Best of Siloam Springs

receive a five percent raise, the police will also receive a five per-cent raise, Gilbert said. If city staff receives a smaller raise, the officers will still get their annual three percent raise regardless, Gilbert said. Looking forward Gilbert said he is far from finished with upgrading the department. e chief wants to purchase load bearing vests, which will help officers as they carry their gear, he said. Officers carry a lot of weight on their hips so the load bearing vests will put more of the weight on the officer's shoulders by connecting their equipment belt to the vest, he said. "Police aren't super he-roes," Gilbert said. "We're more like Batman with tools on our tool belt." Other purchases the police chief wants to make are body cameras for patrol officers as well as a multi-purpose building and big-ger parking lot, Gilbert said. Presently, SSPD has two body cameras which are being used by the motor-cycle unit which consists of two officers, Gilbert said. A major change Gilbert wants to make is to refit the jail and turn it into a temporary holding facility as well as purchasing a van to transport prisoners to Benton County Jail, he said. "When an officer makes the arrest he is out of pocket (off of patrol) for two hours to get to Benton County for processing," Gilbert said. "I want to start using the jail as a holding facility and do a transport once every five hours." Gilbert said in order to meet these goals it would take the continuation of the one-cent sales tax to be split between the city and emergency services departments like police and fire. Under the current split for the one- cent sales tax 20 percent goes to the city's general fund, 40 percent is equally split between the police and fire depart-ments and 40 percent is relegated to the streets department. With the split, the po-lice department receives revenue from the tax and doesn't have to compete with other city depart- ments for a share of the general fund, Gilbert said. "If we didn't have the (one-cent sales tax) I am not sure we would have made the strides we did in my tenure," Gilbert said. Biggest difference Gilbert said the biggest difference between Siloam Springs and Tupelo is the volume of calls. When he worked in Tupelo he would receive approximately 300 calls per day, Gilbert said. e population of Tu-pelo was 38,271 as of 2019, according to the United States Census Bureau. Siloam Springs' population in 2019 was 16,715, the Census Bureau states. "ere's a lot of people you never get to meet in Tupelo," Gilbert said. e chief said policing is more hands on in Siloam Springs than in Tupelo and can have the oppor-tunity to meet everybody here. Gilbert said Tupelo was very good to him, but doesn't regret the move to Siloam Springs. Gilbert feels the future is very bright and that he has worked hard at rebuilding the police department's command structure. While Gilbert does not have any plans to leave, he feels the department has people in place who can step into Gilbert's role when the time comes, he said. A lot of good things were here already Gilbert said. With transformational leadership as his style of leading, Gilbert said he wants to prepare his offi-cers to advance further and not hire from the outside. Gilbert said he already hosted advanced training in Siloam Springs, specifi-cally the FBI's LEEDA (Law Enforcement Executive Development Association) Training. Training was held from May 2-6 and had approxi-mately 37 officers signed up from in and out of the state of Arkansas, Gilbert said. "So far I have had a truly blessed career," Gilbert said. "I want to thank everyone for their support and hope to continue our relationships and have the best police department possible." i want to thank everyone for their support and hope to continue our relationships and have the best police department possible. Siloam Springs Herald-Leader Wednesday, November 9, 2022 Best of Siloam Springs • 19 Speckled pup center 470 W. Tulsa • Siloam Springs • 479-524-8141 • GROOMING • BOARDING • DOGGIE DAYCARE Boutique Items and Quality Dog Foods Thanks for voting for us! Best Pet store/ Pet GroominG

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