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Thunderstorms likely. Much cooler. High 66F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Rain likely. Low 52F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%.

I would like to start by thanking everyone for the kind words of support and wishes of congratulations in my new role as the Chief of Police for the City of Vermillion. I am honored to be given the opportunity to serve the community I have called home for the past 26 years.

Part of my job as the chief of police is to provide a safe and adequate work environment for the officers and the public we serve. It is not a secret that our building is insufficient in so many ways. First of all, our staff has outgrown the space. The patrol lieutenant’s office was originally a second interview room or observation room. The office is extremely small, and when it is used as an office, we are left with only one interview room to share with the Clay County Sheriff’s Office.

There is no space for the investigative lieutenant to have their own office. The investigative lieutenant shares an office with two detectives. It is difficult for the investigative lieutenant to have private conversations with subordinates and other administrators without requiring the detectives to leave the office. There is very limited amount of storage in the police department and there is only one locker room, meaning males and females are not allowed to change at work unless they do so in the small bathrooms.

Another glaring issue is that the police department has only two exits that lead into the same hallway. There have been many times in the past, while I was a detective, that I had to walk a victim out of the police department past a suspect in the public hallway. Not having an alternate exit from building is a safety issue and a bad idea for so many reasons.

The building is also not very welcoming to the public. We do not have public restrooms for visitors to use and the doors do not have any automatic push-button openers to make them more accessible to people with wheelchairs or walkers. A couple weeks ago, I was exiting the building and held the door open for an elderly lady that was struggling to get out the door with her walker. She told me that she hoped our new building would have better doors for people like her. All I could say to her was, “Me too.”

I realize the new building project is costly, but Tony Gaskins once said, “Invest in yourself to the point that it makes someone else want to invest in you.” It is time for our community to invest in ourselves so others want to invest in our community. I am asking you to invest in our community by voting YES for the bond. Vote YES to support our local law enforcement.

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