In May 2022, former Mayor Eddie Sundquist announced plans to create a gun violence unit by hiring three new police officers to be paid for with American Rescue Plan Act money.

The announcement came at a time when the city had seen seven shootings and seized 25 guns in the first five months of 2022. The year finished with the most shootings in Jamestown (24) since 2022, the most shootings involving injuries or death (8) since 2016, the number of people injured (8) since 2016 and its two people killed was one fewer than 2016.

Gunshot complaint calls for service (154) were by far the most the city had seen since 2017 and firearms cases (89) were a 21-report increase from 2021 and 30 more than 2017. Firearm seizures (80) were 14 more than the previous recent high of 66 in 2018 while weapons law offenses (108) were 31 more than 2021, which has been the prior five year high.

It seemed clear that a gun violence unit was necessary on that sunny May day back in 2022.

But, the officers were never hired. Earlier this week, Mayor Kim Ecklund told council members the police department wanted to repurpose the ARPA money set aside for the gun violence unit to instead pay for a new shooting training range for the Jamestown Police Department.

“As the comptroller explained, there was money allocated to the police department for hiring three additional police officers which they have not been able to do,” said councilman Brent Sheldon, R-Ward 1 and Finance Committee chairman. “They’re giving back some of their money at a cost of $500,000, so the cost of doing this will come from that.”

WHAT HAPPENED?

Gun violence has continued to be a thorn in the city’s side over the past two years. Shootings declined to 15 in 2023 while the number of shootings involving injuries or death dropped to 5, the number of victims injured decreased to 4 and only one person was killed in a shooting. Gunshot calls for complaints also dropped to a six-year low of 81. Those decreases marked a return to 2020 levels of shootings. The number of deaths decreased by 3 from 2022 to 2023, but the five deaths in 2023 were still the most in the city since 2016 excluding 2022. The same is true of the number of victims injured.

Those decreases were counterbalanced with the fact firearms seizures decreased by only four from 2022 levels (76) while weapons law offenses also only decreased by four (107) from 2022 levels. The 2023 weapons law offenses would have been by far the most in the city since 2018 if 2022 was excluded.

So what happened to the gun violence unit?

A simple lack of interested officers, according to Mayor Kim Ecklund.

That difficulty isn’t hard to corroborate. A nuisance officer position the city created around the same time took months to fill. After being told in May 2022 that there was a long list of civil service applicants in line for a position at the city police department, Sundquist’s tune had changed by September 2022 when he was asked about the position during a public safety forum about the nuisance officer position as well as the other ARPA-funded officers.

“So if you have friends, family members, kids that want to come back to Jamestown and work for our police department I’ve got a spot for them,” Sundquist said during the forum.

City officials had planned to use the ARPA funding to pay for the officers at first and then to pursue additional grant funding to keep the gun violence unit working once the ARPA funding ran out. The search for secondary funding was never necessary because the city couldn’t attract new officers in the first place.

SHOOTING RANGE APPROVED

A new range at the Jamestown Police Department has been a longstanding capital request in the department’s capital budget requests. During Monday’s City Council work session, Councilman Jeff Russell, R-At Large and council Public Safety Committee chairman, joked that the range has been in rough shape since he and fellow Councilman Bill Reynolds, R-Ward 5, were on the force. Both have been retired for years.

“For those that don’t know, that range is in horrible shape,” Russell said. “It’s been that way for decades. It’s barely usable. … It’s bad. As most people in the business of law enforcement know, in real life situations you’re going to react the way you train. You have to have the right equipment to do that training. It’s long overdue that the range gets fixed and obviously, like Brent said, this money is coming from unused funding from the police department for a few positions. And, the chief also brought up some vehicles that were not purchased.”

Council members are also being asked to approve $385,000 for a new shooting range in the Jamestown Police Department. The proposal includes demolishing the current range, which includes the shooting stalls, target retrievers, overhead baffles, bullet trap and soundproofing. In its place will be a four-lane, 15-yard indoor range that includes a pilot turning wireless retriever, SmartRange Axis with range controls, defender series shooting stall, training of range staff, installation and other improvements.

The new shooting range was approved by both the Public Safety and the Finance committees and will be up for vote by the full council on Monday. But, Russell wants to make sure the price quote received by Jackson is still accurate.

“I asked him if he could provide us exact numbers because the numbers that were provided were from April and they were only good for 30 days,” Russell said. “I’m assuming it’s going to be more than this amount. I think he’s already made a phone call to the company today to get more up-to-date numbers from April.”