WESTOVER — Police Chief Rick Pancio told Westover city council in the past two weeks his officers have responded to 510 calls, made 20 traffic stops and issued 13 citations from those stops.
He issued the report during the councils most recent meeting on Monday.
The city’s court has collected $6,800 in the past two weeks and radars that were recently bought for $700 each have now paid for themselves twice over, he said.
Security at Morgantown Mall has agreed to start following shoplifters to their car and taking down license plate numbers and that has already resulted in one arrest.
Council also gave Mayor Dave Johnson permission to begin working on finding contractors to build an annex for Westover Police.
“We just don’t have enough room,” Panico said.
He said people who’ve been arrested is the same area that residents make their complaints in and there is no privacy in the area. There are only two workstations that have to be shared by nine officers and the interview room was sound-proofed using blankets and wooden framing that the officers themselves purchased, Panico said.
The addition will be built on top of the most recent addition to the senior center and will possibly feature holding cells to reduce the amount of time officers spend across the river dropping prisoners off, Pancio said.
$100,000 has been set aside for the project and Johnson said that should be more than enough.
