At the start of each year, Evesham’s township manager challenges the leaders of the police department to create goals for the organization on how the department can better itself and provide better service to the community for the year.
As Evesham continues to grow in terms of population and the construction of new residences and businesses, Police Chief Christopher Chew believes this year the department should grow as well.
“People are coming in to our community because it’s the safest community,” Chew said.
To back up his call for growth, Chew used the most recent meeting of the Evesham Township Council to give a presentation exploring the growth in the number of police activities over the past five years versus the number of officers employed by the department. Chew defines police activities as everything the department does within a year, from answering calls, to car stops, to even the department’s community outreach programs.
According to Chew, in 2010 the department handled 63,328 activities, but by 2015 the number had grown to 94,293. Chew said that growth equated to a 48 percent increase in demand for police personnel, but even the noted increase was a “low number” because it did not factor in what the department does internally or when a call might need to involve multiple people.
“I want to say that number is probably 20 percent higher,” Chew said.
While the number of police activities has grown over the past five years, the number of police officers has not.
Chew said in 2010 the department was at an all-time high of 76 officers, which then fell to 70 officers in 2011, then rose to 72 officers in 2012, fell again to 68 officers for 2013 and 2014, before finally rising again to 73 officers in 2015. However, Chew did say due to the work of Evesham’s elected officials, the decrease in officers during the economic downturn did not stem from the department laying-off any officers.
“A lot of police departments in the area did,” Chew said. “Through their (council’s) forward thinking and through attrition, we slowly reduced our rank structure.”
As for why Evesham’s 73 officers had to deal with 94,293 activities in 2015, as opposed to the 76 officers who dealt with 63,328 activities in 2010, Chew said there were several factors for the increase. Chew said the number of mental health calls had increased during that span, which usually involves two to four officers needing to transport someone to a medical facility.
Chew also said the increase of cameras in police cars and cameras worn on officers’ bodies had increased time spent making copies of videos and copies of reports to be sent to attorneys and citizens.
He also noted there has been an increase in firearms applications, as well as new time-consuming initiatives by the department such as community outreach programs, the police explorer program and most recently the presence of police in Evesham schools.
“As you can see, there’s a disparity in the calls for service and the amount of officers we have,” Chew said.
