Nampa Police and Animal Control Department Annual Updates - April 8, 2026
Nampa Police and Animal Control Department Annual Updates - April 8, 2026
The Nampa City Council convened on April 8, 2026, to receive annual departmental updates from the Police Department and Animal Control. The meeting began with an invocation led by Councilwoman Scargo. Captain Scolan presented a detailed overview of the police department's operations, goals, staffing needs, and technology initiatives, followed by an update on animal services and the partnership with West Valley Humane Society.
Discussion Items
- Police Department Mission & Organization: Captain Scolan reiterated the department's mission statement (unchanged since 2016) focusing on teamwork, integrity, and excellence. The organizational structure is based on lieutenants overseeing administration, investigations, and patrol divisions.
- 2026 Goals & Technology: The department reported on the successful implementation of AI-based report writing software, which reduces time spent on narrative creation. A new software called Peregrine was recently rolled out to link investigation data across agencies in the valley, enhancing information sharing.
- Overtime Reduction: Through modifications to canine program training (reducing patrol canines from 11 to 8) and scaling back overtime in the Real-Time Crime Center (RTC), overtime costs have been managed. Dispatch supervisors were added to cover shifts without requiring overtime.
- Crime Statistics: Group A crimes (as defined by federal standards) have been reduced over the past five years. The department aims to maintain a rate below 55 per 1,000 population. Councilwoman Jenkina noted that increases in certain categories (e.g., human trafficking, kidnapping) may reflect proactive enforcement rather than a true rise in incidents. The captain confirmed this, stating Nampa is more proactive in human trafficking than other state agencies.
- Proactive vs. Reactive Time: The department targets a 50-50 split between proactive and reactive patrol time. Currently at 51% proactive (down from 60% a few years ago), the use of AI software is expected to shift more time to proactive activities, though measurement is pending. Councilman Rodriguez noted this is an impressive figure compared to other valley agencies.
- Staffing Needs: A 2024 Policing Allocation Model (PAM) assessment recommended 27 additional officers for patrol and traffic. Six positions have been filled or are in the hiring pipeline, leaving 21 needed by 2029. An internal workload analysis suggests 17 officers are needed to meet minimum staffing levels across all shifts. The training pipeline takes 34 weeks per recruit. Currently, there are 11 officers in the academy, 7 in field training, and 6 vacant positions.
- Response Times: The goal is a 12-minute average response time to priority one calls. Council members questioned this, noting that true emergencies often receive a 4-5 minute response. The captain explained that the average is skewed by non-in-progress calls (e.g., past assaults). The department aims to refine data to exclude outliers.
- Drone as First Responder (DFR) Program: Captain Scolan presented a DFR program with a five-year all-in cost of $560,000 (not per year). Funding would come from favorable rollover of FY25 funds (~$1.6 million) and an existing $17,000 budget. Councilman Griffith asked if drones could be funded through impact fees, but the captain noted impact fees are prioritized for patrol vehicles and a future north precinct. Councilman Reynolds questioned technology obsolescence; the captain responded that vendors offer warranty and technology refreshes within the contract (e.g., new drones at year three). The program would provide three drones and two launch locations, with the ability to autonomously cycle drones to maintain coverage. Lieutenant Shepherd will bring a detailed proposal to a future council meeting.
- Tactical Team Night Vision: The tactical team uses outdated single-tube night vision (PVS-14), which limits depth perception. New dual-tube night vision with thermal overlay is requested. Councilman Rodriguez strongly supported this upgrade, calling it a necessity.
- Animal Control Update: Leanne (Animal Control Officer) was praised for her work. The department budgets $483,000 annually for West Valley Humane Society. Data on animal intakes has gaps, but discussions are ongoing with Caldwell and Canyon County to share costs and align ordinances. West Valley recently hired a full-time vet and a new executive director. The shelter has limited kennel space (25-30). The department expects a slight contract increase next year but no large jump. Councilwoman Jenkina stressed the need for accurate data to ensure fair cost-sharing among county entities.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken during this workshop-style meeting. However, several next steps were identified:
- The DFR program will be brought to council by Lieutenant Shepherd for a decision, with funding from FY25 rollover and existing budget.
