Emergency calls increase for Walsenburg police

Walsenburg police say they are understaffed and they are handling a record number of crime and emergency calls.

Officers said they have responded to more than 2,500 calls this year — that’s the most in a six-month period than in the previous three years.

Eric Sporleder owns a business in Walsenburg. He said his tires were slashed on Wednesday and the amount of crime in the city is the worst he has ever seen it.

“They’re hitting me every week, seems like more than once a week,” he said.

His incident is one of many the Walsenburg Police Department answered on Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, we had three attempted suicides, three different assaults, one involving officers getting fired upon,” Cpt. Vince Suarez said.

Suarez said the police force is understaffed and has six officers to respond to calls.

“The officers are exposed to a lot more police work, from the time of the initial response to apprehending the suspect,” he said.

Suarez said officers have the bare minimum when it comes to equipment. The department has also received equipment from other police departments. The Colorado Springs Police Department gave four vehicles to Walsenburg in 2013. The department is looking at grants to get body and dash cameras.

“We are doing the best we can with what we got,” Suarez said.

City administrator David Johnston said there isn’t enough money to give the police department a bigger budget.

“In early 2014, the city was obliged to impose a 10 percent wage decrease on every employee in the city, including the police officers,” he said.

Johnston said the police department had to reduce two staff positions.

The city administrator hopes new businesses, like the marijuana greenhouse that is supposed to employ more than 300 people, can feed money into Walsenburg’s economy.

The police are in the process of hiring one more officer.