Speedway Police Commission August Meeting Notes

(posted Aug 15)

The Speedway Police Commission was informed of several letters of commendation given to officers in the last month involving the arrests of several felony suspects.

Assistant Chief Joel Rush and Captains Chuck Upchurch and Alan Jones attended the monthly meeting on August 13.

In the first week of August Speedway officers made arrests for a series of robberies in International Village and stabbing and shooting incidents in Hermitage Apartments. Lt Dennis Anderson and officers Joe Kramer, Michael Hart, Matt Turpin and Charles Ezell received letters for their arrests in International Village. Sgt Trent Theobald and officers Mike Clupper, Mike Hill, Jennifer Schriver and Chris Ristuccia were cited for arrests in the Hermitage crimes. Head dispatcher Sarah Edie was cited for exemplary performance during the Brickyard 400.

The department sent one of their dispatchers to MECA to handle the fire and EMS runs for the town in order to alleviate overcrowding in Speedway's dispatch office. A normal shift would be staffed with two dispatchers, but during race weekends the increased amount of radio traffic and phone calls requires two dispatchers to handle just the police functions.

The department also issued letters of reprimand to three officers for exceeding the newly lowered 190 gallon per month gas allowance per vehicle. Chief Dine lowered the amount of fuel each officer is allowed in their take home cars in response to the sharp increase in gas prices. The department does not have a standardized method of calculating fuel consumption in real time and only gets the reports after monthly tallies are completed. One officer was cited for running his patrol car out of gas while working a part time job.

Town councilor Dean Farmer volunteered the use of gas and expense logs he provides for his clients to help officers track their gas consumption more efficiently.

Asst. Chief Rush reported that the department was following up on Chief Dine's efforts to institute a school resource officer program with the Speedway school system. Federal grant money is available, but the deadline to apply for funding for this year has passed, so the department will try again next year.

Rush also mentioned that the department is looking into providing part time staffing at the storefront office in the Speedway Super Center. Currently the department does not have the budget to keep a staff member in that office. Rush advised he is not adverse to using volunteers, but that asking them to work 8 hour shifts greatly limits the possible candidate pool.

Rush mentioned the National Night Out turnout in Leonard Park last week was a huge success and wanted the commission to know that the IMS, Kroger, Coke, Marsh, Target and Sam's Club all made donations that made the hot dog cookout possible.

The next meeting will be September 10 at 10:30 am in the Town Hall.