On April 1, David Leavitt stepped into the role of Alliance’s new Chief of Police, and now, he is undertaking the process of reviewing previously-implemented policies within the department and assessing the needs of the Alliance Police Department.
Leavitt comes to Alliance from Nashville, Tenn. He said he began his career in public safety volunteering as a firefighter and becoming a dispatcher for an ambulance service in Niagra Falls, N.Y.
“I went EMT school, and eventually moved to Tennessee and went to paramedic school,” said Leavitt. “I was really rooted in public safety with the Fire/EMS dispatching background, but of course, when you’re working EMS, you’re working side by side with police officers all the time. I was 29 years old. I had been in EMS for over 10 years, and I said, ‘you know, I’ve always had this dream in the back of my mind of being a police officer. I’m about to turn 30,’ which when you’re 29 seems really old, and I said, ‘I don’t want to go through the police academy when I’m in my 40s because it’s pretty physically excruciating.’ So I said, ‘I better do this if I’m going to do it.’”
Leavitt said that after seven years of working with the Nashville Fire Department, he went to the Metro Nashville Police Department, attending the academy and graduating in 2001. He explained that working in law enforcement can be rewarding, though it can also expose people to the dark side of humanity.
“Both in EMS and law enforcement, you see things that you don’t want to see that you hope you never see again,” Leavitt said. “I’ve seen horrific vehicle crashes, people burned, shot, stabbed, anything and everything you can imagine, and you carry that with you whether you realize it or not. It kind of defines who you are and it makes you appreciate life a little bit more, and appreciate the opportunity you have to help others, because for everybody that you help, there’s always folks out there that you weren’t able to help.”
He shared a story from early in his law enforcement career, explaining that while visiting a home, one of the children in the home took him to her bedroom saying she needed to show him something.
“I’m thinking she’s going to show me a Barbie doll or something, and she opens up her drawer, and it’s full of used needles, because that’s where mom hid them for some reason, was in her child’s drawer,” said Leavitt. “So, we started delving a little further; we open the refrigerator, and there’s no food.”
He explained that they were sent to order some food for the children in the household to eat and eventually worked to have the children removed from the environment.
“When you think of things that bring you satisfaction as a cop, you don’t think of taking children away from their mother, but in this case, I felt like we really made a difference that night, we really helped those children, maybe saved their life, who knows, because mom was so off in the drug world, those kids weren’t being cared for. Throughout my career, there’s stories like that, where you get to make a difference, you get to help someone, and then there’s other times where you weren’t able to intervene in time to avoid whatever situation happened.”
Leavitt said his first 13 years in law enforcement were spent on patrol as an Officer, Sergeant and Lieutenant. He explained that that experience will guide him while making decisions as the Chief of Police.
“I have a very, very strong belief that the basic function of a police officer is answering that call for service, being visible in the community, acting on violations they happen to see, whether that’s a traffic violation, or some other crime they happen to witness,” said Leavitt. “That is 95 percent of what we do, or at least it should be. All the other ancillary, fancy stuff, it is great, but in a small town like Alliance, Nebraska, the majority of our time should be spent out on the streets, interacting with the community and serving the community.”
Leavitt said that, especially while addressing staffing issues, the department will take a “get-back-to-basics approach,” and to increase interactions with the community. He said that he has been meeting with officers one on one to help assess the strengths of the department. Throughout those meetings he has had so far, he has noticed that the officers and dispatchers show a lot of dedication to the department and to the community of Alliance. He hopes that these meetings will also reveal areas for the department to improve upon.
“What I don’t want to do is come in here and be the idea fairy, who decides that everything needs to be changed right now, and we’re going to start 20 new programs, right now, and stress everyone in the department out,” Leavitt said. “It’s the last thing I want to do. I want to identify two or three key areas that we need to work on and focus on that, and once we address those, pick a couple more key areas, and so on until we get where we need to be.
“Recruitment is super important right now,” said Leavitt. “Obviously, we’re very short; however we have one finishing the academy right now, we have one getting ready to start the academy, we have one starting his FTO rides, which means he’s riding with a training officer and he’ll be available shortly on his own. We have one starting this week, and we have five in the pipeline, in the application process that appear to be good strong candidates. So, if all of that, in a perfect world, panned out, we could be back up to full staffing by the end of the year.”
Leavitt said that once they reach full staffing, he and City Manager Seth Sorensen intend to approach the Alliance City Council about adding positions, including investigative positions.
“Right now, my patrol officers are also detectives,” Leavitt said. “So, they’re answering calls for service, they’re trying to get out and be proactive, but they’re also following up on existing cases and those reports and prosecutions. That’s a lot to put on a patrol officer.”
The department has been in good hands, Leavitt explained, with Lieutenant Kirk Felker serving as the Interim Chief of Police. Leavitt recognized his efforts to keep the department running smoothly, noting that he has provided valuable insights.
“I just want to give Kirk a shout out,” said Leavitt. “I want to just make it very clear that Kirk has been nothing but supportive. We have an awesome working relationship so far. We seem to be on the same page almost all the times thus far, and he has been a tremendous asset to my adjustment here. He deserves a lot of credit. He has welcomed me, he has supported me. He has given me all the information I need to be successful, and I really appreciate that, and I really value him as a part of this team.”
Leavitt noted the top priorities when staffing is back up to speed are to reinstate the school resource officer, adding detectives and training opportunities, and, eventually, reinstating the K-9 program.
Currently, Leavitt is reviewing and evaluating department policies that were implemented in the past, combing through them page by page to determine a solid foundation for the department to build upon. One program he hopes to continue is the Volunteers in Policing program, and he encourages people to apply as citizens can provide a large amount of support to the officers in a number of ways.
A pressing matter Leavitt said he hopes to address in the near future is updating the vehicles for officers, noting that the vehicles currently in use are older and have a lot of miles on them.
“I have six officers right now driving vehicles with over 120,000 miles on them, and we’re talking about police vehicles—we’re not talking about easy, highway miles—we’re talking about police use,” said Leavitt. “So, that’s a major concern. I do want to start replacing patrol vehicles pretty quickly and upgrading our fleet so that our officers are safe and they have reliable equipment out there. I think that goes a long way toward morale and keeping officers happy. That’s their office, that’s their workspace.”
Leavitt emphasized that his top priority is supporting the men and women who work in the department, both as officers and as dispatchers.
“It’s big enough that it’s a real police department, but small enough that it’s a family, and my job is to take care of the family, and keep everybody happy and harmoniously working together,” said Leavitt.