Beatrice Police Chief gives 2021 report to Mayor, City Council

BEATRICE – The Chief of Beatrice Police presented his department’s final annual report under his leadership, to the Mayor and City Council Monday night.
"I appreciate again the opportunity to present you, thirty of these....and hopefully, the next guy will come in and present to you, thirty more."

Chief Bruce Lang plans to retire from his position as head of the department, in June.

The 2021 report of the police department covers various crimes and activities of department personnel. Lang says copies of the report will go to candidates for the police chief position, to give a demonstration of what the department does.  As for overall numbers the past year....."Covid has some of our numbers down a little bit. I'm pretty confident....not saying its a good thing....that those numbers over time will increase as the Covid restrictions work their way through....those kind of activities with the public will pick back up."

The pandemic also held up efforts to beef up addressing mental health training for officers.

A dramatic increase in 9-1-1 hang-up calls was recorded, but Lang says there’s no clear reason for that. It can be a combination of more cell phones and phone apps that may trigger such calls.  Lang says police answer all of them. He says it’s critical that police are thorough in making sure everyone is safe and each call is checked out.

Lang says the start of a police substation at Beatrice Community Hospital this past year has been, at times, difficult to fill. The department has used a combination of staffing options to handle that.  "We've hired some retired police officers that are still certified, with our uniform and under our color of authority. We also hire in some deputies...Gage County Deputies, Jefferson County, Saline County, that want to work overtime. Until we get that staffing resolved, we have our last person hired...so we're fully staffed today. Remember, when we're fully staffed, we're still a year away from being fully staffed (on duty)."

Feedback from the hospital about the substation, Lang says, has been positive.