Police commission discusses adding detective position

By Neal Hogden

The Colby-Abbotsford Police Commission heard a pitch from Police Chief Alex Bowman to create a detective position within the department at the commission’s meeting on Monday, May 13.

Bowman said the department has been busy with more in-depth calls as of late and could use a dedicated position for investigations.

He said one of the benefits to adding this position would be the increased knowledge this person would gain from training as a detective. He said the of- ficer would be sent to special trainings in which they would be more informed about how to go about investigations and the search warrant process.

“I’m not looking to add an additional officer," Bowman assured. "I just want ed to discuss it and see what everyone’s thoughts were." Bowman said the position would not come with a pay increase for the current patrol officer that is selected for the po sition at this time. He also said the department has enough patrol coverage with officers Noemi Fuentes and Kaden Goodwin starting, that they could take an officer off the patrol rotation to put into a detective role. Both the Abbotsford and Colby representatives on the commission were for creating the position. The commission agreed to talk to their respective city councils about the proposal and get back to Bowman. The commission also asked Bowman to check with the union about policies it might have in place for interdepartmental promotions and the proper protocols for hiring the new position. An update will be given at the commission’s June meeting regarding that information.

Other business

n Bowman said in his chief’s report that the department has seen over 1,000 more calls than in 2023 through the first few weeks of May.

n K9 Hemi and K9 officer Eric En glish introduced themselves to the commission. Hemi is a one-year-old Dutch Shepherd from Holland who is trained in heroin, marijuana, methamphetamine, MDMA and fentanyl.

Hemi is also trained as a bite K9 which would be used in various dangerous situations. English said Clark County does not have a bite dog so Hemi will get called to Clark County bite requests.

English and Hemi meet with a group of K9 officers twice a month in Wausau for training.