Charles City Police Department adapts to ever-changing job demands

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

Hugh Anderson has seen a lot in his 25 years with the Charles City Police Department.

He has been a full-time member of the CCPD since 1994 and took over as police chief in June of 2015. During that quarter century of police work he has seen many changes come about in his profession.

“We have a really good group of guys and we’re hoping to keep that going,” said Anderson.

Anderson said his police force currently employs 14 full-time officers, including him. The most recent addition is Officer Brandon Fairholm, who will be officially sworn in at the next regular City Council meeting Monday, Feb. 3.

Officer Jordan Smith was hired last December. Anderson said he is looking to bring one more full-time officer onto the force in the future.

Fairholm and Smith helped replace Bryce Billharz, who left to become an Iowa State trooper. Jason Flores and Nate Cork were the other officers Anderson has had to replace.

Anderson said half of his department has been on the force for over a decade, but he is also having to deal with high turnover. It’s a national trend that Charles City is not immune to. Anderson said recent national statistics have shown the average time an officers stays on the force is from one to three years.

“It makes it more difficult for us as a department and as a law enforcement family because officers have to fill in. They have to work more hours. They don’t get as much time off,” said Anderson. “The job takes a lot of training. A lot of it’s on-the-job training, so the longer you’re here, the more you know.”

One officer who will reach a milestone in April is Captain Brandon Franke. That date will mark 20 years he’s worked for the department.

Franke looked back on another year of serving and protecting the streets of Charles City.

“I think overall it was a good year,” Franke said. “We stay busy. We do good work on our cases. We build the case, get the arrest if it’s there and needed.

“We’ve had some changes in personnel – getting some new guys on. They’ve all been doing very well for us,” he said.

Earlier this month, the department’s K-9 narcotics dog, Jordy, was sold to a kennel and no longer works on the force. Anderson said Jordy had been involved in two incidents that prompted the Police Department to give up the animal.

Anderson is looking to work with the kennel to train another animal to get the K-9 unit back on its feet. Anderson said the K-9 unit has been in operation for around 10 years and drug arrests increased when Jordy was on the beat.

“Jordy did an incredible job for us when he was on the streets working and ended up with quite a few arrests that we’re still prosecuting and going through those. It’s a very useful tool for a department,” said Anderson. “The biggest thing has probably been the deterrent. A lot of the officers have heard on the street that they (suspects) don’t want the dog called to their traffic stop. They’re hoping that the dog’s not on duty.”

As far as investigations in 2019 that led to arrests, there were 61 investigations for possession of a controlled substance that produced 32 arrests.

The CCPD reported 24 arrests for OWI (operating while intoxicated) and 16 for public intoxication during the calendar year.

Anderson said there were 53 investigations into assaults that ranged anywhere from simple assault, domestic incidents to felony charges. He said the highest number of assault cases involved domestic assault.

“I don’t think it’s high for a city our size,” said Anderson. “We would obviously like to see the number down.”

Anderson and his officers have seen an uptick in the number of harassment cases and instances of fraud being reported in the last decade.

“Probably the biggest change we see is social media, because we deal with so much more harassment. We deal with so many scams,” said Anderson, referring to internet applications such as Facebook, Instagram and others.

The CCPD worked on 15 burglary investigations and 79 theft cases in 2019. Theft investigations can range from calls for service for stolen vehicles, property taken from persons or from a building without the owner’s consent.

The police chief said National Night Out and the bike rodeo in town were once again successful undertakings to get the community involved and interacting with officers.

“We really hope to see more interest this next year in a Citizen’s Police Academy, because this year we ended up canceling ours because we just did not have enough interest,” said Anderson.