Best of Siloam Springs

By Marc Hayot A llan Gilbert has served as chief of police for the city of Siloam Springs since Jan. 6, 2020 and is taking the time to look back on his career leading the city's police department. Gilbert served in the Tupelo (Miss.) Police De-partment as assistant po-lice chief when the city of Siloam Springs hired the him for the top spot. In the two years that Gilbert has served Siloam Springs he has formed numerous re- lationships with the com-munity, he said. A lot of headway has been made regarding community relationships, Gilbert said. e only challenge the chief has encountered has been the coronavirus "My first two years have been under covid," Gil-bert said. "In the last few months I've been able to get out and speak at churches and community meetings." Gilbert has also built relationships with other departments and the Ben- ton County Sheriff 's Office, he said. e police depart-ment was able to put a memorandum of under-standing (MOU) in place with the sheriff 's office giving the Siloam Springs Police Department juris- diction to go to City Lake Park and Siloam Springs Kayak Park, Gilbert said. e two parks are owned by the city of Siloam Springs so the police de-partment has jurisdiction there, but the roads to the parks are outside of the city limits and are the jurisdic-tion of the Benton County Sheriff 's Office, Gilbert said. e MOU gives the Siloam Springs Police De- partment jurisdiction on the roads that lead to the parks, Gilbert said. "We've had a lot of suc-cess and when covid lis we can do more," Gilbert said. "My family is hum-bled by the community support." Looking back In the two years that Gil-bert has been a part of the SSPD, he has restructured the command staff by add-ing two lieutenant slots and one sergeant slot, he said. Presently, Gilbert is not filling the deputy chief slot because he wants to have more officers on the street, he said. He has also renovated the building, re-accredited the department, added a motorcycle unit, transi-tioned handguns and long guns so all officers will be issued the same service weapons, and updated the training program, Gilbert said. Gilbert also leased 18 new vehicles and adjusted patrols so vehicles would not have be in use con-stantly, he said. Under the old system the average police car has 65,000 miles per year, said Captain Scott Miller. Under the new meth-od of patrolling those same vehicles now aver-age 24,000 miles per year, Miller said. "e vehicles were in bad shape because they ran 24/7," Gilbert said. "Now they run half the time so the vehicles last longer." e AWIN (Arkansas Wireless Information Net-work) was set up under Gilbert and new units to enhance service to the community have been created, he said. Probably the biggest victory for Gilbert was the implementation of a step plan which would place police officers under the rank of captain on a plan to get an annual raise. Under the step plan, non-certified police of-ficers start at $18.50 per hour, Gilbert said. When the officer completes his certification he will receive a three percent raise, Gil-bert said. Also if non-police city employees Police chief looks back on first two years in Siloam Springs 18 • Best of Siloam Springs Wednesday, November 9, 2022 Siloam Springs Herald-Leader Chief Allan Gilbert poses at his desk. The Siloam Springs Police Chief looked back on his two years of service and said he feels blessed to be where he is.

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