City looks at bringing back reserve police unit

The city of Glenwood is taking steps to bring back its reserve police force.

Glenwood Police Chief Eric Johansen said guidelines for the unit are still being established, but he envisions a reserve force of at least 10 volunteer  officers available to support and supplement the department’s regular full-time officers.

“The reserves would help maximize the number of officers on for any one shift,” Johansen said.

“They would also assist with crowd control, traffic enforcement and with special events.”

Reserve units are not new to law enforcement agencies in southwest Iowa, including the Mills County Sheriff’s Office and Glenwood Police Department, which last had a reserve force in the mid 1990s.

Johansen said he’s aware of reserve forces presently in place in Red Oak, Fremont County and Pottawattamie County.

Johansen said the reserve force would be comprised primarily of certified or previously-certified law enforcement officers. They would be required to undergo mandatory training and attend group meetings on a regular basis. According to the proposed standard operating procedures and guidelines presented to the Glenwood City Council at its regular meeting Tuesday, July 25, reserve

officers would not have the power or authority of sworn law enforcement officers on the force.

The reserve officers would work under the direction of the department’s regular full-time officers.

One of the department’s regular officers would serve as a training officer for the reserve force and conduct annual evaluations of each reserve officer’s performance. An annual review of the entire reserve unit would also be conducted to determine if any changes are needed in organization structure or personnel assignments.

Although the reserves would be a volunteer unit, officers would receive compensation for training hours and other special circumstances, still to be determined.

The creation of a reserve unit comes at a time when Glenwood PD is in the process of replacing some veteran officers who have left the department over the past several months, including Capt. Dirk Lincoln, who retired earlier this summer, Officer Rose Ives who accepted a position with the Iowa State Patrol and Officer Scott Burtch who left for another position.

Glenwood’s newest police officer - Jacob Spunaugle - was administered his oath of office last week by Mayor Brian Tackett.