The following article was acquired from the Daily Herald website and was written by Genelle Pugmire.
Orem City Council hears outside assessment on fire, police department needs
In 2019, Orem Police Chief Gary Giles and Fire Chief Scott Gurney noted that many of the city departments had master plans. They approached the city and said it was time the city’s public safety departments had one too.
On Tuesday, the Orem City Council received detailed analysis of both departments through professional Operations Assessments by Citygate Associates LLC.
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When Chief Josh Adams took over the Police Department in November, the preliminary draft of the assessment had already been received by the department. Since that time, Adams has been able to address a portion of the issues in the assessment.
“Momentum is rolling in the right direction,” Adams said. Meaning, they are happy to have the assessment and are tackling what they can.
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In all, Citygate had 30 recommendations for the police department, some of which have already been implemented.
One of the key factors also was training in areas such as bias. The department is very young with the average officer having been on the force five years or less.
“We are thrilled with the recommendations for the future as well as long-term strategies,” Adams said. “Officer development is key now more than ever. We see bringing in more civilian help with our mental health unit.”
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[Citygate representatives Gary] Elliott and [Stewart] Gary told the city council the next steps are to absorb the entire summary assessment, adopt revised responses and direct the departments to implement what they can and plan for the future.
City manager Jamie Davidson said he was pleased with the assessments and said he believes the city can incrementally grow and improve.
“It is reassuring we have capacity to do this,” Davidson said.
Gary said Citygate did not find either agency broken or in ill repair. It recommended the council be mindful of financial needs and to budget accordingly and not just go for the current hot item.