The Herald-News - News Story

Public safety was a hot topic for the Dayton City Council this week.

The council made two decisions that will directly affect residents and their safety.

After a short discussion Monday, the council decided not to opt out of a state law passed earlier this year that allows gun permit holders to carry their firearms in city and state parks.

By taking no action, the council will allow the state law to take affect on Sept. 1.

The issue was raised in a meeting last month, where Councilman Steve Randolph expressed his concerns over limiting permit holders.

"Anything we do to restrict gun carry permit holders is restricting law abiding citizens," Randolph said in July. "If I go walking in the park with my wife, I hope everyone I meet is a hand gun carry permit holder with a gun in their pocket."

Randolph said this week that many residents he talked to about the issue were initially against allowing permit holders to carry guns in parks, but Randolph claimed they changed their minds after discussing the issue.

After that, Councilman Gary Louallen suggested not voting on the issue, and possibly addressing it again after the law has taken place. Even though the law goes into effect next month, City Attorney Susan Arnold told the council it can still vote to ban guns in city parks after the Sept. 1 deadline if it wants.

A Herald-News online poll shows 61 percent of those who voted say gun permit holders should be allowed to carry guns in parks.

The council also approved a request from Police Chief Chris Sneed to change his department's staffing schedules.

Dayton patrolmen will soon start new 12-hour shifts. Sneed said his cops will work a rotating schedule where an officer works two days, is off two days, then works three days and is off three days.

Sneed also said the schedule allows each officer to work one weekend and have the next weekend off. He said as of now, many officers have to work every weekend, while others get every weekend off.

The major benefits, according to Sneed, are the cutbacks in overtime expenses and the fact that three patrolmen will be on duty at all times, he said. The current schedule has some shifts where only two patrolmen are cruising the streets, he said.

"We're just trying to cut what we can," Sneed said about overtime expenses.

Police staffing has at times been a controversial issue with the city council. It narrowly voted 3-2 to allow Sneed to rehire a vacated position last month, and concerns were raised then about the fact that patrolmen drive the city freely, not in specified districts.

Sneed said his department has tried splitting patrolmen into districts in the past, but it hasn't worked.

"We just don't have enough people to work districts," he said.

If an officer gets a call, Sneed said other officers have to shift their assignments to cover his district.

Sneed said he would like to implement the new schedule in the next 30 days.

Michael Reneau can be contacted at michael.reneau@rheaheraldnews.com.