The West Plains Police Department has announced the launch of its new model of policing; Geographical Policing. The Geographical Policing Model went into effect this morning at midnight (8/3). It is the goal of the West Plains Police Department to use this patrol method to better strengthen and increase our partnership with our community to improve the quality of life for our city.
With Geographical Policing, the City of West Plains will be divided into North and South Districts. The districts will then be divided into two sectors each. The North District of the city will hold Sectors 1 and 2 and the South District will hold Sectors 3 and 4. Each sector will be assigned an investigator, a Corporal and three to four patrol officers.
Each sector officer will be responsible for calls for service in their respective zone and, at times, will assist officers in other sectors as well. Two additional goals with this policing model is to also lighten the work load on our officers and build accountability for the sector officer to know and understand the quality of life issues which effect the community members in their sector.
Additionally, in the coming weeks, community members will be able to communicate directly with their sector officers by email to the sector supervisor. A map of the sectors will be posted on the Police Department Facebook page as well as the City of West Plains website. It is important community members view this map to determine which sector their residence or business is in in order to know who to contact.
The Police Department would also like the community to know sometimes their sector officer may be busy on a major crime scene or working an event in a different sector. All non-emergency calls will be held for a period of time in order to allow the appropriate sector officer to handle the call in their sector.
Lieutenant Brian Bunch and Sergeant Brady Grinnell will be the North District Commanders. Lieutenant Kyle Ellison and Sergeant Kyle Parrish will be the South District Commanders. Officers, supervisors, and investigators will be assigned as follows:
North District Sector 1 North District Sector 2 Corporal Wes Stuart Corporal Shannon Sisney Sergeant Bryan Brauer Detective Joe Neuschwander Officer Tatum Whitsell Officer Chris Barrett Officer Whitley Clark Officer Trent Kinder Officer Brad Jones Officer John Murrell Officer Paul Bradshaw Jr. Officer Justin Brown Officer Colter Reid South District Sector 3 South District Sector 4 Corporal Josh Wichowski Corporal Brandon Stephens Detective Brandon Romans Detective Jeremy Pounders Officer Kevin White Officer Ivie Powell Officer Conner Burnes Officer Brent McKemie Officer Amanda Ohlau Officer Paden Turnbull
It is the mission of the Police Department to provide the best services we can to our community members. In the past, the city was divided in two sectors with typically only one officer being responsible for half of the city. This created officers being overloaded with calls and reports and did not provide enough time for officers to fully investigate cases assigned to them.
With the implementation of Geographical Policing, officers will have their assigned areas and neighborhoods. This will allow officers to spend more time with community members whether it be investigating crimes, checking on businesses, or just stopping by to see how the neighborhood is doing. All of this is being done in an effort to strengthen the relationship between the Police Department and our community partnership.
