BN 2019/21 Adopted Budget

Police Department

The Ashland Police Department (APD) enhances community livability by working in partnership with citizens to promote public safety, public order, and crime prevention while providing professional and courteous service.


The Ashland Police Department strives to work with all residents, businesses and visitors to make our community one of the safest in the country. The men and women of the Ashland Police Department take great pride in their work and support our core values: Fairness; Accountability; Integrity; and Respect for all people. The members of the APD strive to embody these values while providing a wide range of professional public safety and law enforcement services. The department is largely responsible for creating the feeling of personal safety that the citizens of Ashland enjoy and that is such a significant factor in Ashland’s quality of life. According to the most recent citizen survey, 84% of Ashland residents report an overall feeling of safety, 84% feel safe downtown and in commercial areas, and 95% feel safe in their neighborhoods.


Goals:

  • Complete Phase 2/EOC Buildout
  • Re-engage with the SRO program
  • Re-engage with a regional task force
  • Host a citizen’s academy
  • Further decrease negative behavior downtown/citywide
  • Increase safety in the skatepark
  • Embed a mental health worker within the department
  • Maintain higher-than-average clearance rates

Accomplishments

  • Handled over 57,000 calls for service (CFS) in 2017 and 2018
  • Handled over 8,000 investigations
  • Saw a 40% reduction in calls for service downtown (not due to smoke)
  • Bolstered staffing levels
  • Maintained a clearance rate of
  • 81% overall
  • 45% in part 1 crimes (homicide, rape, robbery, burglary, arson, aggravated assault, larceny)
  • 78% of violent crime (homicide, rape, assault, robbery)
  • Completed the 5-year strategic plan
  • Initiated public-facing skate-park camera program

Performance Measures

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION

The Administrative Division consists of the Chief of Police and an Administrative Analyst. The cost of maintaining and administering all contracts is included in this division. The Administrative Division oversees department budget, purchasing, hiring, expenditure tracking, payroll, and accreditation.

SUPPORT DIVISION

The Support Division is overseen by the Deputy Chief of Police. The Support Division includes the records team and the detective section. The records team is responsible for processing all police reports and citations, and ensuring that all applicable state laws and local procedures are followed for the retention and dissemination of reports.


The detective unit is responsible for investigating significant and long-term crimes, conducting background investigations on all police applicants, and managing the department’s new problem solving unit (PSU). The PSU is a two-detective team that will work to address acute issues as they come up, using a combination of uniformed patrol and plain clothes operations as needed. The detective unit also oversees the property and evidence section of the department.

The Support Division is also responsible for administrative functions such as technological support, training, communications liaison to the Emergency Communications of Southern Oregon (ECSO) dispatch center, internal affairs investigations, policy and procedures, and coordination of the Citizen Volunteer in Policing Services (VIP) Program. A recently appointed volunteer crime prevention specialist has been very successful in engaging the community in crime prevention efforts over the last two years.


OPERATIONS DIVISION

The Ashland Police Department Operations Division is responsible for providing most of the field services, such as patrol and traffic enforcement. This Division is overseen by a Patrol Lieutenant, who in turn reports to the Deputy Police Chief. The Community Service Officer (CSO) is another addition to the Operations Division and the CSO’s primary responsibilities are graffiti eradication, code enforcement and abandoned vehicles.


The School Resource Officer (SRO) and Central Area Patrol officers are part of the Operations Division as well. The SRO, which the department hopes to re-institute soon, acts as a valuable liaison between the Police Department and the Ashland School District. The Central Area Patrol officers are a vital part of the Department’s attempts to maintain a safe and welcoming environment downtown.


The Patrol Unit is the backbone of the Police Department and provides the patrol staff that responds to all emergency and non-emergency calls within the city. The Patrol Unit has one Traffic Officer who responds to the majority of traffic accidents, conducts traffic accident investigations, provides traffic enforcement and provides support for special events which occur in the city.