A recently completed outside review of the Casper Police Department reveals morale is up. That’s following controversy that began last year when 30 women accused the department of mishandling their sexual assault cases.
The review, completed by the Center for Public Safety Management, makes 75 specific recommendations for changes at the Casper Police Department, including updating facilities and filling vacancies.
It also recommends more training for officers dealing with crimes like sexual assault, to ensure investigations are not compromised by inexperience.
Casper City Manager Carter Napier said the report does not say whether or not the department properly handled sexual cases in the past.
"If there were something that I would have preferred some additional detail on, that probably would be it," said Napier. "The report did address that and it certainly did address the unrest and that kind of thing. But it’s probably hard for a report of this nature to delve deep enough into those issues to offer substantive relief with regard to ideas and recommendations."
The department is currently in the process of hiring a new police chief, and Napier said it's good timing.
"I don’t think that report is the be-all, end-all, to what it is that the new chief will need to focus on, but I do think it gives a nice roadmap to things that could be looked at," said Napier. "And that’s a nice thing for a new leader of any department to have, so I really appreciate the timeliness."
Napier added while some recommendations will be easy to immediately implement, others will be more difficult to pursue financially, like updating facilities.
