Lexington police are proposing to bring back a “safety officer” program. The matter got a hearing Tuesday before the Urban County Council.
The council has given initial approval to hiring ten safety officers. Police Chief Mark Barnard told council they would be unarmed, non-uniformed personnel, with no arrest powers. He says the aim is to free up more sworn officers for priority calls. “They won’t be running lights and siren. They’ll have yellow and red lights on their vehicles which is the same as trucks that are working construction on the interstate,” said Barnard.
Public Safety Commissioner and former police chief Ronnie Bastin told council pressing investigations can impact response to other calls. “If you’ve got seven or eight officers out on a shooting right now, there’s likely someone sitting for a while waiting for an accident report in rush hour. These folks would be right there, they can be right there and business can go on,” explained Bastin.
Council member Angela Evans said she appreciated the idea, but wondered if workers in other departments wouldn’t also like assistance. “Why you versus others, I mean, I’m sure every department could say ‘well yeah we could use another ten people to help us get jobs done,” said Evans.
The item was moved onto the regular docket. The council also acted to place the public safety officer ordinance into committee for further review.?
