By Mike Hazlip—
Citrus Heights Police Chief Alex Turcotte outlined his top priorities for this year in a March 10 presentation to the City Council, with homelessness notably not appearing on the list.
Turcotte, who took position as chief last year after the departure of former Chief Ron Lawrence, said his overall goal is to make Citrus Heights a better place.
Crime
In a renewed focus on “high danger and high visibility crime,” Turcotte said he is restructuring the former Problem Oriented Police teams to include trained investigators, advanced technologies, and partnerships with the community and businesses. The new “Impact Team” will focus on street level crime, habitual offenders, weapons and drugs, and quality of life, he said.
Staffing
After projected budget shortfalls for 2021 led to former Chief Ron Lawrence leaving some positions vacant while restructuring others, Turcotte named staffing as a top priority for the department moving forward. He said several candidates are currently in a months-long hiring process, but the department is still looking for candidates.
Part of the funding for the positions will come from the American Rescue Plan Act. The city is currently working to allocate $15.6 million in federal dollars, it’s share of the $1.9 billion federal rescue legislation passed last year.
Traffic
Turcotte said the Citrus Heights Police motor unit had been another cutback. He said emergency response is still the top priority, but plans to have additional officers patrolling city streets on motorcycle by the end of the year.
Staff Wellness
The fourth priority Turcotte outlined was staff wellness, with a goal to retain more officers through better physical and mental wellness within the department.
“The better our employees are treated the better they’re going to turn around and provide customer service out to the community,” he said.
Homelessness was absent from Turcotte’s top four priorities, a point the chief acknowledged and clarified at the beginning of his presentation, telling the council that the majority of homeless individuals are “never on the police radar” and only a small fraction commit crimes.
“I know that the council, myself, city manager Feeney, we have a passion for those who are suffering from homelessness in our community and I think what’s important to draw out is homelessness is not a crime,” he said adding there are programs to help individuals experiencing homelessness in the community. “That being said, as members of our community, they also need to be held accountable for behaving properly and being good actors in our community just like our residents.”
Turcotte’s presentation was part of a larger report to the council where he detailed crime statistics and police department highlights from 2021. The annual crime report is traditionally delivered to the council in March of each year.
