re doing.

The survey is available on the city’s Web site here. Paper copies also are available at the police station, 1005 Arizona St., Chase said.

“We want citizen input,” Chase said. “We want their ideas of what they want us to look like in five years.”

The project grew out of a course Chase was taking at UNLV from Larry Vierra, director of the Small Business Development Center. Vierra offered his expertise to do a strategic study for the department. Chase and Police Chief Thomas Finn jumped at the offer.

“It will establish some pretty clear priorities for not only Chief Finn and myself but also our staff,” Chase said. Officers will still respond to calls as usual, but the strategic plan will help the force focus on residents’ needs, he said.

The key, Vierra said, is to give the department goals to work toward.

“Unless you have a finish line, you don’t have a way to measure when you get there,” Vierra said. “It’s like going on vacation without a destination.”

The strategic plan needs to be consistent with the city’s goals and with the traditional values residents have, he said.

“Those are the kinds of values the chief wants to instill in his force,” Vierra said.

So far, the department has received 100 to 150 responses, Chase said, and they have held some surprises.

“We feel internally that we’re lacking in technological advances and the utilization of technology, but the community seems to think we have some of the best equipment around,” he said. “There’s a disconnect there.”

The surveys also say that residents want to know officers better, and that is something Finn and Chase also find important, Chase said.

A committee representing various communities within Boulder City is working on the plan, Chase said. In addition to Finn, Chase and Vierra, it includes Lend-A-Hand board President Lettie Zimmerman, Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jill Lagan, former City Council candidate Joe Roche, officer Aaron Johnson, who is assigned to the schools, dispatcher Rose Sandoval, Municipal Judge Victor Miller or his court administrator Bernie Graham and Community Development Director Brok Armantrout.

Chase and Vierra said they expect to have a rough draft of the plan written by the end of September. Surveys will be accepted until at least Aug. 8 and possibly later, Chase said.

For more information, call the Police Department at 293-9224.