- Staffing requests for eight additional officers will be considered as part of FY27 budget discussions, with an estimated operational cost of $125,000 per officer (plus ~$27,000 initial equipment). Impact fee allocations for vehicles may limit the number of officers that can be hired.
- Councilman Griffin suggested exploring the use of the $5.122 million from the former Angel Center fund (or its interest) to support police needs, including equipment and possibly drone funding.
- Council will continue discussions on a potential police levy override to fund ongoing needs, with a clearer picture of costs needed.
- The department will follow up on dry storage issues for K9 equipment and vehicle replacement scheduling.
- For animal control, staff will continue negotiations with West Valley and other county entities to improve data accuracy and equitable cost-sharing.
Meeting Transcript
Stand for the invitation and the budget await. Yes. Councilwoman Scargo is going to lead us this morning. Thank you. Henry Father, thank you so much for the opportunity to meet and learn and glean from the police department. We asked that you would be with us, that our um our minds would be clear and that we would be able to come up with solutions that would be the best for our city and our citizens. And we asked these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I plan to just do the United States. Thank you. Yeah, you're up. Yeah, those Renault here. Here. Here. Thank you. The same or not the same name this morning. Our uh discussion is on the we begin our annual department updates, and this morning is police and then animal control. Two great topics, two topics for CC order. Captain Scolan, please take it away. All right. Um thank you, Council President. Uh and council, appreciate the opportunity to be here today. Uh so I'll dive into this presentation. Uh feel free to ask questions along the way. Uh if you have anything, I'll take the time and answer those. I think just go into this is about an hour just to go straight through about a half hour for questions built into it. Um I am going to I I have slides to just go straight into animal control at the end. So I'm gonna just go all the way through that way. Um so we'll start off with our mission statement. Uh, this has been the same mission statement that we've had since Chief Up became chief in 2016. Uh, we we like it because it incorporates our core values of teamwork integrity and excellence right within the mission statement, and it's a guide that we intentionally use um every day, uh whether it's doing performance evaluations just uh on Monday. We had 14 new employees come in. Uh the chief always has agreed with them, takes about five minutes and just welcomes them to the department. But this is what he hits on every single time uh that I've watched him do it. And so from day one, this is important to us. This uh organizational chart is pretty much identical to what you have seen in the budget book from for FY26. Um updated in our organization our organizational structure uh is really based on lieutenants running different divisions within our department. So you'll see we have two administration lieutenants, two CID or investigations lieutenants, and then two patrol lieutenants, and they have different uh work groups beneath them. Some of those work groups are primary assignments, uh, like patrol teams is a primary assignment, um, dispatch is a primary assignment, uh, but then there's also extra duties uh like SOG, which is SWAT, and um a unit that is overseen by a lieutenant, but uh but those are extra duties for officers that are assigned somewhere else. So there's different responsibilities that the lieutenants have, uh but that's how we break down our organization, and that's how it's run. Uh so I'll dive into our um 2026 goals, and I pulled this from our budget book of this year that focused on there were a couple things that that we focused on in terms of software uh and how to improve efficiencies of our agency through the technologies that we've asked council for in the past. Um so I'll I'll have a few slides to talk about each of these things. Um we've had some success in reducing our overtime. Uh um and I think you are all familiar with Compstat. If you haven't come to a CompSTAP meeting, uh Chief encourages you to do that. He's had council members, uh, the mayor come and watch our CompSTAP meetings. Clay has been there too long. Um they're very informative. We meet twice uh or once every other month to go through our crime data and look at what crime trends are. Um our sergeants attend those, so we have an opportunity to interact with them and see what they're doing with uh each of their work groups and how they're being effective at addressing crime problems from the previous time period.
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