A MESSAGE FROM CHIEF OF POLICE ROY RICE

Greetings! The 2022 year began with a new Command and Administrative structure With the retirement of Chief Ford, I served as Interim Chief of Police until March when I was appointed as the Chief of Police.

The challenges for the department were no different than the rest of the city as we were struggling to find personnel and equipment With the new Command came a new philosophy for the department We formed an Administrative Team and began working immediately on making changes with a shortage of personnel while concentrating on retaining the present staff

We added personnel to the Training/Recruiting to get more involvement and exposure to the community to bring interested people in. As these people applied, we streamlined the process and were conducting tests on a regular basis instead of occasional weekends The backgrounds were completed quicker, and people were being hired We finished the year with almost a full complement of people We were only short four officers and four dispatchers

There were new promotions and new assignments to fill areas the department had been neglected in for a while. New Sergeants were promoted and assigned to Patrol Teams, Investigations, and the Task Force. This brought attention to the shortage of people in the Investigations and Task Force, so officers were allowed to transfer to try a new area of work.

Although the year started with the normal calls for service of thefts, burglaries etc March began one of the most difficult years for the city in over a decade The first homicide was reported in March and before the last homicide for the year was reported, the city had eight homicides over the nine-month period The Sheriff’s Office worked one of the homicides since the first call was in the county and it was later determined the offense occurred inside the city limits.

As for the rest of the crime statistics, this information will be found in another section of this report but, in general there really wasn’t much difference from 2021. Reports of Sexual Assaults were up by four reports, Robbery had one more reported than last year, and Aggravated Assaults were down significantly by ninety-three reports Burglaries had thirty-three reports more than last year, Thefts were down by forty-one reports, and Motor Vehicle Thefts were down by eight reports Though non-injury crashes were down by one hundred -three reports, injury reported crashes were up by sixteen There were two fewer fatal crashes when compared to the previous year I want to thank the City Administration for its support in me as the Chief of Police and for the growth allowed within the Department. We have a professional group of men and women with vast amounts of experience to offer our citizens. Though we make errors from time to time, we try to learn from them. We really strive to make Clovis a safer place to live and play.

Thank you for allowing us to continue to serve this community