ALLEN CO., Ind. (WANE) – A new, one- of- its- variety digital bike facility is underneath development at the Allen County Sheriff’s facility, one of some departmental tasks begun this yr, Sheriff David Gladieux stated.
Gladieux sat down with WANE 15 final week, trying again at the yr’s progress in upgrading services and expertise. 2022 is his final of eight years on the job.
Besides the EV bike facility, constructed with out the help of state or federal grants or any new county cash, Gladieux spoke of an improve to in-car laptop expertise, a new procedural guide reflecting the trendy world and the transformation of the division’s rifle vary right into a shared facility with the Fort Wayne Police Department, providing shut and lengthy vary rifle follow.
“We’ve had a very busy year, for sure,” Gladieux stated, talking at the division’s headquarters inside the Allen County Courthouse.
NEW EV BIKE FACILITY COMING
The thought for a bike training facility, estimated to price about $200,000, was developed after a neighborhood firm, Recon Power Bikes, approached the sheriff’s division and offered an indication. The want for bike patrols will develop as the state’s path system grows and connects with different counties and cities, Gladieux stated.
“You pedal on your patrol,” Gladieux defined, “but when you need to get someplace quick you possibly can go into the electrical mode and get there a lot faster. It’s not nearly pace, however the situation of the officer. By the time she or he will get there, in the event that they must pedal a fantastic distance, they’re going to be worn out.
Gladieux stated Allen County will be one in all the first departments with EV bikes and at the moment, there is no certification for the training.
“We’ve already piqued interest from several states away, all of them asking when is this facility going to get done,” Gladieux stated. “They’re excited about it. We’re excited about it.”
Upkeep will be paid via a reasonable price paying system, he added.
Jeff Fuze, president and proprietor of Recon Power Bikes on Ley Road, is the largest producer of the e-bikes for legislation enforcement in the U.S.. “There are miles and miles of trails (in Allen County) and nobody patrols them,” Fuze stated.
The new training facility “will be the first e-bike law enforcement training facility in the world,” Fuze added.
UPGRADED RIFLE RANGE
The division is about 75% achieved with its improve at the rifle vary, a joint challenge with the Fort Wayne Police Department.
Two years in the making, the new vary will function up-close capturing, capturing platforms and obstacles and extra vantage factors for officer training, together with a “fake wall with windows and doors and a simulated roof peak,” Gladieux stated.
Long vary rifle training between 200 and 400 ft away isn’t as sensible for legislation enforcement anymore, Gladieux stated. FWPD chipped in about $150,000.
Water movement at the facility was improved, however development was delayed due to the moist fall, Gladieux stated. He expects to cowl remaining prices with cash from the Allen County Jail commissary.
IN-CAR CAMERA SYSTEMS
With Allen County the largest in the state at 670 sq. miles, patrol officers have been challenged importing photographs and video to their in-car computer systems and then having to drive to 3 or 4 outposts to obtain the data.
The division just lately bought a new software program system created by Cradlepoint, a Boise-Idaho based mostly firm that’s developed cloud-based wi-fi networking tools offering an antenna and Wifi inside 300 ft radius.
“They no longer have to travel a great distance to do their offloading. It’s all done as soon as they put it in their cameras. It saves us an awful lot of time,” Gladieux stated.
The new system resembles the extra environment friendly system for filling up patrol automobiles with gasoline, Gladieux stated, one thing he modified throughout his first administration.
“We went to a fleet car type system with local gas stations,” as an alternative of three fuel stations in the county, Gladieux stated. “We don’t have any downtime, like when a car gets out of service and has to drive 25 miles to get gas.”
Sheriff’s deputies, generally referred to as Allen County police, work inside the metropolis as nicely, he added.
NEW PROCEDURE MANUAL
Procedures and insurance policies have been lengthy overdue for an replace, a few of them courting again 35 years in the past when Gladieux joined the division, he stated.
The Fort Wayne riots in May 2020 made Gladieux and his command employees rethink departmental insurance policies, he stated.
Although he agreed with the consequence of the George Floyd trial, different officers are sometimes charged unfairly, Gladieux stated.
“You get sued because of your training,” Gladieux stated. “Our policies and procedures needed to be enhanced and designed by a professional group.” Daigle Law Firm, based mostly in Connecticut, was employed and has been working with the division over the final yr and a half. So far prices have reached about $80,000 and have been paid out of the jail commissary fund.
“It’s not cheap, but well worth it,” Gladieux stated. Equipment was additionally upgraded. Gladieux stated the division’s tear fuel used throughout the May 2020 protests dated to the 70s, however, surprisingly, nonetheless labored.
THE ALLEN COUNTY JAIL
Gladieux expects to see the jail torn down inside the subsequent 5 years. Although he doesn’t see the sense of creating main upgrades to the constructing that sits downtown at the nook of Superior and Clinton streets, on prime riverfront improvement property, he believes a $1.2 million renovation of the surveillance system is essential to the constructing’s safety.
“We have cameras that aren’t working and haven’t been working in a long time,” Gladieux stated. Because the infrastructure is so previous, it’s not potential to interchange cameras with out changing the system.
The challenge is about 50% accomplished, he added.
The division will additionally work to rent 10 further confinement officers accepted by the Allen County Council, the physique governing county funds.
The variety of confinement officers has been stagnant at 135 for some time and 10 extra officers will get the division nearer to its purpose of 162, making safety higher for inmates and jail personnel.
Gladieux doesn’t foresee any adjustments to the medical service offered by Quality Correctional Care, a Carmel-based for-profit firm that gives medical employees and remedy. QCC handles this service for about 70 of the state’s 92 counties, he added.
The month-to-month jail meals price range of $19,000 is offered by the county council feeding a mean of 800 inmates each day, breaking the each day price all the way down to lower than a greenback a day for every inmate’s meals.
With a nutritionist on employees, inmates are offered their each day caloric wants, Gladieux stated.
The sheriff additionally lauded his employees for a system that prevented a break-out of COVID circumstances. Inmates have been put right into a two-week lock-up after being admitted to the jail, then moved to a quarantine block earlier than being moved into the common inhabitants, he stated.