Slow but steady progress is being made in clearing a backlog of
almost 1,000 cases and alleviating some of the workload in the
Hollister Police Department’s detective bureau a month after a new
sergeant was added, according to the police chief.
Hollister – Slow but steady progress is being made in clearing a backlog of almost 1,000 cases and alleviating some of the workload in the Hollister Police Department’s detective bureau a month after a new sergeant was added, according to the police chief.
However, the reality is that even with the extra help and more efficient organizational techniques created by Detective Sgt. James Weathers, keeping up with the new cases that come in every day is an ever-present challenge, said Hollister Police Chief Jeff Miller.
“The result is that they will still have very large case loads – at a minimum 30, 40, 60 cases, maybe more,” he said. “They can clear out the backlog, but new cases keep coming in… In the end, it may be we’re doing the best we can with what we’ve got.”
One of the most important things Weathers has done since he took over the bureau is take a solid look at case assignments, Miller said.
He’s been able to clear out some old cases, send others back to patrol to be closed out and prioritize detective Rudy Rodriguez and Tony Lamonica’s cases, Miller said.
Miller did not know the amount of old cases Weathers has been able to clear, but will compile those numbers sometime in the future, he said.
“Usually we give him a few months to get his hands on things,” Miller said. “But (Weathers) jumped in with both feet and has picked up some investigations and has been handling a lot of different things.”
Now that the bureau has a full-time sergeant working, Weathers is also able to go out and do actual detective work, he said. The bureau was restricted before because the previous sergeant was on light-duty and was not able to work on cases outside the department, Miller said.
Having the extra body in the department to accomplish portions of investigations that weren’t getting done before has been a great help, Detective Rodriguez said.
Weathers has been able to differentiate which cases need immediate attention and which can be “put on the back burner,” Rodriguez said.
“The pile needed to be gone through, evaluated and sorted, and he’s done that,” he said. “Quite expediently, too.”
Weathers has been supervising several Volunteers in Policing to take care of some of the paperwork that previously took the detectives away from their investigations, Miller said.
He is also the supervisor in charge of the department’s gang team and has been able to better coordinate responses on gang-related crime, he said.
“For me the most noticeable change is that we now have the ability for a sergeant to get more hands on, get involved and go out and do more things,” Miller said. “With that, there’s fresh eyes in the system, the back log breaks free and things are better prioritized… I’m glad he’s in there.”
