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EAST LIVERPOOL -- The East Liverpool Police Department as of Jan. 9 had 13 full-time officers counting Chief John Lane. The department has no part-time officers and no K9s.
There were four officers hired in 2023. Two more officers were hired this year on Jan. 9 and Jan. 22.
"We are definitely short and every time you hire you're just taking from another department," Lane said. "I was at 22 (officers). I don't ever see us getting back there. It takes 15 (officers) just to fill the schedule, then you put in a school resource officer, that's 16, and somebody at the task force, which would be 17, but those are extras."
Lane said the department needs 15 officers, which includes a chief, a detective and four captains.
The new hires get the department closer to where they need to be, but again the chief noted that it's taken from other departments which is resulting in a bidding war and causing the rates of pay to increase because they can't get people to work.
The department does not currently have anybody on the task force due to not having enough officers available to put one there. Lane said he is trying to figure something out to get an officer on the task force.
"When you don't have anybody at the task force you are not dealing with the drugs like you should," Lane said. "It's hard to handle complaints when someone is selling. You can't do it if you don't have someone at the task force that does the investigation. You can't do that type of investigation while you are handling calls, it just doesn't work."
Overdoses and drug related calls are down for the department this year compared to last year. In 2023, the department responded to 45 overdoses and 68 calls for drug activity, lower than the 58 overdoses and 93 calls for drug activity in 2022.
Lane believes not having someone on the task force could be attributing to the lower numbers or at least hindering the city's efforts to combat drugs.
"The sheriff's office has helped us as much as they can but it's hard without someone on the task force," Lane said. "We are getting close. I think we can probably get someone there this year at point."
Lane noted, the department has the budget to hire additional officers, the problem lies in finding qualified people to fill the spots.
One of the biggest challenges for the chief has been filling the schedule. Lane said filling holes in the schedule is manageable if someone goes on vacation. But when someone gets sick or injured then there is a problem filling the holes.
Lane also attributes the availability of Narcan to the decreased calls for overdoses.
"I think a lot of it is they Narcan themselves or their friends," Lane said.
While calls for drug activity and overdoses were down last year, they remained close to the top reason police responded. In 2023, officers responded to 7,572 calls, 406 calls less than 2022.
Of those calls responded to, the 271 calls for welfare checks, 213 for juvenile complaints, 174 for domestic, 159 for theft, and the 105 calls for fights were what police received the most call outs for.
Theft calls were down in 2023, while juvenile calls increased and domestic stayed about the same.
Officers also responded to 77 mental health calls, 66 accident calls, 39 drug activity calls, 45 drug overdose calls and 32 code 10 calls and six OVI arrests.
Drug overdoses and drug activity calls and OVI arrests were down while mental health calls stayed about the same.
Mutual aid calls increased from 27 in 2022 to 32 in 2023.
Incident documentation calls saw a huge increase in 2023 with 1,224 while in 2022 there were 748.
Officers made 251 traffic stops in 2023 which is down from the 426 made in 2022
Total arrest made in 2023 was 402, 66 less than in 2022.
"We have had some nice arrests," Lane said. "It's hard to do anything with just two guys on the shift. It's very difficult to be proactive when we are that shorthanded. "
Lane noted that when an officer makes an arrest and has to take a subject to jail or the hospital and stay with them, it leaves one less officer on the street. When they make an arrest and take someone to the County Jail that ties the officer up for at least an hour.
Lane noted that the department is still feeling a negative impact from the court being moved out of East Liverpool. Now when an officer has to go to court they are gone for approximately four hours where before they simply had to go right upstairs from the police department.
"Moving the court didn't help us at all, but it won't ever come back now," Lane said
"We are low on numbers, but i got a good group. The guys are doing good," Lane said. "I think as we start getting numbers we will start getting into where we they can be more proactive. I think we will do a good job with what needs to be done here."
Lane noted that he thinks the current administration looks positive and will work with the department to move forward and head in a positive direction that will help fix the community for the residents.