Police reserve officers introduced at council meeting
Madison Police Chief Larry Muncey welcomes Curtis Potts to the Madison Police Department as a reserve officer. (RECORD PHOTO/ALDO AMATO)
By Aldo Amato
Staff Reporter
MADISON — Chief Larry Muncey introduced members of the brand new police reserves corps at the April 22 city council meeting.
Curtis Potts, Jim Roberts and Brock Prescott work SAIC in Huntsville and will now devote 20 hours a month to protecting and assisting Madison residents.
“We are real excited to have this program in place,” Muncey said. “It was about 18 months in the works and a ton of organizing but to have these three exceptional officers devote their time to the city, it’s wonderful.”
Muncey said all of the officers have already been commissioned and have been on assignment for over a month.
The costs for providing a reserve officer program can be steep. It costs around $3,000 to outfit each officer. That is where local companies stepped in to help ease some of the financial burdens.
“We got a $2,500 donation from Colsa, $1,500 from SAIC, $500 from the Madison Rotary Club and $1,500 from a private donor,” Muncey said.”But each of the officers that we introduced purchased their uniform and gear all with their own money. Our hope is to raise enough funds to have about 15 reserve officers.”
Muncey said the process of becoming a reserve officer starts with emailing Capt. John Stringer at the Madison Police Department. The applicant will go through a background check and interview that will last around a month before being sent to an academy if selected. Each officer is equipped with a firearm and is certified to use them however each officer is not allowed to work on their own accord and must be in the presence of a full-time Madison Police officer.
Though Muncey did not have an exact number, he said with the three new volunteer officers, the city is in to save quite a bit of money.
Muncey was also in attendance to request a matching fund for new bulletproof vests.
“Each vest needs to be replaced annually because they naturally wear down with oils from the body,” he said. “The costs will run around $6,000 and the city will pay 50 percent of that.”
In other business, the old Fire Station No. 2 is still not sold and Councilman Holcombe said he received 15 applications for the Madison City Schools Board.
“I’m excited,” Holcombe said. “This is the most applications I’ve seen since I have been on the city council and we have a ton of great applicants.”
