Chief Riley's Three Initial Priorities

This is the third of three postings about Oro Valley's new police chief, Kara Riley.  Two weeks ago, we published background information about Riley. Last week, we discussed her relationship with our community, her reaction to becoming Chief, and her primary focus. This week we complete our discussion of Riley's areas of focus.
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Community Outreach
Chief Riley has three priorities as she assumes her new role as Chief of Police. Last week, we discussed one of these: Community Outreach. Riley wants the residents of our community to be comfortable with our police officers. Under Riley's leadership, we should expect to see a continuation and expansion of outreach programs.

Police Officer Welfare
One of Riley's goals is to focus on police officer wellness. “A healthy police officer physically and mentally serves our community better.” During our discussion, she observed that firefighters and police officers have one of the highest suicide rates in the nation.

Our research revealed that the suicide rate of officers is higher than that of the general public: "13 out of every 100,000 people die by suicide in the general population – that number increases to 17 out of 100,000 for police officers. During the 2018 calendar year, 167 law enforcement officers tragically took their own lives." (source)

Officers experience critical incidents throughout their careers. One study noted that that is about 188. It is no wonder that mental wellness is an issue for officers. They are, after all, human.

"We are starting to address this ‘head on'," Riley told us.  “We expanded our peer support programs. We are also making a regional peer support program."

Effectiveness on combating cyber crime...
The rise of the cyber world has created an entire new type of crime. Oro Valley residents have been victimized. “We are seeing an uptick in technology crime…well over 50-60% of the cases going to our criminal investigations unit involve some sort of technology crime....I’ve been to cases in our senior community where they have lost their entire inheritance” through cyber crime. “It’s such a tragedy.”

FBI Reports Cyber Crime On The Rise

One of Chief Riley's goals is to improve the town's ability to deal with these crimes. “We have one detective who is very technology proficient.” The problem is that all detectives have to work through this one person on their cases to do such things as downloading phones and sleuthing through internet addresses. “Those all require search warrants, subpoenas and all the technology things to solve these technology crimes.”

Riley also notes that "...a lot of property crimes are turning into cyber crimes."  Here's how it works. Someone steals something and then sells it on the web. One app they use is called "letgo." There are other sites like Craigs list.

A word to the wise: Make sure that you check for ownership when purchasing items on the web. Otherwise, you could be in receipt of stolen goods.

...and efficient in all they do
Chief Riley plans to focus the budget on getting the resources for our officers to get the training in this area. At the same time, she plans to look at all aspects of police operations to insure the efficient use of town funds.

“Got to have those hard discussions...making those tough choices on what is absolutely essential” in light of the total needs of the town. In our words: Chief Riley plans to be a good steward of our town's resources.
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