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More Police Officers Sought for Wheeling

Chief Says Department Not at Full Capacity

File Photo Officers in the Wheeling Police Department work the scene of a shooting.

WHEELING — An effort is being made to explore increasing police staffing levels in Wheeling, where the police chief says the department does a great job being “reactive” to reports of crimes but would serve the city even better if more “proactive” police work could be done.

Some city leaders in Wheeling have contended that more patrols on the streets are what is needed to best keep crime in check.

On at least two occasions over the past month, Wheeling Councilman Ben Seidler has publicly noted that there has been a noticeable uptick in criminal activity in areas of the city.

The councilman has called for a need to put more boots on the street by the men and women in blue.

Earlier this month, Seidler said his constituents have noticed an increase in everything from vandalism to illegal drug activity, physical violence, thefts, hit-and-run traffic incidents and an arson fire at a house on Wheeling Island.

According to the department’s crime analyst, Wheeling Police announced last week that officers responded to a total of 230 drug overdoses in 2020 alone – the highest yearly total in at least the last five years.

“I would just like to ask the city manager to the extent possible if you’d be able to reach out and research increasing the levels of service through officer staffing levels, available technology and obviously the costs associated with those items for discussion during our next Public Safety Committee meeting,” Seidler said.

Staffing of the police department is not only contingent on available funding, but also hinges on many other factors, such as hiring incentives and benefits and training of applicants.

Neither the COVID-19 pandemic nor the shifting attitudes about policing in the wake of social justice movements have helped law enforcement agencies move forward with training and recruitment of new officers.

In Wheeling, the police department has struggled to keep open positions filled on the roster it already has in place. Earlier last year before the coronavirus pandemic hit, the Wheeling Police Department was actively recruiting new officers to fill voids on its force.

Wheeling Police Chief Shawn Schwertfeger said there are 73 positions for sworn officers in the department today. Currently, 71 officers are on the force, but eight of them are in various stages of training, which has been slowed over the past 10 months because of the pandemic.

“That’s half a shift waiting to go through the academy,” Schwertfeger said, noting that with two additional positions still vacant, that leaves the department short of a total of 10 active duty officers. “We’re not even at full capacity.”

Schwertfeger explained that the number of ranking members on the police force is established by city council, and the city manager can adjust the number within those parameters. The number of “PO1” or patrol officers on staff is not specifically When Schwertfeger relocated to Wheeling from Virginia, there were more police positions on the force, including more positions for ranking officers.

“There were 20 sergeants when I started, which is insane,” he said, noting that the number of sergeants has been reduced to 15 today. However, there were a total of 83 sworn positions back then.

“I was very vocal about this in 2014,” Schwertfeger said, noting he was against a city staffing cut in the department by about 10 sworn officers. Currently they are down another 10 with the shortfalls from vacancies and officers presently in training. “We can’t fill an interdiction team, a traffic unit or a neighborhood recon unit to do stakeouts or surveillance or things like that. We just can’t do all of that.

“We’re doing great work, but we can also do better,” he added. “We could be a lot more proactive, but we are very much reactive.”

With two vacancies and eight officers in training on a force that was reduced by about 10 positions in 2014, Schwertfeger noted that the 63 active duty officers on the force today is 20 fewer than the previous roster totals.

There are incentives for incoming officers, and the city continues to look at ways to bring more officers on board.

For officers that have already been certified and are looking to relocate from other jurisdictions, a $5,000 bonus is offered, including to certified officers from within West Virginia and from out of state. The chief said the bonus is offered because those experienced officers can hit the ground running as opposed to entering months of going through the required training procedures.

“I wish we could find out what our police department could look like with a full complement of officers,” Wheeling Councilman Dave Palmer said.

He added that the city has continued and will continue to back the department financially, including with the ongoing work to provide a much larger police department headquarters on the campus of the former Ohio Valley Medical Center.

“We’re looking at recruitment and retention,” Palmer said, “because we recognize that with the current state of our society, these positions are difficult to fill.”

Palmer said the city needs to work together to find ways to fill current vacancies before exploring ways to expand staffing by adding more positions.

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