East Wenatchee Police to Patrol Loop Trail In Wenatchee
The East Wenatchee Police Department is entering into an agreement to provide law enforcement services along the Apple Capital Loop Trail in Wenatchee.
The Chelan County PUD owns parts of the trail and is paying for the police service on the Wenatchee side.
East Wenatchee Assistant Police Chief Erik Hampton says there's a need for law enforcement presence all over the Loop Trail.
"This winter, and since I've been here for two years, we've had some arson on there, a lot of warming fire arsons, but some just straight up arsons, a lot of graffiti," said Hampton.
The agreement calls for East Wenatchee and Wenatchee Police to patrol the Apple Capital Loop Trail between the north end of Walla Walla Point Park to the southern tip of Riverfront Park.
The officers will patrol the trails on e-bicycles between 5-10pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through the end of September.
The agreement with the PUD calls for uniformed commissioned officers to specifically be employed on overtime hours. The PUD will pay the city of East Wenatchee $96.55 per invoiced hour worked, and the city pays Officers their normal rates of pay.
The PUD can ask the departments for more patrols if there’s a need.
The total cost of the law enforcements services through the end of September will be $50,000. Wenatchee and East Wenatchee will each get $10,000 for equipment. About $7,000 will be used to purchase a medium and large e-bike from Trek Bicycle Wenatchee. The other $3,000 will be used to buy shorts and helmets for the officers.
The remaining $30,000 will go toward the officers’ overtime pay.
The East Wenatchee City Council signed off on the agreement with the Chelan County PUD during its Tuesday night meeting.
Hampton they’ve had success in keeping order on the trail when they’ve made it a priority.
“One of my shifts did a project that I encouraged, where they hit the loop trail every night, and move people along or arrested people for doing graffiti,” Hampton said. “They had a couple of good arrests and just uniform presence on the loop trail. We still really encourage that.”