By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
Sheriff Jake Kopec announced Wednesday, March 11th that his department would soon have its first Detective in its employ. Officer Chris Teter has been sent to Detective School by Tucker County Sheriff Jake Kopec and his Department.
“We went ahead with one of our officers and sent him to a Detective School,” Kopec said.
Kopec credited Teter’s ability to work well with other departments, especially the Tucker County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and Prosecuting Attorney Savannah Hull Wilkins.
Once his training is complete, Teter will be handling major and minor cases within the County. He will also be available to assist other law enforcement entities, as needed.
“It will allow us for better investigation for our County,” Kopec said.
Kopec also said sometimes Road Officers can be burdened with multiple cases at a time and he doesn’t want any member of the public to feel that an investigation is taking too long. Kopec said that the Detective will be able to take those cases and “speed things along.” According to Kopec, he anticipates having a Detective on staff will streamline the investigative process in the County.
Kopec credited the ability to send the officer to the money that was saved by having a discounted training. The training was to re-certify staff for their annual certifications. However, the cost was not what it normally would run for the courses. The discount left funding in the training account that allowed for the officer to be sent to Charleston to Detective School, Kopec said.
The training was a success. Kopec said that the department is going to work it into their annual rotation and continue to offer it since the instructor agreed to return. Some aspects will be streamlined for next year, according to Kopec.
“That worked good,” Kopec said. “The guy is going to come back.”
The Department is currently working on a policy and procedure for the new position, Kopec said. He did emphasize that the position would have oversight measures in place.
“One thing we don’t want the Detective to do is be buried down in cases, but we also don’t want him to have no cases,” Kopec said. “So there is going to have to be some oversight involved with everything.”
