CASPER, Wyo —After a month of nationwide protests and calls for police reform legislation passing all the way through the U.S. House of Representatives, Evansville Police Chief Mike Thompson has already made a departmental shift aimed at giving the town’s citizens “a more personable” relationship with the police department.
Brandy Nestor is the department’s new community service officer. Nestor and Thompson met with Oil City News July 3 to discuss the new position. In additional to code enforcement, she’ll also be handling animal control. Nestor was a veterinary technician in Jackson for the last 3 years, before which she was a zookeeper at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and at White Oak Conservation Center in Florida. After handling lions, cheetahs and zebras, she’s more than confident she could trap a raccoon.
“The code enforcement stuff is new to me, but I’m learning it. It’s interesting. A lot of it to me is common sense.” Nestor said.
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Thompson said Nestor’s experience with animals was what put her over the top with the hiring committee, which interviewed 14 of the 72 total applicants for the position.
Thompson, who took over as Chief at the beginning of 2019, said the municipality has not had its own animal control unit in 30 years. Metro Animal Control in Casper had handled the task, but Thompson said response time was intermittent and services billed could sometimes run $5,000 a month. He said the new position would save Evansville’s tax dollars from that standpoint alone.
Now animals picked up by animal control will be boarded in a facility in Mills, and unclaimed animals will go to The Human Society when there are openings.
Thompson also said he and the Evansville Town Council had heard consistent complaints about rampant weeds, derelict vehicles, animals at-large, and fire hazards, and that officers were having a hard time keeping up. “[When emergent calls come in], it’s very difficult for police officers to attend to the citizens’ complaints when it comes to this kind of stuff.” Thompson said. “So having somebody specifically in that position is going to be a huge benefit to the community.”
Thompson said the new position would make code enforcement more “effective and personable,” and protect property values in Evansville by making it safer and more appealing. “I think in a year to two years, everyone’s going to see the impact she’s going to have on the community. She’s going to be a great asset.”
Thompson said, saying he hoped the community officer position would help “defuse” neighborly conflicts that might otherwise escalate into violence. “Some of the calls we take start with animal control.” He recalled an incident where police responded to a call of a man with a gun had begun because the man’s cats were attacked by a dog.
Thompson said that unfortunately “social media and…
Read More: Evansville PD steps up code enforcement, animal control, and community
