This week’s Town Council meeting opened with a status update from the Basalt Police Department (BPD) provided by Chief Greg Knott. He presented on some of the staffing and space strains the small department has been facing as the Basalt community continues to expand.
Currently, BPD operates with 14 staff members. Two patrol officer positions remain vacant, and the department’s only investigator is retiring in May. Despite positive relationships with its community, Chief Knott stated his department is experiencing challenges with hiring new staff to fill the gaps.
According to Chief Knott, the high cost of living in Basalt is the greatest challenge. Presently, staff members travel from as far as Silt and Rifle to serve the Basalt community. In addition, Chief Knott claimed there is a general declining interest in law enforcement careers — not just in Basalt, but nationwide — due to concerns over personal safety and public scrutiny. Larger agencies, both public and private, also pull away potential recruits with offers of better pay, more benefits and more opportunities to specialize.
Due to the size of the department, Chief Knott stated there are times when only one police officer is on the clock. “We rely heavily on our mutual aid with Pitkin County and Eagle County … but it does become a little bit of a strain on the officers,” he noted.
In addition, the department has seen a 21% increase in calls for service in the past five years. Chief Knott ascribed this to increased complexity in the nature of crime, naming computer crimes and AI scams, as well as increased traffic through Basalt year-by-year.
Chief Knott also stated that law enforcement is more often tasked with responsibilities outside its traditional role. “We look at mental health, we look at civil situations… We’re the ones that are out on the street, and so they call law enforcement,” he said. “It might not be [within] our ability to fix it, but they’re calling us, and we have to respond.”
The department is experiencing space limitations as well. Currently, BPD shares an office complex on Elk Run Drive with multiple businesses. The evidence locker is at maximum capacity, and space is running out for equipment storage. The current office has no interview room, conference room or private meeting room.
The department’s lack of secure holding spaces for juvenile and adult detainees means that, in the event of an arrest, officers need to transport the person being held directly from the scene of arrest all the way to Eagle. According to Chief Knott, an officer would ideally be able to return to the local station first and securely hold the detainee while paperwork is completed before what can be more than an hour-long drive to the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office.
A site concept plan has been drafted for new facilities along Highway 82 and Original Road on two Town-owned parcels. BPD would share this building with Public Works, which has been experiencing similar space constraints. However, contracts have yet to be signed, and over $18 million will be necessary to construct this hypothetical facility.
To meet some community needs now, BPD is starting a new program this week with the Pitkin Area Co-Responder Team (PACT) to deliver more services addressing mental health. Ordinarily, BPD coordinates with Aspen Hope Center to address mental health emergencies as they occur, but PACT will help provide outreach and follow-up services related to these incidents.
As the community grows, BPD needs more officers and administrative staff. Outreach and community trust will be paramount, both for effective policing now and to bolster the recruitment of new officers. Until then, BPD continues to seek input for how it can improve its services. “We need help from the community,” concluded Chief Knott. “We need help from Council and staff to help us understand what we could be doing and how we could be doing it better.”