Journalism / Few Words with the Chief

A Gravel Ridge resident quipped that one recent evening while driving into Gravel Ridge he thought he was driving into a carnival. A bit puzzled by the statement I asked what he meant. I’ve never seen so many flashing lights before, he laughingly said.  When I related this story to Sherwood Police Chief Kel Nicholson recently, he too found a bit of humor in the statement. However, he was also quick to add that  the Sherwood Police Department receives no funding or any other incentive to write tickets. “All income the city derives from tickets goes to the courts and not to the police department,” Chief Nicholson said.
     “In the Gravel Ridge area of Sherwood, we are going to be more proactive in writing citations during this annexation period. We are trying to give as many warnings as possible, particularly with minor offenses, but there are a lot of accidents, lots of rear-enders associated with people cutting in and out of traffic and not properly merging coming in to the area. There is a city ordinance that prohibits cutting through parking lots to gain access or to avoid stop lights and signs. We’re going to hit that hard as well as speeding offenses. We’ve had very few complaints about the work we are doing there. In fact we’ve had quite a few compliments and received some very nice calls from folks there.” Chief Nicholson said.
     The 2008 budget allowed for the department to hire six new officers and to fill the 3 vacant positions at the time. Chief Nicholson reports that  five new officers have been hired and should be certified and on the streets in the next few weeks. There are still four positions to fill and the Chief says although he would like to hire experienced officers, he would also like to include some new officers to train.
     Chief Nicholson would also like to ask the business community to please take time and double check that your doors are locked before leaving for the evening.
      For citizens, if you are going on vacation, call the department at 834-1425 and an officer will make periodic checks on your property. Be sure and let them know if there are any dogs on the property so that they make take precautions. ’breaking and entering’. There is a good reason why you see a Sherwood Police car everywhere you go, visibility inhibits criminal activity. If you see something that you believe is suspicious, call 835-1425 and report it. When a crime occurs in our community, we are all victims.

You need to log in to urbis or create an urbis account to review this writing.