Eddie Merideth from Healdsburg asked, “What ever happened to the motorcycle policeman program in Healdsburg? Does the city still own the motorcycle and what are the plans to use it in the future?”
To find an answer to your question, we set out to talk with Healdsburg Police Chief Kevin Burke and discovered that there was one motorcycle policeman a few years ago and it doesn’t look like the program will be coming back anytime soon.
“There has been a motorcycle program in the past, however, the officer resigned to go to Santa Rosa and we are not getting one back. We do not have anyone interested in riding right now,” Burke explained.
He added that it has been about three years since the officer left the one-man program.
The department has two positions open, a police officer and a dispatcher position.
“We have been fully staffed, but we’ve had some retire,” Burke said.
The department has 17 sworn officers. They typically have 18 staff positions.
Burke said getting applicants for open positions can vary from time to time.
“It really depends. Sometimes they’re harder to find and can sometimes take a long time but the goal is to try and find someone as soon as possible,” he said. “It’s not that unusual for us to have vacancies.”
According to Burke’s annual report and address to the Healdsburg City Council on Feb. 4, the department does have one police officer candidate that the department is looking at.
“We have a really good candidate in the background, investigation process and we hope to move forward and fill that vacancy very soon,” he said.
— Katherine Minkiewicz
