ELGIN, S.C. — The Elgin Police Department will soon have another police officer to help keep up with the growing demand for service.
Last week, the Town of Elgin approved their 2022-2023 budget. Included in the budget are funds for an additional police officer.
"We need it to continue to grow with the community," Elgin Police Chief Alan Anders said. "Every month, I do give our council our monthly stats, and I believe that helped them understand how busy and how much the town of Elgin is growing."
Those stats he provided showed how many calls they make, tickets that are written, as well as incident reports. Anders says he asked for around $70,000 to put towards the new officer's salary, benefits and equipment.
The town currently has six officers and this seventh will help out with their evening and nights, according to Anders. "The majority of our night shift, we have a single officer out, and we've kinda outgrown that service, and in order to continue to serve the growing community, I asked for an additional officer."
"If we have one officer out and we're getting multiple calls, then those calls have to pend which is not okay for us," Anders said. "We don't want them pending, we want to answer all our calls."
Anders said he wants to make sure they are continuing to take care of the community.
"It's important we continue to serve at the level we are serving now," Anders said. "Our response to our calls is a three-minute average annually, which is unbelievable in this day and time, and to continue that, we have to expand to where we have multiple officers out."
There is no official time for when the seventh officer will be hired.